Dr. Patrick Slattery’s News Roundup
A service of DavidDuke.com
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Top Israeli, U.S. security officials commit to cybersecurity cooperation
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The U.S. deputy secretary of Homeland Security and the top Israeli official handling cybersecurity cosigned a statement committing to U.S-Israel cooperation in the area.
Alejandro Mayorkas and Eviatar Matania, who heads the Israel National Cyber Bureau, “signed a joint statement reaffirming the United States and Israel’s commitment to promote cooperation and information sharing on cybersecurity and cyber research and development,” said a statement by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security released Friday, a day after Mayorkas returned from an Israel tour.
The statement said Mayorkas and his Israeli counterparts discussed “a range of homeland security-related issues including cybersecurity, law enforcement cooperation, immigration, and aviation security.”
Mayorkas toured Ben Gurion Airport “to view passenger and cargo security operations and to review the areas of close cooperation between DHS and the Israeli government on aviation and airport security.”
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Netanyahu: Don’t deal with Iran while it calls for death to U.S., Israel
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, continuing his attack on the Iran nuclear deal, said the agreement has not changed Iran’s policy of calling for armed struggle against Israel and the United States.
“If someone thought that the extraordinary concessions to Iran would lead to a change in its policy, they received an unequivocal answer over the weekend in Iranian ruler [Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei’s aggressive and contrary speech,” Netanyahu said Sunday at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting.
On Saturday, Khamenei in a nationally televised speech praised the people of Iran for calling for death to America and Israel, and said he hoped Allah would answer their prayers. He also called the U.S. government “arrogant.”
“The Islamic Republic of Iran will not give up support of its friends in the region — the oppressed people of Palestine, of Yemen, the Syrian and Iraqi governments, the oppressed people of Bahrain and sincere resistance fighters in Lebanon and Palestine,” he said, adding: “Our policy will not change with regards to the arrogant U.S. government.”
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From PressTV
Multiple blasts target vehicles of Hamas officials in Gaza
Multiple car bomb explosions have been carried out in the besieged Gaza Strip, targeting vehicles belonging to members of Palestinian resistance movements Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
According to media reports, the blasts occurred on Sunday morning in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, with reports saying that two people were injured in the attacks.
The casualties have not been officially confirmed.
No individual or group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, which are said to have involved at least five car bombs.
However, militants affiliated with the Velayat Sinai terror group – previously known as the Ansar Bait al-Maqdis – are believed to be behind the assaults, according to reports.
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From The Times of Israel
Scuttling Iran deal might not be easy for next president
Republicans promise to ‘invalidate’ nuclear accord if elected, but to do so they’ll have to turn their backs on US allies and likely go it alone on sanctions
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican presidential contenders are unhappy with President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran and vow to rescind the agreement, some on their first day in office.
But it may not be that easy.
If Iran lives up to its obligations, a new president could face big obstacles in turning that campaign promise into US policy. Among them: resistance from longtime American allies, an unraveling of the carefully crafted international sanctions, and damage to US standing with the rest of the world, according to foreign policy experts.
“The president does not have infinite ability to get other countries to go along with them,” said Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “One of the consequences is the United States would be increasingly isolated at a time when Iran is increasingly integrated with the rest of the world.”
Both Obama and Republicans know firsthand the difficulties of dismantling major policies, a task that only gets harder the longer a policy has been in place.
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From The Times of Israel
Kerry: Talk of a better Iran deal is ‘fantasy’
Top US diplomat says ‘Israel is safer’ with Iran nuclear accord, promises increased support to America’s Mideast allies against Iran
US Secretary of State John Kerry insisted over the weekend that Israel “will be safer” under the terms of the nuclear deal brokered by world powers and Iran earlier this month. He also asserted that talk of a better deal having been possible was “fantasy.”
“I talked to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday,” Kerry told PBS’s Judy Woodruff in an interview Friday. “I’ve talked to him regularly throughout this process, and we are absolutely by far more linked day-to-day in the security relationship with Israel than at any time in history,” Kerry said.
That American security cooperation and help will only increase, he promised. “President [Barack] Obama is prepared to upgrade that.”
And, he added, Obama is willing “to work to do more to be able to address specific concerns” Israel has over the details of the agreement, intended to curb Iran’s nuclear drive in exchange for sanctions relief.
“But we still believe that Israel will be safer with a one-year breakout [to a nuclear weapon] for the ten years [of heightened restrictions stipulated by the deal], than two months,” the time it would take Iran to “break out” to a weapon now, according to many Western intelligence estimates.
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