Sen. Schumer defies Obama and backs Iran nuclear review bill
(JNS.org) Senator Chuck Schumer (D-New York) has broken with President Barack Obama and says he will back a bill that will allow Congress to review the Iran nuclear framework deal announced last week.
“This is a very serious issue that deserves careful consideration, and I expect to have a classified briefing in the near future. I strongly believe Congress should have the right to disapprove any agreement and I support the Corker bill which would allow that to occur,” Schumer told Politico.
The Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015 was introduced by Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tennessee). The bill requires President Obama to submit the Iran final agreement to Congress for review while prohibiting the president from easing sanctions for 60 days.
The White House has said that it would likely veto the bill. However, efforts are under way to achieve a two-thirds majority in the senate to override a presidential veto.
According to Politico, at least a dozen Democratic senators have either co-sponsored the bill or indicated they could support it, putting the bill one vote shy of a veto-proof majority.
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Hezbollah chief expects war is near with Israel
(JNS.org) Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah predicts a war is nearing between his terror organization and Israel.
“The nations in the region must prepare to make sacrifices in any future conflict with Israel,” Nasrallah said in an interview with the Syrian television station al-Ikhbariya on Monday.
In a report late last month, Israel’s Home Front Command estimated that Hezbollah could fire up to 1,500 rockets per day at Israel.
Nasrallah also praised the nuclear framework deal between the world powers and Iran, saying that the agreement will lead to a “stronger and wealthier Iran in the coming phase (that) will be able to stand by its allies [Hezbollah], and especially the Palestinian resistance [Hamas], more than at any other time in history.”
It was reported on Sunday that Iran has transferred tens of millions of dollars to Hamas to help rebuild its network of tunnels destroyed by Israel during last summer’s Gaza war as well as help to replenish its stockpiles of missiles, the Sunday Telegraph reported.
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Senate Foreign Relations Committee to vote on Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act
(JNS.org) On April 14, the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee is expected to vote on the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015, which would require the Obama administration to submit the final nuclear deal with Iran to Congress for review and approval.
“We cannot forget that Iran is pursuing a full-spectrum campaign to expand its sphere of influence in the greater Middle East,” said Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell in a statement on Monday.
“The administration needs to explain to the Congress and the American people why an interim agreement should result in reduced pressure on the world’s leading state sponsor of terror,” he said.
The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tennessee) also said on Fox News Sunday that “it’s very important that Congress is in the middle of this, understanding, teasing out, asking those important questions.”
If approved by the Foreign Relations Committee, sixty-seven senators will need to vote for the bill to prevent a veto by the president. Corker has indicated he is confident that the bill would receive support from as many as 65 senators, which would place the final outcome in the hands of only a few senators.
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Police detain Jews seeking entrance to Temple Mount on Passover
(JNS.org) Hundreds of Jews who attempted to visit the Temple Mount on Sunday and Monday were rushed by authorities, forced to wait for hours, and denied entry, a student activist group said.
A larger influx of Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount is common during Passover, as well as the High Holidays, which often results in increased Arab violence and harassment. According to a spokesperson for the Hebrew University-based Students for the Temple Mount, a group that advocates for greater access to Jewish prayer at the site, police were not equipped enough to protect Jewish visitors.
“We expected the police to do their job and let groups of Jews in on Sunday and Monday, but basically all the Jews with a kippa or tzit tzit were put aside at the bottom of the bridge and told to wait while Christians and other visitors were allowed directly in,” said Tom Nisani, the Jerusalem Post reported.
“Jews waited up to two hours in the sun and the police would not allow more than one small group up there at a time because they claimed they could not protect us on the Temple Mount because of Arab violence,” he said.
Although Israel gained eastern Jerusalem and its holy sites from Jordan during the 1967 Six Day War, the Temple Mount is being administered by the Islamic Waqf, a Muslim trust overseen by Jordan that limits non-Muslim visitation and bans Jewish prayer. Israel, however, provides security at the site. In recent months, an increase in Jewish visitation has been led by activist groups calling for greater Jewish access to the Temple Mount.
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Holocaust journal and improvised Haggadah spurs Yad Vashem search
(JNS.org) The research team of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem is searching for information about the women named in a diary and Haggada that was written during the Holocaust.
Regina Honigman, who was imprisoned and forced to work at the Gabersdorf Camp in Czechoslovakia, was the author of the diary, in which she recorded her daily life and listed the names of other female prisoners. The diary also includes some poems, autographs, and an improvised Haggadah.
Honigman survived the war with her brother, while her parents and sisters died at Auschwitz. She died in 1992 in Australia, and her family donated the diary to Yad Vashem in 2005.
Yad Vashem has listed the names of the women mentioned in the journal, and asks that anyone with information contact Yad Vashem’s artifact collection by phone at 972-2-644-3598 or by email at museum.artifacts@yadvashem.org.il.
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Israeli high school students in finals of international robotics competition
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Team 1690 Orbit, the robotics team from the ORT Binyamina High School in northern Israel, has made it to the finals of the 2015 FIRST international robotics competition for high school students.
In a preliminary round held in Maryland, the ORT students’ robot, Rafiki, beat creations by 58 other teams from all over the world. Team 1690 Orbit was also awarded the Delphi Excellence in Engineering Award, which “celebrates an elegant and advantageous machine feature,” for the planning of the robot’s mechanical systems and for Rafiki’s excellent performance in the competition.
The championship round is scheduled to take place April 22-25 in St. Louis, Mo. The city of Binyamina plans to celebrate the young engineers’ achievement during this week’s Passover festivities.
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