Who wants to scuttle the Nuclear agreement between Iran and European powers plus the US? Apparently it’s Israelwith its Washington Lobby, Saudi Arabia, Neocons in and out of Congress – and President Trump. Who’s for it? Most nuclear weapons experts, virtually the entire international community (maybe even most of Trump’s Cabinet), nearly all Democrats and decisive majorities of the American people. . . Last week, a buoyant rightwing Israeli commenterwrote: “on the matter of Iran's nuclear program… I sometimes got the impression that Trump was speaking Hebrew.”
IRAN DOESN’T HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM
Why Do Media Keep Saying It Does?
When it comes to Iran, do basic facts matter? Evidently not, since dozens and dozens of journalists keep casually reporting that Iran has a “nuclear weapons program” when it does not… Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program. It has a civilian nuclear energy program, but not one designed to build weapons. Over 30 countries have civilian nuclear programs; only a handful—including, of course, the US and Israel—have nuclear weapons programs. One is used to power cities, one is used to level them… The “Iran Deal,” formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), is built on curbing Iran’s civilian nuclear program, out of fear—fair or not—that it could one day morph into a nuclear weapons program. But at present, there is no evidence, much less a consensus, that Iran has an active nuclear weapons program. More
‘De-certifying’ the Iran Deal May Be Trump’s Most Reckless Decision Yet
Despite heavy competition, Trump’s latest Iran move ranks near the top of the list of the most reckless actions of this ever-so-reckless presidency. The president announced recently that he was refusing to certify Iran’s compliance with the landmark nuclear agreement it reached with the U.S. and several other world powers during the Obama administration. This dangerous move won’t scuttle the deal entirely — at least not yet — but it undermines the strength of the international agreement and ultimately increases the threat of war. While Trump has said he’s not pulling out of the deal just now, he’s threatening to do so if Congress doesn’t pass new sanctions . With virtually every Iran expert on the planet in agreement that Tehran is keeping its end of the nuclear deal, it’s clear that Trump’s motives are purely political. But if anything that makes his decision only more dangerous. More
The Real Destabilizer in the Middle East in Not Iran But Trump
The instant that Trump decertifies the deal struck by President Obama in 2015, the US becomes a lesser power and Iran a greater one, because he will confirm the belief that America is led by an egoist motivated by ignorant prejudice. Accusations of mental derangement have always been part of common currency of political abuse, but there is a growing belief among international leaders that in Trump’s case there might be something to it… Suggestions in western capitals that they might paper over the breach with America by disagreeing with Washington over the nuclear deal but supporting US allegations that Iran is trying to destabilise the Middle East do not really work. This demonisation of Iran as the sinister hidden hand in the Middle East is just as misleading and simple-minded as Trump’s views on the nuclear weapons deal. Much of what he and his administration says is regurgitation of Saudi and Israeli propaganda which may not even be believed in Riyadh and Tel Aviv. More
TRUMP IGNORES ADVISERS ON IRAN DEAL
Although much of the Washington commentariat has depicted Trump’s extraordinarily bellicose speech Friday against Iran and the nuclear deal as the latest example of his determination to undo the legacy of his predecessor, meeting the demands of his most important campaign donors may well have served as a major motivation as well. Indeed, his biggest campaign donor, casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson, may have influenced the specific language Trump used in his remarks. Trump rejected the reported views of his own national security adviser and secretaries of defense and state by refusing to certify Iran’s compliance with the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). But he also echoed talking points developed by organizations, notably the neoconservative Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), that are generously supported by a number of those same donors More.
Poll: Two thirds of Americans favor keeping Iran nuke deal
A large majority of Americans do not believe the United States should pull out of the 2015 nuclear deal meant to limit Iran’s nuclear program, according to a CNN poll published Friday. The survey — whose publication comes after US President Donald Trump announced earlier this month he would not recertify the nuclear accord and would be open to scrapping it if Congress does not sufficiently address the Islamic Republic’s ballistic missile activity and support for subversive actors in the region — revealed major partisan disagreement on whether the US should remain committed to the agreement. While 67 percent of Americans overall said the US should not withdraw from the nuclear deal, with 27% in favor of leaving the accord, 80% percent of Democrats said the US should remain in the agreement, with only 13% supporting abandoning the deal. Among Republicans, meanwhile, opinion was evenly split on whether the US should stay in the nuclear pact, with 48% of Republicans saying the US should remain in the agreement and 47% saying the US should leave. More
Three Quarters of Americans Support the Iran Deal
If Donald Trump succeeds in pulling the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA), he won’t just face opposition from Tehran or from America’s European allies: he’ll have to deal with opposition from the American people. That’s one takeaway from a new poll, “American Attitudes on Middle East Policies,” released by the Middle East Institute this week. The survey, conducted in June by the polling firm Ipsos, found that 30 percent of Americans strongly support and 45 percent somewhat support “the deal with Iran to limit their development of nuclear weapons.” That level of support was relatively consistent across gender, age ranges, geography, and income and education levels. More
The US and Israel kick up a fake storm over UNESCO
At first glance, the decision last week by the Trump administration, followed immediately by Israel, to quit the United Nation’s cultural agency seems strange. Why penalise a body that promotes clean water, literacy, heritage preservation and women’s rights? Washington’s claim that the UN’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) is biased against Israel obscures the real crimes the agency has committed in US eyes. The first is that in 2011 Unesco became the first UN agency to 
accept Palestine as a member. That set the Palestinians on the path to upgrading their status at the General Assembly a year later… The agency’s second crime relates to its role selecting world heritage sites. That power has proved more than an irritant to Israel and the US… Mr Trump’s decision to quit Unesco is far from his alone. His predecessors have been scuffling with the agency since the 1970s, often over its refusal to cave in to Israeli pressure. Now, Washington has a pressing additional reason to punish Unesco for allowing Palestine to become a member. It needs to make an example of the cultural body to dissuade other agencies from following suit. More
108 MASSACHUSETTS FAITH LEADERS SPEAK OUT AGAINST ANTI-BOYCOTT BILL
As faith leaders in Massachusetts, we are committed to justice and the free exercise of conscience. This is a bedrock right. It animates our religious life as well as our understanding of American citizenship. It is our duty and our privilege, as Americans and as leaders in our faith communities, to protest S.1689/H.1685. Under the guise of fighting discrimination, these bills aim to penalize those who support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement as a way to bring about change in Palestine/Israel, thus suppressing free speech. The proposed bills are unnecessary, unconstitutional and burdensome. More
Support Boycotting Israel in Texas? No Hurricane Rebuilding Money for you!
If you’re a Texan looking to rebuild in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, you’d better not boycott Israel. That’s the message being sent by the state, which has banned any contractor who supports the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions, or BDS, campaign from receiving state funds. If you’re confused why the two things are related, look to a bill that Texas’s Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law in July. House Bill 89 prohibits the state from entering into contract with a business unless it “does not boycott Israel; and will not boycott Israel during the term of the contract.” The law applies even to businesses that would refuse to buy products made in illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land — as it defines Israel as both Israel proper and “Israeli-controlled territory.” … Texas’s law is similar to the Kansas law that went into force this past summer. More
IT’S NOT OVER. . . ACT NOW!
IN MASSACHUSETTS and IN WASHINGTON,
Defend the Right to Boycott for Justice in Israel-Palestine!
The Right to Boycott for Justice in Israel-Palestine is under attack in Massachusetts and in the US Congress. We have to redouble our efforts! You can use this link to email the members of the Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight which has to act on the anti-boycott bill for it to advance. Meanwhile, in Washington, a series of bills are also targeting the right to boycott. The latest is the “Anti-Israel Boycott Act” introduced last Spring. The House version (H.R.1697) has 249 co-sponsors (185 Republicans and 64 Democrats – including Massachusetts Reps. Kennedy and Neal) while the Senate version (S.720) has 46 co-sponsors (32 Republicans and 14 Democrats). Read the ACLU response to these attacks on free speech here Please contact your member of Congress – and especially co-sponsors Kennedy (202-225-5931) and Neal (202-225-5601) – to tell them that Boycott is protected free speech and a tool for peaceful protest!
White Nationalist Richard Spencer says he turns to Israel “for guidance”
American neo-Nazi demagogue Richard Spencer has again praised Israel as a model for the Aryan homeland he wants to create in the United States. “The most important and perhaps most revolutionary ethno-state, and it’s one that I turn to for guidance, even though I might not always agree with its foreign policy decisions … is the Jewish state of Israel,” Spencer told an audience at the University of Florida in Gainesville on Thursday. “The Jewish state of Israel is not just another country in the Middle East,” Spencer added. “It is a country for Jews and for Jews around the world.” Spencer said he acknowledged the “moral legitimacy” of other “ethno-states,” naming Russia, Poland and Hungary as supposed examples. More
The European Far Right using Israel and Jews to battle Muslims
But whether it’s in Austria, Germany, France or even Bulgaria – where an openly far-right party has been part of the government since May – far-right leaders are using Jewish communities, whether real or imagined, as tools to demonize Muslims and other minorities. Still, the move by far-rightists toward philosemitism is largely a new one, especially given that many of their parties still harbor anti-Semitic elements that keep cropping up… As a result the “philosemitic turn” of many far-right parties, in the words of sociologist Rogers Brubaker, comes directly from these parties’ preoccupations with Islam. Writing earlier this year, Brubaker argues that the far right has come to redefine Jews as “fellow Europeans” and “exemplary victims of the threat from Islam.” More
