From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Israel satisfied with Senate compromise bill on Iran deal
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel called a Senate bill requiring the U.S. Congress to review any nuclear agreement with Iran “an achievement for Israeli policy.”
Yuval Steinitz, Israel’s minister of intelligence and strategic affairs, made the remark in an interview Wednesday with Israel Radio on the compromise bill passed unanimously the day before by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Steinitz said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech last month to a joint meeting of Congress “was decisive in achieving this law, which is a very important element in preventing a bad deal, or at least in improving the agreement and making it more reasonable.”
The bill requires that Congress vote to approve the lifting of U.S. sanctions on Iran based on the text of a final agreement with Iran to curb its nuclear program, and prevents the Obama administration from lifting sanctions on Iran until Congress is done reviewing the agreement. It also requires the administration to report to Congress on various issues relating to Iran, including its support of global terrorism and its nuclear program.
Click here for the full story
From The Times of Israel
Israel’s Iran point man pleased with US oversight bill
Minister Steinitz says compromise legislation ‘an achievement for Israeli policy,’ credits Netanyahu’s Congress speech
Israel welcomed the bill unanimously passed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee requiring Congressional oversight of any comprehensive nuclear deal with Iran, Intelligence Minister Yuval Seintitz said Wednesday.
Steinitz called the new legislation “an achievement for Israeli policy,” and credited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s polarizing March address to US lawmakers detailing Iran’s nuclear ambitions for the development.
“We are certainly blessed this morning,” he told Israel Radio, adding that increased oversight would prevent Iran from breaking the terms of the deal.
Tuesday’s last-minute compromise decision, reached between the Obama administration and the Foreign Relations Committee, will require Congress to to review any comprehensive nuclear deal reached with Iran.
“It means more pressure and another hurdle in the way of a bad agreement, so the administration and negotiators will work harder to fill the gaps to reshape the deal into a better, more reasonable one that can win Congress approval,” said Steinitz, who has become something of an unofficial point man of Netanyahu’s on the Iran issue, explaining Israel’s positions both to local media and to international decision makers.
Click here for the full story
From The Times of Israel
Clinton looks to avoid getting mired between Obama and Israel
Presidential contender, wary of alienating Democratic base or Jewish supporters, chooses to keep low profile on issue
WASHINGTON (JTA) – Hillary Clinton does not appear until 90 seconds into the two-minute video rolling out her campaign. No one among the bright and diverse array of everyday Americans in that video mentions foreign policy. Or Barack Obama.
Jewish Democrats say the video released this weekend is emblematic of the approach that Clinton is likely to take as she tries to straddle her loyalty to Obama with the perceived need to distance herself from the tensions that have characterized his administration’s relationship with Israel.
That tack is embedded in her statement issued March 29 through Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice president of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
“Secretary Clinton thinks we need to all work together to return the special US-Israel relationship to constructive footing, to get back to basic shared concerns and interests, including a two-state solution pursued through direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians,” Hoenlein said, describing a phone conversation he initiated with Clinton.
Clinton, notably, is once removed from the statement, delivered in Hoenlein’s voice. Obama is not mentioned, but she calls for a “return” to “constructive footing,” an acknowledgment that the relationship has gone off track.
Click here for the full story
From The Times of Israel
Support will fizzle if old language put back into Iran bill, lawmakers warn
Measure giving Congress oversight on nuclear pact likely to pass after compromise, but backing contingent on controversial measures staying out
Hours after a landmark bargain allowed a Senate panel to unanimously push through a bill that would give Congress oversight on a nuclear pact with Iran, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are warning of a possible battle over the measure’s final language as it moves toward passage.
At least one Republican who supported the watered down bill said he may seek to reinsert controversial language that had earned a promise of a presidential veto, while Democrats who backed the new language say changes could cause them to pull support.
Still, both houses of Congress are now likely to pass the bill, which cleared the Senate Foreign Relations Committee 19-0, should it stay in its current form. It’s expected to come before the full Senate as soon as next week.
The vote came after panel chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and top Democrat Ben Cardin (D-Md.) struck a compromise on language in order to soothe concerns of the White House and some congressional Democrats.
Senator Marco Rubio, (R-Fla.), who announced his candidacy for president on Monday, said an amendment that would require Iran’s leaders to accept Israel’s right to exist and which was struck from the language, might still come up during a debate by the full Senate.
Click here for the full story
From The Times of Israel
Obama takes step to remove Cuba from terror blacklist
In sign of rapprochement, US president sends notice to lawmakers, who have 45 days to oppose measure; Havana calls decision ‘fair’
US President Barack Obama is set to remove Cuba from a list of state sponsors of terrorism, in a landmark step paving the way towards restoring ties frozen for five decades.
Obama on Tuesday notified Congress of his “intent to rescind” Cuba’s inclusion on the blacklist, after a lengthy review launched late last year as Washington openly began a rapprochement with its Cold War foe.
US lawmakers now have 45 days to oppose the move; otherwise, it will go ahead, removing a key hurdle to renewing US diplomatic relations with the communist authorities in Cuba.
“The government of Cuba has not provided any support for international terrorism during the preceding six-month period,” Obama wrote to US lawmakers to justify his decision, after what administration officials called “a rigorous process” done with “every caution and every care.”Marco Rubio speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 14, 2015, during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting. (photo credit: AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Cuba described the move as “fair” and said that it should never have been on the list.
Click here for the full story
From Ynet News
Over 40% of Germans want closure on Nazi past
Seventy years after the end of WWII, significant minority of Germans seek to end exposure to history of war but express disinterest in expanding country’s global role. Seventy years after the end of World War Two, some 42 percent of Germans want to draw a line under the Nazi past, a poll showed on Wednesday, as the nation’s complex legacy continues to shape its international role and domestic politics.
On the day that survivors of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp gather to mark the anniversary of its liberation, the Forsa poll showed that 58 percent of Germans were unwilling to limit or end their exposure to the history of the war.
With the 70th anniversary of the end of the war coming up in May, German television channels are filled with war-related dramas and documentaries and newspapers are devoting pages to revisit the last weeks of the fighting.
Click here for the full story
From The Times of Israel
Backing off rhetoric, GOP hopeful Rubio supports Iran bill bargain
Florida senator says he may still demand measure include Iranian recognition of Israel when law goes for full Senate vote
WASHINGTON — Sen. Marco Rubio’s fiery criticism of an emerging deal over Iran’s nuclear ambitions fizzled in the cool pragmatism of the Senate, as he joined colleagues on Tuesday in backing a compromise measure during his first full day as a presidential candidate.
The Florida Republican returned to Washington to vote for legislation that that would give Congress the power to approve or reject any agreement with Iran over its nuclear programs. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee unanimously approved that proposal, which now heads to the full Senate.
Yet Rubio ran head-first into the awkward conflict between campaigning for the Oval Office in absolutes and serving on an influential panel that often conducts its business in compromise.
Rubio had been pushing for a long-shot demand that Iran back Israel’s right to exist in exchange for eased economic sanctions. Yet as the foreign affairs panel considered the issue, Rubio backed off.
Rubio acknowledged that his push ultimately “could imperil the entire agreement.” But he hinted that he might try to restore his demand when the full Senate considers the measure — and signaled to backers of his presidential bid that he still cares about Israel.
Click here for the full story
From the Jewish Daily Forward
Kim Kardashian Blurred Out by Ultra-Orthodox
By Allison Kaplan Sommer (Haaretz)
Where’s Kim? An ultra-Orthodox web site photoshopped out the image of the reality star eating dinner with her famous hubby Kanye West and Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat
Just about every part of Kim Kardashian has probably been exposed to the world by now, between her infamous sex tape, reality television, and most recently, the photographs of her famed hourglass figure that “broke the Internet.”
For most of the media, the more of herself Kardashian shows off, the better. But one Israeli publication that reported on the Jerusalem visit by the reality show celebrity and her rapper husband Kanye West wasn’t interested in exposing her, but covering her up as much as possible.
