Republican senators warn Iran that nuclear deal with Obama can be revoked
(JNS.org) A group of 47 Republican U.S. senators wrote an open letter to Iran explaining that any deal signed by President Barack Obama is merely an executive agreement if it does not include Senate approval, and that such a deal can be revoked by a future president.
“It has come to our attention while observing your nuclear negotiations with our government that you may not fully understand our constitutional system,” the senators wrote. “Thus, we are writing to bring to your attention two features of our Constitution—the power to make binding international agreements and the different character of federal offices—which you should seriously consider as negotiations progress. Anything not approved by Congress is a mere executive agreement.”
While the letter, which was first reported by Bloomberg News, was addressed to Iran, it is more likely directed at Obama in order to persuade the president to give Congress oversight of a nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic.
*
Israeli jumper wins bronze medal at European Indoor Championships
(JNS.org) Israel’s Hanna Knyazyeva-Minenko on Sunday became an Olympic contender after capturing the bronze medal in the triple jump at the European Indoor Championships in Prague.
In her first attempt in the Prague arena, Knyazyeva-Minenko jumped a distance of 14.49 meters (47.5 feet), setting a new Israeli indoor record. Her medal is the first for Israel at the European Indoor Championships since 2000.
Knyazyeva-Minenko noted the symbolism of her medal coming on International Women’s Day.
“We have amazing female athletes in Israel who will go on to reach places on the podium,” she said.
“As far as [my coach Alex Merman and I are] concerned, we look at every single jump in every single competition,” added Knyazyeva-Minenko. “Hard work will eventually lead to the results we want.”
A native of Ukraine, Knyazyeva-Minenko followed her partner, decathlete Anatoly Minenko, to Israel. At the 2012 London Olympics, competing for Ukraine, she placed fourth in the triple jump. She will be 26 years old when the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics arrive.
*
Robert Malley, diplomat who met with Hamas, named White House’s Mideast coordinator
(JNS.org) Senior director at the National Security Council (NSC) Robert Malley, who was dismissed from President Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign team when it was revealed that he met with the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, has been named Special Assistant to the President and White House Coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa and the Gulf Region.
A former Middle East advisor for President Bill Clinton, Malley has a history of controversial statements that have criticized Israel. In a 2001 article for The New York Review of Books, he took aim at those who blame only Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for the failure of the prior year’s U.S.-brokered peace talks at Camp David.
“For a process of such complexity, the diagnosis is remarkably shallow,” Malley wrote. “It ignores history, the dynamics of the negotiations, and the relationships among the three parties. In so doing, it fails to capture why what so many viewed as a generous Israeli offer, the Palestinians viewed as neither generous, nor Israeli, nor, indeed, as an offer. Worse, it acts as a harmful constraint on American policy by offering up a single, convenient culprit—Arafat—rather than a more nuanced and realistic analysis.”
Also in The New York Review of Books, Malley wrote regarding Israel’s 2006 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, “A war Israel fought without a clearly defined purpose has left the country without any tangible achievement.”
*
Iran’s Khamenei makes public appearance amid rumors of failing health
(JNS.org) Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made a public appearance on Sunday amid rumors of his failing health.
State-sponsored television broadcasted images of Khamenei meeting with environmental officials and activists at his residence in central Tehran, Reuters reported. The images showed Khamenei appearing comfortable and healthy.
Over the last few days, several foreign media outlets reported that Khamenei, 75, had died. Other reports suggested that Khamenei has become extremely ill following a diagnosis of stage four prostate cancer that was discovered during surgery in September 2014.
Khamenei has been Iran’s supreme leader since 1989, when he took over for Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the country’s 1979 Islamic revolution. It is unclear who would succeed Khamenei. According to the Iranian Constitution, the Assembly of Experts, comprised of around 86 Islamic theologians who serve eight-year terms, is in charge of electing the supreme leader.
*
Boko Haram terror group pledges allegiance to Islamic State
(JNS.org) The Nigerian terrorist organization Boko Haram has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State terror group.
“We announce our allegiance to the Caliph of the Muslims… and will hear and obey in times of difficulty and prosperity, in hardship and ease, and to endure being discriminated against, and not to dispute about rule with those in power, except in case of evident infidelity regarding that which there is a proof from Allah,” a man claiming to be Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said on Twitter, the Associated Press reported.
While the level of cooperation between the two terrorist groups is unclear, the move by Boko Haram makes it the largest terror group to pledge allegiance to Islamic State. According to the New York Times, Boko Haram is estimated to have up to 6,000 fighters and controls an area of about 8,000 square miles in northeastern Nigeria.
*
Saudi media supports Netanyahu’s Congress speech on Iran
(JNS.org) Media outlets in Saudi Arabia, a Sunni Muslim rival nation of the Shi’a Muslim country of Iran, are expressing support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s March 3 speech to Congress, which criticized the deal emerging in the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 nations.
“Who could believe that Netanyahu today has taken a better stand than [U.S. President Barack] Obama with regard to the Iranian nuclear file?” columnist Ahmed al-Faraj wrote in the Al-Jazirah newspaper.
In a column published in Asharq Al-Awsat, a newspaper owned by the Saudi royal family, Abdulrahman al-Rashed wrote, “Iran’s fingerprints are everywhere. … Iran is currently in an offensive state, the likes of which we have not seen in modern history.”
Additionally, an editorial by Faisal Abbas, the editor-in-chief of the Saudi-owned Dubai-based news outlet Al-Arabiya, stated that Netanyahu’s Congress speech “hit the nail right on the head” in his assessment of the Iranian threats in the Middle East. Abbas wrote that Netanyahu “managed to accurately summarize a clear and present danger, not just to Israel (which obviously is his concern), but to other U.S. allies in the region.”
*
Netanyahu: speech ‘well worth the cost of confrontation’ with Obama
(JNS.org) After speaking to Congress on March 3 over the objections of the Obama administration, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview with Israel Hayom published Friday that “a prime minister in Israel must be able to stand up even to our closest ally and tell the truth.”
Netanyahu said his speech about the Iranian nuclear threat was “well worth the cost of confrontation” with President Barack Obama.
“What are we expected to do with such a fateful issue? Put our heads down? Go back 80 years to a time when Jews were forced to cower before the nobility? Ignore a threat of annihilation? Not demand action? Stop interrupting? I refuse to accept that,” said Netanyahu.
The prime minister said he believes his remarks “were very well received by the American public as well as the members of Congress, both Republican and Democrat.”
Palestinian driver rams into Israeli crowd, injures 7
(JNS.org) Six Israeli policewomen and a female cyclist were moderately wounded Friday when a Palestinian terrorist driver ran them over near a light rail station in northern Jerusalem. The station, located on Shimon Hatzadik Street, is adjacent to a Border Police facility.
The vehicular attack took place at around 10:20 a.m. According to eyewitnesses, the terrorist, driving through the street, sped up as he was approaching the station and hit the policewomen and a cyclist. He then stopped the car, got out wielding a large cleaver, and attempted to attack pedestrians in the area. He was shot by a policeman before he was able to harm anyone else.
The terrorist was later identified as Uday Salaymeh, a resident of the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Ras al-Amud. Magen David Adom paramedics treated the wounded on site before evacuating them to local hospitals for further treatment.
*
Articles from JNS.org appear on San Diego Jewish World through the generosity of Dr. Bob and Mao Shillman