UPDATE! Iranians Force Athlete Who Defied Hijab to Fly Back to Iran to Transfer Her to Notorious Evin Prison

 

UPDATE: BBC Persian reports that Elnaz Rakebi is now on a plane heading to Tehran, two days earlier than planned. Iran Wire reports the regime is planning to transfer her directly to Tehran’s notorious Evin prison. https://t.co/shugKt9wUV

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) October 18, 2022

Some good news about Israel

Iran's Foxes will guard the Chickens! Iran's US Nuclear Deal!

A satellite image of the Parchin military site in Iran 

How is there still anyone who does not understand why Israel opposes the nuclear deal with Iran? 

Rather than being a deal of the brave, it is a deal of the naive. What other secrets will we soon find out about the deal?

What a bizarre world! 

The Associated Press revealed on Tuesday that, under the terms of a secret deal with the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran will be allowed to use its own inspectors to investigate the Parchin military site, where it is suspected that Iran carried out nuclear weapons development activities. You read that correctly. The cat will get to guard the cream. No need to worry, friends.

The date on Tuesday was Aug. 19, not April 1, so this was not a prank. By the same "healthy" logic used by world powers, Israel should let Hamas run the Iron Dome system during the next war in the Gaza Strip, and the Interior Ministry should give up its authority to stem illegal migration. We must adapt to the new world we live in. And what a strange world it is!

Over the past decade, Iran never stopped lying and cheating as it built three secret nuclear facilities, and the world nobly turned the other cheek. 

How is there still anyone who does not understand why Israel opposes the nuclear deal with Iran?

 Are there any Israelis who think it is wrong to oppose the deal?

 A deal of the brave it is not. Rather, it is a deal of the naive.

Since the deal was signed in Vienna on July 14, there have been non-stop surprises, including revelations about secret components of the deal.

 And recently, the IAEA chief said he was obligated to keep the details of his organization's side agreements with Iran confidential. If the AP report proves to be true, he should hang his head in shame.

Over the past month, during which opposition to the deal has only grown, we have had trouble digesting numerous problematic aspects of the deal. For example, we discovered Article 10 on Page 142, which stipulates that world powers and Iran will foster "cooperation through training and workshops to strengthen Iran's ability to protect against, and respond to, nuclear security threats, including sabotage, as well as to enable effective and sustainable nuclear security and physical protection systems." Absolutely unbelievable!

Later, we heard U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (future Nobel Prize winner?) admit to Congress that he had not seen the IAEA's side agreements with Iran, but, thank God, he had been briefed on them.

And now, we find out Iran will inspect itself at Parchin. If this absurdity is true, it would be best for Kerry to declare, "I didn't know."

Under the deal, Iran will provide its own soil samples from Parchin, and it will have an advance notice of 24 days before inspections of suspicious sites can be conducted. American comedian Jackie Mason joked that restaurants in New York face a tougher inspections system.

By agreeing to this deal with Iran, Obama produced a very funny episode of "It's a Wonderful Country" (an Israeli comedy show), but in Persian rather than Hebrew.

It is now easy to understand why, within weeks of the deal being signed, the Iranians were saying that no foreign entities would enter their military sites. They knew what they were talking about, as they were aware that world powers had agreed to forgo inspections of Parchin.

So what's next? What other secrets will we find out about the nuclear deal? Perhaps, when the deal expires, Iran will be allowed to conduct nuclear weapons tests with world powers?

Iran deal destroys the US’s credibility as an ally.

In Barack Obama's defense of his nuclear deal with Iran Wednesday, he said there are only two types of people who will oppose his deal – Republican partisans and Israel- firsters – that is, traitors.

At American University, Obama castigated Republican lawmakers as the moral equivalent of Iranian jihadists saying, “Those [Iranian] hard-liners chanting ‘Death to America’ who have been most opposed to the deal... are making common cause with the Republican Caucus.

He then turned his attention to Israel.

The most graphic way Iran is harming America today is by holding four Americans hostage. Iran’s decision not to release them over the course of negotiations indicates that at a minimum, the deal hasn’t helped them.

It doesn’t take much consideration to recognize that the hostages in Iran are much worse off today than they were before Obama concluded the deal on July 14.

The US had much more leverage to force the Iranians to release the hostages before it signed the deal than it does now. Now, not only do the Iranians have no reason to release the hostages, they have every reason to take more hostages.

Then there is Iranian-sponsored terrorism against the US.

In 2011, the FBI foiled an Iranian plot to murder the Saudi ambassador in Washington and bomb the Saudi and Israeli embassies in the US capital.

One of the terrorists set to participate in the attack allegedly penetrated US territory through the Mexican border.

The terrorist threat to the US emanating from Iran’s terrorist infrastructure in Latin America will rise steeply as a consequence of the nuclear deal.

As The Wall Street Journal’s Mary Anastasia O’Grady wrote last month, the sanctions relief the deal provides to Iran will enable it to massively expand its already formidable operations in the US’s backyard. Over the past two decades, Iran and Hezbollah have built up major presences in Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Bolivia.

Iran’s presence in Latin America also constitutes a strategic threat to US national security. Today Iran can use its bases of operations in Latin America to launch an electromagnetic pulse attack on the US from a ballistic missile, a satellite or even a merchant ship.

The US military is taking active steps to survive such an attack, which would destroy the US’s power grid. Among other things, it is returning the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) to its former home in Cheyenne Mountain outside Colorado Springs.

But Obama has ignored the findings of the congressional EMP Commission and has failed to harden the US electronic grid to protect it from such attacks.

The economic and human devastation that would be caused by the destruction of the US electric grid is almost inconceivable. And now with the cash infusion that will come Iran’s way from Obama’s nuclear deal, it will be free to expand on its EMP capabilities in profound ways.

Through its naval aggression in the Strait of Hormuz Iran threatens the global economy. While the US was negotiating the nuclear deal with Iran, the Revolutionary Guards unlawfully interdicted – that is hijacked – the Marshall Islands-flagged Maersk Tigris and held its crew hostage for weeks.

Iran’s assault on the Tigris came just days after the US-flagged Maersk Kensington was surrounded and followed by Revolutionary Guards ships until it fled the strait.

A rational take-home message the Iranians can draw from the nuclear deal is that piracy pays.

Their naval aggression in the Strait of Hormuz was not met by American military force, but by American strategic collapse at Vienna.

This is doubly true when America’s listless response to Iran’s plan to use its Houthi proxy’s takeover of Yemen to control the Bab el-Mandab strait is taken into consideration. With the Bab el-Mandab, Iran will control all maritime traffic from the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. Rather than confront this clear and present danger to the global economy, America abandoned all its redlines in the nuclear talks.

Then there is Iran’s partnership 20-year partnership with al-Qaida.

The 9/11 Commission found in its report that four of the 9/11 terrorists transited Iran before traveling to the US. As former Defense Intelligence Agency director Lt.-Gen. (ret.) Mike Flynn told Fox News in the spring, Iranian cooperation with al-Qaida remains deep and strategic.

When the US Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden in 2011, they seized hard drives containing more than a million documents related to al-Qaida operations. All but a few dozen remain classified.

According to Flynn and other US intelligence officials who spoke to The Weekly Standard, the documents expose Iran’s vast collaboration with al-Qaida.

The agreement Obama concluded with the mullahs gives a tailwind to Iran. Iran’s empowerment will undoubtedly be used to expand its use of al-Qaida terrorists as proxies in their joint war against the US.

Then there is Iran’s ballistic missile program.

The UN Security Council resolution passed two weeks ago cancels the UN-imposed embargoes on conventional arms and ballistic missile acquisitions by Iran. Since the nuclear deal facilities Iranian development of advanced nuclear technologies that will enable the mullahs to build nuclear weapons freely when the deal expires, the Security Council resolution means that by the time the deal expires, Iran will have the nuclear warheads and the intercontinental ballistic missiles required to carry out a nuclear attack on the US.

Obama said Wednesday that if Congress votes down his nuclear deal, “we will lose... America’s credibility as a leader of diplomacy. America’s credibility,” he explained, “is the anchor of the international system.”

Unfortunately, Obama got it backwards. It is the deal that destroys America’s credibility and so upends the international system which has rested on that credibility for the past 70 years.

The White House’s dangerous suppression of seized al-Qaida-Iran documents, like its listless response to Iran’s maritime aggression, its indifference to Iran’s massive presence in Latin America, its lackluster response to Iran’s terrorist activities in Latin America, and its belittlement of the importance of the regime’s stated goal to destroy America – not to mention its complete collapse on all its previous red lines over the course of the negotiations – are all signs of the disastrous toll the nuclear deal has already taken on America’s credibility, and indeed on US national security.

To defend a policy that empowers Iran, the administration has no choice but to serve as Iran’s agent. The deal destroys America’s credibility in fighting terrorism. By legitimizing and enriching the most prolific state sponsor of terrorism, the US has made a mockery of its claimed commitment to the fight.

The deal destroys the US’s credibility as an ally.

By serving as apologists for its worst enemy, the US has shown its allies that they cannot trust American security guarantees. How can Israel or Saudi Arabia trust America to defend them when it is endangering itself? The deal destroys 70 years of US nonproliferation efforts. By enabling Iran to become a nuclear power, the US has made a mockery of the very notion of nonproliferation and caused a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.

The damage caused by the deal is already being felt. For instance, Europe, Russia and China are already beating a path to the ayatollahs’ doorstep to sign commercial and military deals with the regime.

But if Congress defeats the deal, it can mitigate the damage. By killing the deal, Congress will demonstrate that the American people are not ready to go down in defeat. They can show that the US remains committed to its own defense and the rebuilding of its strategic credibility worldwide.

In his meeting with Jewish leaders Tuesday, Obama acknowledged that his claim – repeated yet again Wednesday – that the only alternative to the deal is war, is a lie.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Greg Rosenbaum, chairman of the National Democratic Jewish Council, which is allied with the White House, said that Obama rejected the notion that war will break out if Congress rejects the deal with veto-overriding majorities in both houses.

According to Rosenbaum, Obama claimed that if Congress rejects his nuclear deal, eventually the US will have to carry out air strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities in order to prevent them from enriching uranium to weapons-grade levels.

“But,” he quoted Obama as saying, “the result of such a strike won’t be war with Iran.”

Rather, Obama said, Iran will respond to a US strike primarily by ratcheting up its terrorist attacks against Israel.

“I can assure,” Obama told the Jewish leaders, “that Israel will bear the brunt of the asymmetrical responses that Iran will have to a military strike on its nuclear facilities.”

What is notable here is that despite the fact that it will pay the heaviest price for a congressional defeat of the Iran deal, Israel is united in its opposition to the deal. This speaks volume about the gravity with which the Israeli public views the threats the agreement unleashed.

But again, Israel is not the only country that is imperiled by the nuclear deal. And Israelis are not the only ones who need to worry.

Obama wishes to convince the public that the deal’s opponents are either partisan extremists or traitors who care about Israel more than they care about America. But neither claim is true. The main reason Americans should oppose the deal is that it endangers America. And as a consequence, Americans who oppose the deal are neither partisans nor turncoats.

They are patriots.

by Caroline Glick

ZOA Agrees With Huckabee – Iran Deal Could Lead To Holocaust-Like Massacre of Jews

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has supported former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee remarking on the disastrous Iranian nuclear deal with Iran, that it would “take the Israelis and march them to the door of the oven” 

The ZOA agrees with Governor Huckabee that this Iran deal could lead to a Holocaust-like massacre of the Jews. In such circumstances, when the Jewish state is threatened with nuclear annihilation, a Holocaust analogy such as Governor Huckabee used is acceptable and not out of place.

Indeed, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu observed earlier this year during an address at Yad Vashem that, “Democracies cannot turn their eyes away from the dictatorships of the world that seek to spread their influence… ahead of World War II, the world attempted to appease the Nazis. They wanted quiet at any price, and the terrible price did come… Just as the Nazis aspired to crush civilization and to establish a ‘master race’ as ruler of the world while annihilating the Jewish people, so too does Iran strive to gain control over the region and then spread further, with the explicit intent of obliterating the Jewish state.”

As a leading authority on radical Islamic movements, Steve Emerson, said at last week’s New York City rally against this nuclear deal, “If we don’t take out Iran, they will take out us … if you don’t your children will never forgive you — never forgive you for not protecting this country from a holocaust. For not protecting the state of Israel from a holocaust that will occur assuredly just as it did 70 years ago.”

This is also why the cry of ‘Never again’ and the buttons of ‘Never again is now’ have featured prominently in rallies opposed to the this nuclear deal. Clearly, there is broad appreciation of the fact that this Iran nuclear agreement can facilitate a Holocaust against the Jewish state.

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “The ZOA has generally criticized Holocaust analogies, because they usually bear no relation to unique horrors of the Nazi era — the era in which European Jews were rendered defenseless and unaided prior to their slaughter in millions by the Nazis and their cohorts.

“Tragically, empowering with an eventual nuclear weapons capacity — as this deal does, and as President Barack Obama himself has admitted — an Iranian regime that has repeatedly spoken of wiping out the Jewish state of Israel does bear some relationship to the Nazi era and Governor Huckabee, therefore, did not speak out of place.

“Four days after this deal was signed, the Iranian leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei addressed a rally, at which people chanted ‘Death to America’ and ‘Death to Israel,’ and said, ‘You heard “Death to Israel”, “Death to the US” … The whole of the nation, you could hear, that was covered by this great movement. So we ask Almighty God to accept these prayers by the people of Iran.’

“It was of course also Khamenei who said just as plainly last year: ‘This barbaric, wolflike & infanticidal regime of Israel which spares no crime has no cure but to be annihilated.’ He also said that Israel is ‘doomed to extinction’ and that it is a ‘bastard, illegitimate regime.’

“The Iranian president, Hasan Rouhani, has said, ‘The Zionist regime is an enemy nation and I pledge we will find a way to achieve Ayatollah Khomeini’s long-term goal to ensure that Israel ceases to exist.’

“In July, former Iranian president Hashemi Rafsanjani said, “The presence of the Israeli regime is temporary … [it will be] will be wiped off the map.’

“Only in April, General Mohammad Reza Naghdi, the head of the Basij paramilitary forces, said said, ‘The destruction of Israel is non-negotiable.’

“The Khameni-related Iranian website Alef has published a Shia Islamic doctrinal statement, written by Khamenei’s strategy specialist, Alireza Forqani, which claims ‘jurisprudential justification’ to kill all Jews and annihilate Israel. Forqani has also written in detail about destroying Israel’s major population centers with missiles ‘until the final annihilation of the people of Israel.’

“The Iranian Chief of Staff, Major-General Hassan Firouzabadi, has said that ‘the Iranian nation is standing for its cause, which is the full annihilation of Israel.’

“An Iranian regime that believes in, works for, prioritizes — and, indeed, goes further than the Nazis in trumpeting publicly — its genocidal intentions will be tempted to act on them if it acquires nuclear weapons.

“This is, after all, a radical Shia regime which believes in the return of the Mahdi, the hidden Imam after a cataclysmic war. The Tehran regime has built highways to welcome the returning Mahdi. Iran holds massive war drills entitled, ‘Towards Jerusalem.’ The preamble to the Iranian Constitution, the constitutive document of his radical Shia regime, declares the hope that Iran witness the establishment of universal ‘holy’ government and the downfall of all others.

“It is only to be expected that President Obama and his minions will try and put the sunniest construction on the deal they have signed with the radical, terror-sponsoring Islamic Republic of Iran and try and shoot the messenger whenever someone points out publicly just how infamously bad this deal actually is, given how terrible this regime actually is.

“Yet there is no evading the fact that, at best, Iran will become a nuclear power in a little over a decade. Of course, if it cheats on this agreement — as is likely, given the history of its nuclear weapons program and given also the absence of disincentives, such as fictitious ‘snap-back’ sanctions — Iran could become a nuclear power even sooner.

“There is a bipartisan Israeli consensus on this. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Labor Opposition Leader Isaac Herzog, former left-wing Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, left-wing Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid have all spoken clearly in opposition to this deal, and with good reason: the deal makes all but certain a radical Islamic Iran, armed with the nuclear weapons, which has placed the destruction of Israel as one of its top priorities.

“Governor Huckabee is therefore speaking the truth, as have others who have described the danger for Israel as being existential. ”

“When Hitler spoke in January 1939 of ‘the end of the Jews’ of Europe, few believed that genocidal intentions lay behind these words. We see similar disbelief now, even though Iranian leaders are saying this explicitly — not once, but all the time.

“As a child of Holocaust survivors, born in a DP camp in Germany after the War, recent developments are the most chilling I have witnessed in my lifetime.

“Six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis during the Shoah. Six million Jews of Israel could be endangered in the near future by Iranian nuclear-tipped missiles. If Iran drops nuclear bombs on Israel, that will be another Shoah, G-d forbid.

“There is a sovereign Israel today and Israel can, and might be compelled to, act. But the danger it will be reacting to is existential.

“We wish it were true that Governor Huckabee is exaggerating the risk to Israel and the Jewish people. Unfortunately, he is not.”

Obama getting world powers to lift sanctions on Iran

Major world powers have begun talks about a United Nations Security Council resolution to lift U.N. sanctions on Iran if a nuclear agreement is struck with Tehran, a step that could make it harder for the U.S. Congress to undo a deal, Western officials said.

The talks between Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — the five permanent members of the Security Council — plus Germany and Iran, are taking place ahead of difficult negotiations that resume next week over constricting Iran's nuclear ability.

Some eight U.N. resolutions - four of them imposing sanctions - ban Iran from uranium enrichment and other sensitive atomic work and bar it from buying and selling atomic technology and anything linked to ballistic missiles. There is also a U.N. arms embargo.

Iran sees their removal as crucial as U.N. measures are a legal basis for more stringent U.S. and European Union measures to be enforced. The U.S. and EU often cite violations of the U.N. ban on enrichment and other sensitive nuclear work as justification for imposing additional penalties on Iran.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told Congress on Wednesday that an Iran nuclear deal would not be legally binding, meaning future U.S. presidents could decide not to implement it. That point was emphasized in an open letter by 47 Republican senators sent on Monday to Iran's leaders asserting any deal could be discarded once President Barack Obama leaves office in January 2017.

But a Security Council resolution on a nuclear deal with Iran could be legally binding, say Western diplomatic officials. That could complicate and possibly undercut future attempts by Republicans in Washington to unravel an agreement.

Iran and the six powers are aiming to complete the framework of a nuclear deal by the end of March, and achieve a full agreement by June 30, to curb Iran's most sensitive nuclear activities for at least 10 years in exchange for a gradual end to all sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

So far, those talks have focused on separate U.S. and European Union sanctions on Iran's energy and financial sectors, which Tehran desperately wants removed. The sanctions question is a sticking point in the talks that resume next week in Lausanne, Switzerland, between Iran and the six powers.

But Western officials involved in the negotiations said they are also discussing elements to include in a draft resolution for the 15-nation Security Council to begin easing U.N. nuclear-related sanctions that have been in place since December 2006.

"If there's a nuclear deal, and that's still a big 'if', we'll want to move quickly on the U.N. sanctions issue," an official said, requesting anonymity.

The negotiations are taking place at senior foreign ministry level at the six powers and Iran, and not at the United Nations in New York.

U.S. OFFICIAL CONFIRMS DISCUSSIONS

A senior U.S. administration official confirmed that the discussions were underway.

The official said that the Security Council had mandated the negotiations over the U.N. sanctions and therefore has to be involved. The core role in negotiations with Iran that was being played by the five permanent members meant that any understanding over U.N. sanctions would likely get endorsed by the full council, the official added.

Iran rejects Western allegations it is seeking a nuclear weapons capability.

Officials said a U.N. resolution could help protect any nuclear deal against attempts by Republicans in U.S. Congress to sabotage it. Since violation of U.N. demands that Iran halt enrichment provide a legal basis for sanctioning Tehran, a new resolution could make new sanction moves difficult.

"There is an interesting question about whether, if the Security Council endorses the deal, that stops Congress undermining the deal," a Western diplomat said.

Other Western officials said Republicans might be deterred from undermining any deal if the Security Council unanimously endorses it and demonstrates that the world is united in favor of a diplomatic solution to the 12-year nuclear standoff.

Concerns that Republican-controlled Congress might try to derail a nuclear agreement have been fueled by the letter to Iran's leaders and a Republican invitation to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress in a March 3 speech that railed against a nuclear deal with Iran.

The officials emphasized that ending all sanctions would be contingent on compliance with the terms of any deal. They added that the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Vienna-based nuclear watchdog, will play a key role in verifying Iran's compliance with any agreement.

Among questions facing negotiators as they seek to prepare a resolution for the Security Council is the timing and speed of lifting U.N. nuclear sanctions, including whether to present it in March if a political framework agreement is signed next week or to delay until a final deal is reached by the end-June target.

(Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed, Lesley Wroughton and Patricia Zengerle in Washington, Parisa Hafezi in Ankara and John Irish in Paris; Editing by Jason Szep andMartin Howell)

J Street Liars claim that 84% of Jews back Obama Stance on Iran

J Street, the left-wing Jewish organization dedicated to undermining Israel’s campaign to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons capability, is in hot water after publishing the results of a poll that claimed 84 percent of American Jews back President Obama’s diplomatic overtures to the Tehran regime.

No link to the poll appears on the J Street website. Nor was there any detail provided about the number of respondents polled, or the phrasing of the questions posed.

A number of social media commenters suggested that the numbers provided by J Street were entirely fabricated. And by J Street’s own admission, the results are actually contradictory.

A report in the Christian Science Monitor, which quoted the 84 percent figure without independently verifying it, noted that the J Street “survey registered a strong sense of connection to Mr. Netanyahu among American Jews, even though its results suggest they don’t support his policies. 

Asked to gauge on a scale of 1 to 100 their feelings of warmth toward various leaders and personalities, respondents gave Netanyahu a 61 - higher than Obama (49) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (57).”

Moreover, a small line of text underneath the ‘84 percent’ claim - “strong support for progress made by P5+1″ - indicates that respondents were asked an entirely different question, meaning that J Street’s claim that the vast majority of American Jews reject Netanyahu’s stance contains a heavy dollop of spin.

J Street’s Communications Director, Jessica Rosenblum, merely deepened the confusion while trying to clarify it. “The prime minister is personally popular with American Jews. The difference here is that they have deep concerns about the policies he’s pursuing,” she told theChristian Science Monitor. 

Rosenblum made no attempt to reconcile Netanyahu’s personal popularity among American Jews with the assertion that the vast majority of them reject his position on the main security threat Israel currently faces.

The Christian Science Monitor also quoted Dylan Williams, J Street director of government affairs, as saying, “I don’t think Jewish Americans are different from where the general American population is on this.” 

However, a recent Gallup poll pointed towards the polar opposite conclusion, with 84 percent of respondents having a “mostly unfavorable” or “very unfavorable” view of Iran.

J Street is currently running an aggressive campaign opposing Netanyahu’s forthcoming address to the US Congress, using the hashtag #Bibidoesn’tspeakforme. 

A petition being run by the organization goes so far as to describe Israel’s ambassador in Washington, Ron Dermer, as the envoy of Netanyahu, and not the State of Israel.

The offense was compounded by a screenshot (above) which showed that among the petition’s signatories were Nazi leaders “Adolf Hitler” and “Rudolf Hess,” as well as the American black nationalist leader “Malcolm X.”