+ Reducing the prospects for peace
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If you only watch one EMET video all year, this is the one to watch! |
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Gabriel Noronha worked on the Iran Desk at the Department of State, and in early March many of his former colleagues at State, the National Security Council and the European Union were so aghast at the dangerous concessions offered to Iran that they contacted him in the hope that he could get the word out to the world, and indeed he has.
Gabriel’s March 4th Twitter thread and his excellent March 7th article in Tablet Magazine have made their way around the world, and we at EMET have used this very valuable information to help inform Congress of what precisely will be negotiated away in Vienna if these talks are successful.
Gabriel served as Special Advisor for Iran in the U.S. Department of State Department from 2019 to 2020. He previously worked in the U.S. Senate from 2015 to 2019, including on the Senate Armed Services Committee for Chairmen John McCain and Jim Inhofe.
Gabriel is continuing to find out extremely disturbing details of just how far the American negotiating team under Robert Malley has gone and is continuing to use his Twitter feed to expose it to as many people as possible so that we can bring it to our members of Congress.
Our elected officials, under Article II of the Constitution, have an obligation to exercise Congressional oversight, particularly for a deal that could potentially be so incredibly devastating to the national security interests of the United States, and our allies. Based on much of the information that Gabriel has revealed, there is only a slight chance that this horrendous deal might be scuttled.
It is up to every one of you to please watch this video and call your Representative and Senators and let them know that this deal, if accepted, would present a clear and present danger and existential threat to Israel and our Sunni Gulf allies, and would be an assault on the national security interests of the United States. |
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BIDEN’S NUCLEAR DEAL WITH IRAN IS DANGEROUS FOR AMERICA Senator Menendez: The deal is not “longer or stronger.” It is a bad deal. President Joe Biden’s most important job is to protect America from foreign threats, and not necessarily appease the left-wing of his Democratic party. The threat that China, Iran, and Russia pose to US security is considerable. While China and Russia are brute forces in the international arena, they have not caused American deaths in military-like operations. Iran, on the other hand, did. The Military Times reported (April 4, 2019), “The Pentagon…upping the official estimates of US troops in Iraq who were killed by Iranian-backed militias, now put that number at 603. Those casualties were the result of explosively formed penetrators (EFP), other improvised explosive devices (IED), mortars, rocket propelled grenades (RPG), small arms, sniper and other attacks.” Following the drone strike that killed Maj. General Qasem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, in January 2020, US President Donald Trump explained that Soleimani’s orders have “Viciously wounded and murdered thousands of US troops, including the planting of roadside bombs that maim and dismember their victims.” Trump also attributed to Soleimani the killing of an American contractor, Nawres Hamid. Trump pointed out that Soleimani was planning additional attacks on Americans when he landed in Baghdad. Lest we forget, on November 4, 1979, Islamist and radical Iranian students, inspired by the Ayatollah Khomeini, seized the US embassy in Tehran and took 50 American diplomats as hostages, and held them for 444 days. This was certainly an act of war against America, which the US has never really avenged, and currently, the Biden administration is simply appeasing. While negotiations on the renewal of the nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran were going on in Vienna, missiles from an Iranian base struck in the vicinity of the newly constructed US Consulate just outside Erbil, the capital of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), earlier this month. It is clear that the Ayatollah regime intended to hurt American lives and property. It did not however give pause to the US participation in the negotiations. It is compounded by the insulting setup whereby US representatives had been exiled to a separate hotel location in Vienna, as demanded by the Iranians. Moreover, Iran demanded the delisting of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) from the list of terrorist organizations. The combination of all of these facts, along with the continued cheating by the Iranians on their previous nuclear commitments, has diminished the US stature. All of that notwithstanding, the Biden administration’s eagerness for a deal with the leading state-sponsoring terrorist entity endangers American security, and that of its allies, including Israel, is inexplicable. Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the continued negotiations in Vienna over the renewed nuclear deal with Iran, “absurd.” He pointed out that signing the current nuclear agreement with Iran would provide the Ayatollahs with a nuclear arsenal. “It would also relieve sanctions and give them (Iranians) hundreds of billions of dollars to continue the terror that they waged yesterday (the attack on the US Consulate in Erbil), and wage every day throughout the Middle East and the world.” Netanyahu added, “This agreement is even worse than its predecessor, because in three years’ time, under this agreement, Iran will be a threshold nuclear state. It will have enough enriched uranium to create dozens and dozens of nuclear bombs, and will have ICBM’s (Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles) to deliver them to any place in the US.” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, at a cabinet meeting earlier this month, reiterated the position the current Israeli government has taken with regard to the ongoing nuclear talks: “The disadvantages of the agreement far outweigh its advantages. In any case, the agreement does not obligate the State of Israel in any way.” It seems that President Biden is driven by two commitments; the first is to his former boss, President Barrack Obama, and one of his major foreign policy “achievements,” namely the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or the Iran nuclear deal. The second is to stem the current escalating energy costs that contribute to inflation, by enabling the Iranian regime to deliver its oil to the open markets. While domestically produced energy could easily meet the shortages, Biden is constrained by his “Green New Deal” proponents of leftist Democrats in Congress. In any case, whatever extra oil Iran could deliver to the market, China, not American consumers, will benefit from it. It is not, however, only Israeli and Arab Gulf leaders who believe that the current nuclear deal with Iran, and lifting the sanctions on Iran is misguided and dangerous. US Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) thinks so as well. Menendez articulated best, saying: “We cannot allow Iran to threaten us into a bad deal or an interim agreement that allows it to continue building its nuclear capacity.” He went on in his address to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (February 1, 2022), “I have been cautiously optimistic about the Biden administration’s initial efforts. I waited for the last year to see results. Before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the Secretary of State and others, senior members of the administration insisted they would look for a ‘longer and stronger’ agreement… However, a year later, I have yet to hear any parameters of ‘longer’ or ‘stronger’ terms or whether that is even a feasible prospect. And even when it seemed a constructive agreement might be possible last summer, upon taking office, the Raisi government abandoned all previous understandings and, as I mentioned, made absolutely clear that Iran’s ballistic missiles and regional proxy networks are ‘not negotiable.’ Moreover, at this point, we seriously have to ask what exactly are we trying to salvage?” Senator Menendez continued: “We cannot ignore Iran’s nefarious support for terrorism or accept threats to American interests and lives. We must welcome legitimate and verifiable peaceful uses of nuclear power, but remain true to our nonproliferation principles and our unyielding desire to build a more stable, safer, prosperous world for the American people and all peace-loving people to thrive. In order to do so, Iran cannot and must not possess a nuclear weapon.” Menendez added, “As someone who followed Iran’s nuclear ambition for the better part of three decades, I am here today to raise concerns about the current round of negotiations over the JCPOA, and Iran’s dangerously and rapidly escalating nuclear program that has put it on the brink of having enough material for a nuclear weapon… That’s how long most analysts have concluded it would take Iran to produce enough fissile material for a nuclear bomb if they choose to do so. This isn’t a timetable we can accept.” Iran’s current regime is not just another ordinary state with the usual interests. It is a fanatical theocratic regime that has pledged to “wipe Israel off the map.” Its regime has sponsored parades of thousands shouting “death to America.” The Ayatollah's regime isn’t only a threat to America, Israel, Gulf Arabs, and the world; it is putting in danger its own people due to its messianic and jihadist dreams. The Iranian regime has abused its own people, including the execution of teenagers and minorities. This Ayatollahs regime is devoted to deception and terror, and it is practicing taqiyyah, which in modern terms means to conceal one’s intentions. Netanyahu exposed the Iranian lie about wanting nuclear energy for “peaceful” means; now Biden, as America’s commander-in-chief, must protect America by offering a credible military option against the threat of an eventual nuclear Iran. +++ Hundreds of Arabs rally in celebration of Bnei Brak terrorist'Tel Aviv, we will deal with you and will cause you to go up in flames,' hundreds of Arabs chant during celebration of Bnei Brak shooting.++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Don’t reward Palestinians for a new wave of terrorThe Biden administration tried to sabotage an Israeli-Arab summit by raising the Palestinian issue. It shouldn’t use terrorism as an excuse to resurrect the failed policies of the past. JONATHAN S. TOBIN (March 30, 2022 / JNS) After a week of terror attacks that took the lives of 11 people, Israelis are wondering whether they are on the brink of a third intifada. The Jewish state’s security forces are redoubling their efforts to try to anticipate or prevent further such atrocities. But the Israeli government needs to worry about more than just whether these seemingly random accounts will lead to more violence from Hamas or elements linked to the Palestinian Authority. It also has to be concerned about whether its sole superpower ally and other Western countries will use these tragedies as an excuse to revive failed policies of the past, whose goal is to pressure Israel into making concessions to the Palestinians. Throughout much of the last 30 years, that was the pattern of events. But instead of taking an honest look at Palestinian political culture, which not only lauds terrorism but views violence as a legitimate and necessary expression of national identity, the West consistently treated acts of murder as a cry for help from the disadvantaged. Such thinking was the product of a fundamental mistake about the nature of the conflict. Rather than Palestinian violence being caused by alleged Israeli oppression or the lack of progress towards peace, it was instead an expression of a long-held belief in the illegitimacy of a Jewish state and the need for action to eliminate it. Given repeated Palestinian Arab refusals of offers of compromise on even the most advantageous terms dating back to the pre-state era, that much should have been obvious. The support for terror even on the part of so-called Palestinian moderates, who have continued to subsidize and applaud acts of terror against Jews, had to be ignored. The foolishness of a policy that responded to terror waves with diplomatic pressure on Israel essentially rewarded Palestinians for violence. So if the events of the last week are the harbinger of more attacks inside Israel, the question is whether President Joe Biden’s foreign-policy team will respond to them by doing the same thing every past administration—with the sole exception being the government led by former President Donald Trump—did whenever terror attacks surged and announce a renewed emphasis on reviving peace negotiations. If they do, they should expect the results to be any different from what happened in the past. Instead of, as they claim, undermining the rationale for terror against Israel, it will send a message to the Palestinians that violence is the way to garner more support for their futile century-old war on Zionism and the Jewish presence in the territory between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River. That support for this delusion is still present in the Biden administration’s thinking was apparent earlier this week at the summit meeting in the Negev Desert held between Israel and four Arab states, at which U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was not so much a participant but a saboteur. While Israel and its Arab partners were focused on Iran at the meeting held in Sde Boker, Blinken had a different agenda. Unlike the representatives of Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Egypt, Blinken was not there to present a united front of opposition to Tehran and its bid for both regional hegemony and a nuclear weapon. He may have paid lip service to that position with disingenuous assurances about an American commitment to opposing Iran’s terrorism and its nuclear goals, as well as to the idea of normalization with Israel. But his presence was more of a reminder that the Biden administration views the Abraham Accords as an impediment to its goals rather than one of American diplomacy’s greatest triumphs. As Blinken made clear in his remarks in a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Washington remains wedded to the assumption that peace in the region hinges on empowering the Palestinians. By downplaying America’s impending appeasement of Iran and trying to shift the conversation back onto criticism of Israeli policies, Blinken was out of tune with the priorities of the other summit attendees and the reality of the region. The assumption since Biden took office has been that he and Blinken were not going to be tempted to devote any real effort to reviving the long moribund peace process with the Palestinians. Biden’s foreign-policy team is almost entirely made up of Obama administration veterans. Some of them, including Biden and Blinken, harbor some sympathy for Israel, though that is conditioned on the Jewish state doing their bidding and weakening itself with territorial surrenders and a willingness to countenance U.S. appeasement of Iran. Yet the U.S. State Department and the National Security Council are also full of people whose hostility to Israel is far from a secret. They are also aware that the chances of getting the Palestinian Authority to seriously negotiate for a two-state solution or anything that resembles actual peace are negligible. Though former President Barack Obama devoted a considerable amount of time, effort and political capital to pressuring Israel to make concessions to the Palestinians, the latter never reciprocated. In fact, they torpedoed Secretary of State John Kerry’s 2014 full-scale effort to bludgeon Israel by slighting the Americans and taking their case to the United Nations, where there was no danger of them being asked to accept the legitimacy of a Jewish state no matter its borders were drawn. Just as important, they are currently preoccupied with their largely ineffectual efforts to respond to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. That hasn’t prevented them from pushing ahead with a new Iran deal with the help of the same Russian regime that they are otherwise trying to isolate. Still, if faced with another wave of Palestinian violence or a full-blown intifada if Hamas and the P.A. feel it’s in their interests in joining the violence, the temptation for the U.S. foreign establishment may be too much to resist. As Blinken’s comments at the summit indicated, they still don’t understand that the Abraham Accords and the normalization of relations between Israel and much of the Arab world aren’t just about a common fear of an Iran that is being enriched and empowered by a calamitous American commitment to appeasement of Tehran. It also reflects the Arabs’ understanding that the Palestinians have no interest in peace, in addition to their unwillingness to have their security and economic interests to be held hostage to their sickening fantasies about a world without Israel. Sadly, a growing portion of the Democratic Party base is also buying into some of those same fantasies because of the power of intersectional myths and critical race theory ideology that falsely depicts Israel as an expression of “white privilege.” Thus, there will be support for a turn against the Jewish state from much of Biden’s political base—something that will be reinforced by the messages he gets from left-wing Jewish groups like J Street, as well as openly anti-Zionist ones like Jewish Voices for Peace and IfNotNow, which themselves traffic in anti-Semitic attacks on Israel. The message the United States ought to send to the Palestinians now is a stern warning that rather than generating support for pressure on Israel, terrorism will only further isolate them. Those who remain fixated on a two-state solution, which the Palestinians have been ignoring these last 30 years of Palestinian refusals of peace offers, are closing their eyes to what happened every time—violence against Israel was rewarded with diplomatic support rather than punished. Biden and Blinken need to understand that the price for such a policy will be paid in more spilled blood inside Israel. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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