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President says in Atlantic interview he cares so deeply about Israel that he's motivated to criticize continued settlement activity, comments from Netanyahu. WASHINGTON -- "Political forces" in Washington seek to provide the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a rubber stamp for its policies, US President Barack Obama said this week in an interview with the Atlantic magazine. The interview, with the outlet's Jeffrey Goldberg, was published one day before the president is scheduled to address Congregation Adas Israel in Washington, where he is expected to outline his administration's plans to combat a rising tide of anti-Semitism across Europe....

One hundred and fifty members of Congress – all Democrats and, among them, most of the small group of bitterly anti-Israel lawmakers – signed a letter supporting President Obama’s diplomatic efforts vis-à-vis the Iranian nuclear weapons program. Authored by Reps. Jan Schakowsky (Illinois), Lloyd Doggett (Texas), and David Price (North Carolina), the letter exemplifies the hyper-partisanship that has driven the left wing of the Democrat party on this issue even as that wing has cried “partisan extremism” at the responses from Republicans. As if trying to prove Churchill right, this Iran Surrender Caucus, whenever presented with a choice between dishonor...

Ron Dermer, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, snapped his fingers to signify how quickly the Jewish state could go from being strong to vulnerable in the face of a nuclear Iran. “We don’t believe the choice is war or to accept this deal,” Dermer said. “We believe the way to peacefully resolve this issue is to combine a credible, military threat of force with crippling sanctions.” “That combination has not been deployed for 10 years,” he noted. “We had sanctions on Iran for a long time, but crippling sanctions only began in 2012. And within 18 months, Iran...

President Barack Obama pledged America’s “ironclad commitment” to anxious Persian Gulf nations Thursday to help protect their security, pointedly mentioning the potential use of military force and offering assurances that a potential nuclear agreement with Iran would not leave them more vulnerable. At the close of a rare summit at the presidential retreat at Camp David, Obama said the U.S. would join the Gulf Cooperation Council nations “to deter and confront an external threat to any GCC state’s territorial integrity.” The U.S. pledged to bolster its security cooperation with the Gulf on counterterrorism, maritime security, cybersecurity and ballistic missile defense....

PM meets with Germany defense minister visiting Israel to mark 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Netanyahu: Iran leading campaign of 'conquest and subversion' around Israel's borders Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday asserted that the threat emanating from the "imperial and theological ambitions" of Iran's "ayatollah regime" poses the greatest threat to the region. Speaking in Jerusalem with German Defense Minister Ursula Von Der Leyen, the prime minister said that Israel views Iran's quest to create an "empire" coupled with its nuclear ambitions as the greatest security challenge to the Middle East. "They are leading a...

A former CIA officer has been sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for leaking details of a secret mission to thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Jeffrey Sterling of O’Fallon, Missouri, was facing a recommended sentence of 20 years or more under federal sentencing guidelines for violations of the Espionage Act. …

Obama and a Nuclear Iran in the Middle East Iran and suspension of disbelief The term “suspension of disbelief” - coined in 1817 by the philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge—refers to a willingness to suspend one’s critical faculties and believe the unbelievable; sacrificing reality, common sense, doubt and complexity on the altar of a pretend reality, convenience and oversimplification; infusing a semblance of truth into an untrue narrative. Suspension of disbelief characterized the 1977-79 President Carter policy toward Iran, energizing Ayatollah Khomeini, ignoring or underestimating his track record and his radical, supremacist and violent worldview. The betrayal of the Shah transformed...

TEL AVIV – In an extraordinary move that could mean billions lost to the American economy, Gulf monarchs meeting Tuesday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, took a closed-door decision to potentially withhold investments from U.S. military firms if the terms of any final agreement with Iran causes significant harm to the Sunni Arab states. The meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council brought together leaders from Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. All of those countries, aside from Oman, participated in the Saudi-led strikes targeting Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen. According to a source who took part...

(Reuters) - Britain has informed a United Nations sanctions panel of an active Iranian nuclear procurement network linked to two blacklisted firms, according to a confidential report by the panel seen by Reuters. The existence of such a network could add to Western concerns over whether Tehran can be trusted to adhere to a nuclear deal due by June 30 in which it would agree to restrict sensitive nuclear work in exchange for sanctions relief. Talks between six major powers and Tehran are approaching the final stages after they hammered out a preliminary agreement on April 2, with Iran committing...

Sen. Tom Cotton is insisting on simple majority votes on contentious amendments to legislation to provide congressional review of any final nuclear deal with Iran, apparently stymieing the possibility of moving forward, at least for now. The Arkansas Republican sought to line up a pair of amendments that supportive Democratic senators have said could cause them to remove support for the bill. One of those, sponsored by Cotton, would require Iran to allow inspectors full access to suspicious sites. The other, led by Florida Republican Marco Rubio, would require Tehran to recognize Israel’s right to exist. “I think some of...

A Senate staff member told me yesterday there is a classified version of the nuclear framework with Iran that members of the Senate are having difficulty assessing because it has been classified secret and is locked up in the Senate security office. I was told that few Senate staffers are being allowed to read this classified version of the framework. This revelation raises several serious questions about President Obama’s desperate effort to get a nuclear deal with Iran. First, this classified version of the framework agreement must be different from the fact sheet on the framework released by the State...

This week in two meetings with prominent American Jews, President Barack Obama threw down the gauntlet. Either the Jews of America will rise to the challenge or they will allow Obama to marginalize them. It is their choice, and now is the time for them to decide. In the first meeting, Obama met with centrist Jewish leaders from major Jewish organizations like the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, the Anti-Defamation League and AIPAC. Major donors to these groups, like to almost every other major Jewish organization in America, are largely Democrats. According to The Washington Post, the purpose...

RUSH: Did you see where Iran's foreign minister, Javad Zarif, has an op-ed in the New York Times? I kid you not. The Iranian foreign minister is considered an ally by the New York Times op-ed page. You see, ladies and gentlemen, there is so much controversy over the Iranian nuclear deal that Obama's putting together that the New York Times -- hoping to facilitate things for Obama -- offers op-ed space to the Iranian foreign minister, Javad Zarif. When you skim this thing, it looks like a regular editorial from the New York Times editors. Just like when old...

Iran will not grant the International Atomic Energy Agency a second entry to the Parchin military base, the spokesman for Iran's Atomic Energy Organization said on Monday. "Parchin is a military base," Behrouz Kamalvandi said at a news conference in Tehran. "They [the IAEA] have been raising the issue for years. It is important for their propaganda. They know we will not allow them to visit the Parchin base again, but they think raising the issue benefits the propaganda." Kamalvandi said that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, while serving as Iran's chief negotiator years ago, had allowed the IAEA to enter...

“It’s not true,” Harf said of the dispatch. She added that there had been no change in the administration’s position regarding phased sanctions relief, but she didn’t seem to realize that this assertion failed to contradict The Journal’s reporting. “They won’t get relief until they take nuclear-related steps,” the State Department spokeswoman added. “And those cannot technically, probably happen on day one.” Well, that’s reassuring.

On MSNBC's Sunday afternoon programming hosted by network anchor Alex Witt, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said "death to America" chants in Iran could be read "in a couple of ways," not necessarily in the literal sense. Schiff argued Ayatollah Khamenei's chants "really plays to the conservative crowd" in Iran. "Or, it could be of course that he really means it," Schiff also argued.

U.S. military officials are concerned that Iran's support for Houthi rebels in Yemen could spark a confrontation with Saudi Arabia and plunge the region into sectarian war. Iran is sending an armada of seven to nine ships — some with weapons — toward Yemen in a potential attempt to resupply the Shia Houthi rebels, according to two U.S. defense officials. Officials fear the move could lead to a showdown with the U.S. or other members of a Saudi-led coalition, which is enforcing a naval blockade of Yemen and is conducting its fourth week of airstrikes against the Houthis. Iran sent...

Israel says Russia’s decision to sell advanced anti-aircraft missiles to Iran is the “direct result” of the international community’s framework nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic. […] Cabinet minister Yuval Steinitz said the framework agreement helped legitimize Iran and cleared the way for Monday’s announcement by Russia. …

Former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, a potential challenger to Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential primaries, had a word or two to say to those criticizing President Barack Obama over the framework of a nuclear deal with Iran, announced last week. “When you hate the President of the United States more than you distrust the Ayatollah then you probably shouldn’t be in the United States Senate,” O’Malley said during an interview with the Iowa Press on Saturday. He referred to the Cotton letter signed by 47 Republican Senators that was sent to Iranian leaders last month. O’Malley, who is still...

Why the Left Wants Iran to Get the BombPosted By Daniel Greenfield On April 10, 2015 @ 12:55 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | No Comments Before Global Warming posters hung on the dingy walls of American classrooms, the atomic bomb was the original Great Bogeyman of the left. Nothing quite so demonstrated the madness of our war machine as our willingness to deploy weapons of mass destruction to stop Communism in its tracks.The self-righteous antics over nuclear weapons in literature, art, film, at protests and in papers are far too numerous to document. But you can still spot the occasional...