T. Belman. This article attempts to make the case that Iran is weak militarily and therefore there is little to worry about their dominance of the Middle East.  I don’t buy it.  $100 billion in sanctions relief will go a long way to modernize the army in 5 years. The P5 + 1 can’t wait to sell them billions of dollars worth of arms.

Saudi Arabia’s military outspends the Islamic Republic’s 5-to-1; the UAE’s does by 50 percent. And ending the arms embargo after a nuclear deal won’t change that.

By Trita Parsi and Tyler Cullis, FOREIGN POLICY – JULY 10/15

You’d be forgiven for thinking that Iran, unshackled from economic sanctions, would have free rein to domineer its vulnerable Persian Gulf Arab neighbors and cause trouble for Israel. As the fearful refrain goes, if an Iran restrained by crippling sanctions has managed to assert its influence over four Arab capitals — those of Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen — what will an Iran freed from sanctions and a global arms embargo do? As noted Iran hawk Ray Takeyh recently wrote, “the most important legacy of the prospective agreement [may be that it] enable[d] the Islamic Republic’s imperial surge.” This same line has been pushed so hard that it has become accepted fact in Washington.

The problem is, the line isn’t true. But, nonetheless, it is threatening to upend a lasting nuclear deal with Iran.
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By David Efune, ALGEMEINER

Israel is once again united. And as in the past, it comes as a byproduct of significant threats to the country; this time from Iran.

Even the leaders of Israel’s opposition denounced in the harshest terms the nuclear deal announced on Tuesday, and chided Prime Minister Netanyahu for failing to prevent it. Zionist Union head Isaac Herzog went so far as to describe himself as “more extreme” than Netanyahu on matters of security.

The threats from Iran and the wrongheaded approach of the international community are broad, pervasive and multilateral.
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Only one of the major Jewish organizations issued a statement of unqualified support for the nuclear agreement with Iran. Guess which.

By Lori Lowenthal Marcus, JEWISH PRESS

We know the Iran deal is bad. How bad it is is we all may be spending the rest of our lives finding out. That is, unless enough members of Congress are able to inject sufficient spine-strengthening and -straightening serum to override President Barack Obama’s already promised veto of any effort to derail the deal.

So let’s take a stroll through the playground of American Jewish organizations and see what they have to say about the proposed deal which allows many of the things American leaders swore would not be permitted and forbids many of the things that were promised would be included.

First, let’s lay out the general parameters of the deal, as they are currently understood, based on analyses of the 159 page document.
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By Ted Belman

After the Security Cabinet met to discuss the deal, all ministers came out of it claiming that Israel not only had the ability but the intention to stop Iran from getting the bomb. Ehud Barak also said “Israel is by far the strongest country in the region.” He ought to know.

Dr Gabi Avital wrote in ISRAEL HAYOM that we have the right to defend ourselves:

The deal isn’t the end of the matter, and as far as Israel is concerned, not all the ends have been wrapped up. A reminder: Two years after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the nuclear reactor in Iraq was bombed. Israel’s international standing was no better than it is today, and the U.S. didn’t like the action that was executed without its knowledge. At home, the plan to bomb it was met with widespread opposition in the security establishment. Shimon Peres decided that Israel would be “like a juniper in the wilderness,” and rationality won out.

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By ARIEL BEN SOLOMON, GIL HOFFMAN, JPOST.COM STAFF

The nuclear deal that the world’s leading countries reached with Iran on Tuesday will likely lead to the Islamic Republic becoming a nuclear power, but Israel can live with a nuclear Iran, because Israel is by far the strongest country in the region. So said former prime minister and defense minister Ehud Barak in an interview with Channel 2 Tuesday night.

Barak was just one of many Israeli politicians across the political spectrum who slammed the deal; MKs from the Joint List were the only ones who praised it.

“The agreement gives legitimacy to Iran to become a nuclear threshold state,” Barak said. “It allows [the Iranians] to subsidize terror and removes them from the noose of sanctions. It is fair to say that it will allow Iran to follow North Korea to become a nuclear power.”
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More disturbing details surface in Iran deal: Europe and US to train Iran to ‘protect against and respond to sabotage’ at nuclear sites.

By Ari Yashar, INN

Disturbing details of the Iran nuclear deal signed Tuesday continue to come to light, revealing why critics are more concerned than ever.

One particularly interesting detail: Tucked away near the very end of the deal’s massive text is a section entitled “Nuclear Safety, Safeguards and Security,” which stipulates that the West will train Iran to thwart sabotage against its nuclear facilities.

According to text, Iran will learn how to secure its controversial and covert nuclear program from all threats thanks to training by the “E3/EU+3,” another designation for the P5+1 countries consisting of the US, UK, France, Germany, Russia and China, as well as the EU.
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Senior Israeli minister to meet top Palestinian official abroad

By Avi Issacharov, TOI

A series of meetings between senior Palestinian and Israeli officials has recently led to significant steps by both sides intended to defuse Israeli-Palestinian tension, and these could lead to renewed negotiations, a senior official said.

Secret contacts between the senior officials, who are representing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, have been taking place for several months and are still continuing, despite official peace talks that have stagnated for over a year.
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T. Belman. That was a big mistake. Without negotiations, there wouldn’t have been a bad deal to try to reject with a 2/3 majority.

PRESS RELEASE:

AIPAC has consistently supported diplomatic efforts to ensure that Iran does not develop nuclear weapons, and we appreciate the administration’s efforts and hard work over the course of the negotiations. We also recognize the critical role that Congress will now play in approving or disapproving the proposed agreement.

During these negotiations, we outlined five critical requirements for a good deal. We are deeply concerned based on initial reports that this proposed agreement may not meet these requirements, and thereby would fail to block Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon and would further entrench and empower the leading state sponsor of terror.
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We have met the enemy and he is in the White House.7.14.2015

By Daniel Greenfield, TRUTH REVOLT

The last time a feeble leader of a fading nation came bearing “Peace in our time”, a pugnacious controversial right-winger retorted, “You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor, and you will have war.” That right-winger went on to lead the United Kingdom against Hitler.

The latest worthless agreement with a murderous dictatorship is being brandished by John Kerry, a man who instinctively seeks out dishonor the way a pig roots for truffles.

John Kerry betrayed his uniform and his nation so many times that it became his career. He illegally met with the representatives of the North Vietnamese enemy in Paris and then next year headed to Washington D.C. where he blasted the American soldiers being murdered by his new friends as rapists and murderers “reminiscent of Genghis Khan”.
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Provides Path To Nukes & Billions To Hitler Of Middle East

NEW YORK, July 14, 2015 — The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) is deeply horrified, but not surprised, by the truly terrible nuclear agreement that has been signed by the P5 +1 nations (the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, including the United States, plus Germany) and the radical Islamic Iranian regime. This agreement will provide nuclear weapons and hundreds of billions of dollars to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Hitler of the Mideast, and to Iran, the Nazi Germany of the Middle East. Only last Friday, Khamenei and Iranian President Hasan Rouhani, appeared at the latest of a series of regular rallies calling for destruction of the U.S. and Israel.

The ZOA National President Morton A. Klein has issued the following statement:

“The nuclear agreement concluded in Vienna is quite simply a catastrophe and a nightmare. It leaves the world standing at an abyss.

“Everything in the past two years has pointed to precisely such a deal, which leaves Iran with its nuclear weapons program and infrastructure intact, while additionally shredding the international sanctions regime upon Tehran. The deal infuses the Iranian economy with hundreds of billions of dollars through the unfreezing of assets and sanctions relief. Moreover, this deal will terminate personal sanctions against senior Iranian military commanders who have been sanctioned for their responsibility in the murder hundreds of Americans in Iraq.

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Op-ed: Has Iran agreed to ‘anywhere, anytime’ inspections, an end to R&D on faster centrifuges, and the dismantling of its key nuclear sites? No, no, and no

By David Horovitz, TOI

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday unsurprisingly hailed the nuclear agreement struck with US-led world powers, and derided the “failed” efforts of the “warmongering Zionists.” His delight, Iran’s delight, is readily understandable.

The agreement legitimizes Iran’s nuclear program, allows it to retain core nuclear facilities, permits it to continue research in areas that will dramatically speed its breakout to the bomb should it choose to flout the deal, but also enables it to wait out those restrictions and proceed to become a nuclear threshold state with full international legitimacy. Here’s how.
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Col. (ret.) Dr. Jacques Neriah, July 14, 2015

Institute for Contemporary Affairs
Founded jointly with the Wechsler Family Foundation

Vol. 15,  No. 22    July 14, 2015

• The Egyptian military revealed on July 8, 2015, that it had captured Turkish intelligence officers who were actively involved in the guerrilla war waged by the Islamic State in Sinai and inside Egypt itself against the Sisi regime.

• The Turkish National Intelligence Organization (NIO) operatives named included Col. Ismail Aly Bal (described as a coordinator of battlefield operations), Diaa al-Din Mehmet Gado, Bakoush al-Husseyni Youzmi and Abdallah al-Turki.

• On July 12, the Egyptian military spokesman announced the uncovering of a “terrorist cell” whose instructions were given by the Muslim Brotherhood headquartered in Turkey and whose mission was to destabilize Egypt.

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By David M. Weinberg, ISRAEL HAYOM

Ahead of the accord reached between the P5+1 and Iran Tuesday, The New York Times reported that it was expected to be a “political agreement,” not a “legally binding treaty.” 

Furthermore, Israeli sources said the two sides would “announce understandings” and ?present a 100-page document, but not “sign” anything. It will take months of additional negotiations to develop the relevant implementation documents.

All of which is meant to obfuscate the details, Israeli officials fear, and cloud the matter enough to confuse or bamboozle Congress. It will also allow the Iranians to (correctly) claim that they never truly “signed away” their nuclear capacities. In the meantime, U.N. and other international mechanisms to lift sanctions on Iran will go into high gear.?
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By Daniel Greenfield, SULTAN KNISH

Congressman Louie Gohmert read a portion of my article “Pull Down the Slaver Flags of Islam” on the floor of Congress which addresses the hypocrisy of censoring the Dukes of Hazzard while opening the doors to Islamic racism and other forms of supremacist bigotry and nostalgia for slave-owning cultures.

When Obama condemned Christianity for the Crusades, only a thousand years too late, in attendance was the Foreign Minister of Sudan; a country that practices slavery and genocide. Obama could have taken time out from his rigorous denunciation of the Middle Ages to speak truth to the emissary of a Muslim Brotherhood regime whose leader is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. But our moral liberals spend too much time romanticizing actual slaver cultures.
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By Omri Ceren, TIP

Journalists are still waiting for the press conference to begin at the Austria Center Vienna, where the main details of the deal will presumably be confirmed. It’s not clear when the announcement will actually happen – the parties are still heading here from the plenary at the UN – but you certainly don’t have to be in the room to get all the information from whatever is about to happen.

First, the event is going to be livestreamed (http://ec.europa.eu/avservices/ebs/schedule.cfm?page=2&date=07/14/2015&institution=0#s303708).

Second, the Russian Foreign Ministry seems to have posted the full text of the JCPOA online (http://www.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeednews/iran-nuclear-talks#.niQJEMmpxd).

Third, just about all of the relevant questions have already been well-leaked. The following has all been confirmed:
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T. Belman. I have been receiving Gary Bauer’s daily email for years.  He is the President of American Values which is a Christian organization. I have great respect for him and his organization.  It is an important part of the pro-Israel community. This new project should help a lot.

By Gary Bauer, AMERICAN VALUES\

“Get Ready For Pro-Israel NRA”

Christians United for Israel, the largest pro-Israel organization in America with more than two million members, is holding its 10th annual Washington Summit right now in our nation’s capital. Six thousand pro-Israel activists are in Washington, D.C., for this jam-packed event.

They are hearing from the leading presidential contenders, receiving briefings on the Middle East and will be meeting with their congressional representatives. Tonight will feature a special celebration entitled a “Night To Honor Israel,” featuring speeches by Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer, Pastor Charles Stanley and Pastor John Hagee, founder of Christians United for Israel.

Once again, the timing of this CUFI Summit proved to be prophetic as news broke over the weekend that a nuclear deal with Iran is imminent. (More on that below.)
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Likud MK Mickey Zohar outlines an action plan to Arutz Sheva that involves annexing Judea-Samaria – and Israel looking out for itself.

By Shimon Cohen, INN

Israel must nullify the 1993 Oslo Accords, MK Mickey Zohar (Likud) stated to Arutz Sheva on Tuesday morning, just one day after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu admitted he has no plans to expand Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.

“When an Arab petitioner pleads to the High Court, right before my eyes, the rights of Jews disappear – the right to property, the right to freedom, and the right to live in their own country […] all because of bureaucratic matters,” Zohar fumed.

“All of these issues are related to the Oslo Accords, which have set the precedent for us to say the things that we ‘should’ say,” he continued. “The Accords are contrary to what is happening on the ground and what we believe should be.”
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DEBKA

[..]
But once the final accord is in the bag – expected in the coming hours – Clinton will have to come out in the open, because she holds the key to a Senate majority for blocking it. The 54 Republican senators are committed to voting against it: Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell told Fox News Sunday: “I think it’s going to be a very hard sell, if it’s completed, in Congress. We already know it’s going to leave Iran as a threshold nuclear state. It appears as if the administration’s approach to this was to reach whatever agreement the Iranians are willing to enter into,” he said.

But the 44 Democratic senators are wobbling between being loyal to the president and their profound misgivings about the deal with Iran. It would take 13 Democrats to cross the floor and join the Republicans to achieve the necessary majority for annulling the promised presidential veto of a negative vote.
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