From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Netanyahu: Final Iran deal should include recognizing Israel’s right to exist
(JTA) — Israel will not accept an agreement that allows Iran to develop nuclear weapons, and it demands Iran recognize Israel’s right to exist, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu’s statement Friday came hours after Iran and six world powers announced they have reached a framework agreement in negotiations on lifting some sanctions against Iran in exchange for a scaling back of Iran’s nuclear program.
“Israel will not accept an agreement which allows a country that vows to annihilate us to develop nuclear weapons, period,” Netanyahu said in what could be interpreted as a threat to act against Iran.
Israel further demands that any final agreement with Iran include “a clear and unambiguous Iranian recognition” of Israel’s right to exist, Netanyahu also said. Iranian officials have repeatedly called for Israel’s destruction.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Netanyahu to Obama: Iran deal threatens Israel’s survival
“A deal based on this framework would threaten the survival of Israel,” Netanyahu told Obama on Thursday, according to a statement from Netanyahu’s office.
Netanyahu’s statement followed the reaching of a framework agreement with Iran after several days of negotiations in Switzerland. Obama told the Israeli leader that the framework “represents significant progress towards a lasting comprehensive solution that cuts off all of Iran’s pathways to a bomb and verifiably ensures the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program going forward,” according to the White House.
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From The Times of Israel
Defeatist Obama’s deal with the devil
What was needed, and what was possible, was a better deal, but the US president lacked the resolve to insist upon it
Extolling the virtues of his deal with Iran on Thursday, President Barack Obama made a false and extremely nasty assertion: “It’s no secret,” he claimed, incorrectly, “that the Israeli prime minister and I don’t agree about whether the United States should move forward with a peaceful resolution to the Iranian issue.”
It is indeed no secret that Obama and Netanyahu don’t agree on how to thwart Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions. It is emphatically not the case, however, that Israel’s prime minister opposes “a peaceful resolution to the Iranian issue.” It is emphatically not the case, despite Obama’s insinuation, that Israel’s leader regards military intervention as the only means to thwart Iran.
Netanyahu has not been saying no to diplomacy. His endlessly stated contention is not that war is the only alternative to the deal so delightedly hailed by Obama as “the most effective way to ensure Iran doesn’t get a nuclear weapon.” Rather, in Netanyahu’s insistent opinion, what is needed is simply a different, far more potent deal.
As Netanyahu made plain in anguished, infuriated tones on Wednesday, in the final hours before the Lausanne agreement was struck, what was required was not no deal at all, but rather “a better deal,” one “which would significantly roll back Iran’s nuclear infrastructure” and “link the eventual lifting of the restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program to a change in Iran’s behavior.” A deal to ensure that Iran “stop its aggression in the region, stop its terrorism throughout the world, and stop its threats to annihilate Israel.” That, said Netanyahu, is “the deal that the world powers must insist upon.”
From The Independent
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Cardin replacing Menendez on Foreign Relations committee
(JTA) — Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) is replacing Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) as the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Menendez, who was indicted this week on corruption charges, has stepped down temporarily from his leadership post while he fights the charges, though he will keep his seat on the committee. Menendez has adamantly denied the accusations against him.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid announced Cardin’s appointment on Thursday.
A longtime Jewish lawmaker and leading pro-Israel voice in Congress, Cardin was named last month the special representative on anti-Semitism and intolerance for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly. He was also one of four senators to urge President Obama earlier this week not to impose peace terms on Israel.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Pew study: Muslims to overtake American Jews by 2050
The report, which was released Thursday, also found that more American Jews are leaving Judaism than non-Jews are joining the Jewish people.
According to “The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050,” Muslims will overtake Christians in the last quarter of the 21st century as the globe’s largest religious group. In the United States, Muslims will comprise 2.1 percent of the population in 2050, up from 0.9 percent in 2010. Jews, meanwhile, will fall to 1.4 percent of the U.S. population from 1.8 percent in 2010.
The Pew study also offered a detailed look at the sizes of national Jewish communities around the world, how fast the communities are expected to shrink or grow, and Jewish fertility rates.
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From Russia Today
Iranian president: World powers accept Tehran’s right to enrich uranium
“The world has acknowledged Iran is pursuing its peaceful objectives,”he said during a press conference on Friday.
Rouhani said Tehran’s nuclear enrichment issue “is not a threat” to any other nation, and if the other sides keep their promises under the deal Iran will too.
“If we’ve given a promise … we will take action based on that promise. Of course, that depends on the other side acting on their promises too,” he said.
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From The Times of Israel
American Jewish umbrella group skeptical over nuclear deal
Jewish Federations of North America warns ‘a weak agreement presents a clear and present danger to all nations’
The American Jewish umbrella group, Jewish Federations of North America, said Thursday that the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers “leaves vital issues woefully unresolved.
“The agreement provides scant detail on how the phased sanction relief will be implemented. It contains insufficient clarity on how Iranian adherence to the agreement will be verified. And it is ambiguous on what penalties will be imposed if Iran fails to fulfill its commitments,” according to a statement from the organization, which represents the Jewish communal federations across North America.
“The [Obama] Administration has repeatedly reaffirmed that ‘it is unacceptable for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.’ Even during the current negotiations, the White House has often said, ‘a bad deal is worse than no deal,’” the statement notes.
“We appreciate the good faith efforts made by the Administration and the other members of the P5+1 [group of world powers]. We all hope that a diplomatic solution to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon is possible,” the group affirmed.
But it warned that “a weak agreement presents a clear and present danger to all nations. It is also likely to lead other countries in the region to seek their own nuclear capabilities, resulting in a proliferation of nuclear weapons in a part of the world already destabilized by Iranian proxies spreading terrorism and fomenting extremism.”
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Le Pens at odds as Jean-Marie stands by gas chambers remark
(JTA) — French politician Marine Le Pen distanced herself from her father, the founder of the party she now heads, after Jean-Marie Le Pen defended his description of the Nazi gas chambers as “just a detail of WWII.”
Jean-Marie Le Pen, 86, the longtime leader of the National Front, on Thursday told French TV that he does not regret the statement he made in 1987.
“I continue to uphold the view because I think it is the truth and it should not shock anyone,” he told BFM. “They have exploited this affair against me, implying this is about anti-Semitism. But I defy anyone to quote me on anything anti-Semitic I have said in my political career.”
Marine Le Pen told Europe1 radio on Thursday that she “profoundly disagrees” with her father. She also criticized her father for his repeated attempts to draw attention to himself and the party.
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