Leading Jewish Democrats Schumer, Engel to vote against Iran deal
(JNS.org) U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer and U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel, two leading Jewish Democrats in Congress from the state of New York, will vote against the Iran nuclear deal.
In particular, Schumer’s impending decision on the deal had been the source of intense public lobbying efforts, with Politico reporting that his office received more than 10,000 phone calls from opponents of the deal.
“Advocates on both sides have strong cases for their point of view that cannot simply be dismissed. This has made evaluating the agreement a difficult and deliberate endeavor, and after deep study, careful thought and considerable soul-searching, I have decided I must oppose the agreement and will vote yes on a motion of disapproval,” Schumer said in a statement released Thursday.
While noting that “all fair-minded Americans should acknowledge the president’s strong achievements in combating and containing Iran,” Schumer said that “no one can tell with certainty which way Iran will go.”
“It is true that Iran has a large number of people who want their government to decrease its isolation from the world and focus on economic advancement at home. But it is also true that this desire has been evident in Iran for 35 years, yet the Iranian leaders have held a tight and undiminished grip on Iran, successfully maintaining their brutal, theocratic dictatorship with little threat. Who’s to say this dictatorship will not prevail for another 10, 20, or 30 years?” he said.
Schumer added, “Therefore, I will vote to disapprove the agreement, not because I believe war is a viable or desirable option, nor to challenge the path of diplomacy. It is because I believe Iran will not change, and under this agreement it will be able to achieve its dual goals of eliminating sanctions while ultimately retaining its nuclear and non-nuclear power. Better to keep U.S. sanctions in place, strengthen them, enforce secondary sanctions on other nations, and pursue the hard-trodden path of diplomacy once more, difficult as it may be.”
In a statement obtained by Reuters, Engel said, “The answers I’ve received simply don’t convince me that this deal will keep a nuclear weapon out of Iran’s hands, and may in fact strengthen Iran’s position as a destabilizing and destructive influence across the Middle East.”
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Hillel CEO to address J Street campus arm’s summer conference
(JNS.org) Hillel International CEO Eric Fingerhut will address the Summer Leadership Institute of J Street U, the campus arm of the left-wing Jewish lobby group, on Aug. 17 in Washington, DC.
Fingerhut “will speak to 120 national J Street U student leaders in attendance and discuss issues of mutual concern and importance to both organizations and the pro-Israel community on campus,” J Street U announced Thursday.
While J Street and its campus branch publicly state their opposition to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, they have come under fire for co-sponsoring campus events with pro-BDS groups.
Hillel International spokesman Matthew Berger said in a statement, “All Hillel professionals value opportunities to speak to as many Jewish students as possible. Eric appreciates the invitation from J Street U and looks forward to meeting the students and engaging with them.”
J Street’s inclusion within Hillel’s umbrella has been the subject of much debate, both before and after Fingerhut’s hiring as CEO. Last March, Fingerhut dropped out of J Street’s national conference, prompting 500 students attending the conference to protest outside Hillel’s office.
“My desire to attend the conference was based on my wish to speak at a student-only session directly with the students who will be in attendance, to thank those who have joined in the fight against BDS and anti-Semitism on college campuses, and to urge everyone to take up this crucial cause,” Fingerhut had said at the time. “However, after reviewing the full list of speakers, I now realize that any benefit that might come from this opportunity would be overshadowed by concerns regarding my participation amongst other speakers who have made highly inflammatory statements against the Jewish state.”
In a recent op-ed for JNS.org, Charles Jacobs and Elliot Hamilton of Americans for Peace and Tolerance argued that J Street’s multi-million dollar campaign in support of the Iran nuclear deal, an agreement that is widely opposed in the rest of the American Jewish community, means that it is time to “evict” J Street from the Jewish communal tent.
“Pro-Iran J Street—which is spending millions of dollars to promote a deal that threatens Jewish life, receiving significant sums of cash from anti-Israel and anti-Semitic sources to promote pro-Iran causes, and dangerously undermining the collective Jewish unity needed to block the deadly Iranian threat—should be drummed out of organized Jewish life,” they wrote.
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Christian enlistment in IDF expected to break record next year
(JNS.org) Israeli Christian enlistment in the Israel Defense Forces is expected to set a new record next year as many Christian youths seek greater integration into Israeli society.
Last year, Christian enlistment in the IDF rose to more than 100 soldiers as part of a recruitment effort by Christian leaders such as Greek Orthodox priest Father Gabriel Naddaf as well as the Israeli military itself. Next year, that number is predicted to rise to 200, Israel National News reported.
IDF Col. (res.) Pini Gonen, who runs the Gadna youth battalion project for Christian youths for the Israeli Defense Ministry, told the Walla news website that on Tuesday, a seminar was opened for 48 Christian youths, including two women, in which he saw increased motivation among Christians to serve in the military.
According to Gonen, the four-week seminar includes military preparation and a leadership course, as well as visits to Jerusalem, churches, Israel’s north, and more.
“They arrive with very high motivation for military service,” Gonen said. “Just last week Jennifer, an Arab Christian soldier, was selected for exceptional performance in a course operating [the] Iron Dome [missile defense system]. She also finished basic training with exceptional ratings.”
“I believe that the number of recruits will rise. Already today you can see [Christian] officers at the rank of major in the teleprocessing branch, [the] navy, and other units. Even more senior rankings are just a matter of time,” he added.
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Hamas, Islamic Jihad praise ‘heroic’ terror attack in Judea and Samaria
(JNS.org) The Palestinian terror groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad both praised Thursday’s vehicular terror attack in Judea and Samaria as a “heroic act,” while calling for more attacks on Israelis.
After a Palestinian terrorist struck three Israeli hitchhikers with his car near the village of Shiloh in Judea and Samaria, Hamas spokesman Abad Arahim Shadid said, “We praise this heroic terror attack made against the Zionist,” the Jerusalem Post reported.
Shadid added that he considered the attack “an appropriate response to the arrogance of the enemy and its crimes against prisoners, Al-Aqsa mosque, and babies,” referring to the recent firebombing attack by suspected Jewish extremists in the West Bank that resulted in the death of a Palestinian toddler.
Shadid added, “We call upon the members of our people in the West Bank to carry out more terror attacks so that the ‘occupiers’ will learn a lesson.”
Islamic Jihad echoed Hamas, calling Thursday’s car-ramming attack “heroic” and saying it “needs to teach the occupier the price of their terrorism and aggression against babies and against the Palestinian people and its holy places.”
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Jewish activist sues PA, Jordan over Temple Mount restrictions
(JNS.org) A Jewish activist has filed a NIS 1 billion ($262 million) lawsuit in Jerusalem Direct Court against the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Jordan that claims their restrictions against Jewish access on the Temple Mount violate Israeli anti-discrimination laws.
According to Baruch Ben Yosef, the PA and its president, Mahmoud Abbas, are responsible for “continuously inciting violence on the Temple Mount to eliminate or increase Jewish visitors to the mountain,” the Times of Israel reported.
The suit is based off of an Israeli law passed in 2000 that prohibits those who operate public spaces to limit entry based on race, religion, nationality, sex, or political affiliation.
Ben Yosef said the discrimination against Jews has “damaged the dignity and respect of the defendants during their visit to the Temple Mount.”
The suit also alleges that Jordan’s claims of sovereignty over the Temple Mount are invalid due to Israel’s victory in the 1967 Six-Day War.
Israel took control of the eastern half of Jerusalem, including the Old City of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, from Jordan during the Six-Day War. Since then, the Temple Mount has been administered by the Jordanian-run Islamic Waqf, with security provided by Israeli police. The Waqf limits Jewish access to the Temple Mount to certain days and times of the week and bans any Jewish prayer on the site.
Over the past year, tensions have grown over the Temple Mount, with many Jewish activists calling for changes to allow them greater access there. But Israel’s leadership has been resistant to changing the status quo out of fear that it could further destabilize the region, strain ties with allies, and possibly lead to another Palestinian intifada.
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Intelligence report: Iran may be sanitizing nuclear site before inspection
(JNS.org) Iran may be sanitizing the Parchin nuclear facility, which is purportedly used to enrich uranium for military purposes, in the wake of its nuclear deal with world powers.
“Satellite imagery picked up by U.S. government assets in mid- and late July showed that Iran had moved bulldozers and other heavy machinery to the Parchin site and that the U.S. intelligence community concluded with high confidence that the Iranian government was working to clean up the site ahead of planned inspections by the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency),”Bloomberg View reported Wednesday, citing U.S. intelligence community sources.
The president of the Institute for Science and International Security, David Albright, obtained and examined a commercially available satellite image of the Parchin site, reporting that hew saw two new large vehicles and ongoing alterations.
“You have to worry that this could be an attempt by Iran to defeat the sampling, that it’s Iran’s last-ditch effort to eradicate evidence there. The day is coming when they are going to have to let the IAEA into Parchin, so they may be desperate to finish sanitizing the site,” Albright said.
A senior intelligence official also said that the IAEA has been aware of “sanitization efforts” taking place in Iran since the deal was reached last month, but that the IAEA should still be able to detect past nuclear work using technical means during inspections.
U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) cast doubt on that belief earlier this week, stating that IAEA inspectors “are certainly not going to see the site that existed. Whether that’s a site that can be determined what it did, only the technical experts can do that. I think it’s a huge concern.”
“The intel briefing was troubling to me… some of the things that are happening, especially happening in such a blatant way. Iran is going to know that we know,” added Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.).
Concern over this issue is not limited to Republican lawmakers, who are overwhelmingly opposing the Iran nuclear deal. U.S. Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), also a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, expressed concern “about the vigorous efforts by Iran to sanitize Parchin.”
“I’ve gotten some reassurance about how difficult it is for them to effectively conceal what we know to have been their illicit nuclear weapons developments there,” he said.
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