Free Republic

Zbigniew Brzezinki is the man who infamously recommended shooting down Israeli warplanes should they attempt to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities. So when David Ignatius asked him today what he thought of Bibi Netanyahu's condemnation of the Iran deal, Zbigniew knew he was being teed up to unload on the Israeli PM. By Zbig's vituperative standards, his response was in fact relatively measured. Still, the utter disdain with which he regards Netanyahu was evident, calling him "not a very serious person" who can entertain Congress but is not good for Israel. View the video here.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Tuesday criticized Israel’s opposition to the nuclear deal agreed upon by six world powers and Iran, Reuters reported. According to the report, Steinmeier said the agreement would help contribute to security in the Middle East. “This is a responsible deal and Israel should also take a closer look at it and not criticize the agreement in a very coarse way,” he was quoted as having told German broadcaster ARD. …

Current state of play Yes or leaning yes (34 needed to uphold veto, keep the deal): 24 No or leaning no (67 needed to override veto, kill the deal): 48 Unknown/unclear: 28 And now, the 100 senators ... Yes (1) Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) Clearly leaning yes, reserving final judgment (12) Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) Leaning...

We have met the enemy and he is in the White House. The last time a feeble leader of a fading nation came bearing “Peace in our time,” a pugnacious controversial right-winger retorted, “You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor, and you will have war.” That right-winger went on to lead the United Kingdom against Hitler. The latest worthless agreement with a murderous dictatorship is being brandished by John Kerry, a man who instinctively seeks out dishonor the way a pig roots for truffles. John Kerry betrayed his uniform and his nation so many times...

The president added: “And what I’ve also tried to explain to people, including Prime Minister Netenyahu, is that in the absence of a deal, our ability to sustain these sanctions was not in the cards. Keep in mind it’s not just Iran that paid a price for sanctions. China. Japan. South Korea. India — pretty much any oil importer around the world that had previously import arrangements from Iran — found themselves in a situation where this was costing them billions of dollars to sustain these sanctions.

GWEN IFILL: We return to the news that dominated today, the nuclear deal with Iran. A short while ago, I spoke with Susan Rice, the president’s national security adviser. Ambassador Rice, thank you for joining us. One of our leading allies, Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel, today called this deal an historic mistake. Why is he wrong? SUSAN RICE, National Security Advisor: Well, he’s wrong, Gwen, because this is actually a very strong deal that, when implemented, will cut off all of Iran’s potential pathways to a nuclear weapon in a fully verifiable fashion. We will have very intrusive...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday evening said it was “absurd” to suggest that his relationship with US President Barack Obama had any bearing on the nuclear deal. In his third statement to the press in a single day, the prime minister said that without Israel’s efforts to thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Tehran would have already broken out to the bomb. Israel will continue to work to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, he vowed. Netanyahu made a brief statement after exiting a security cabinet meeting, during which the ministers voted unanimously to reject the Iran deal “and determined that...

A senior U.S. official dismissed Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s concerns over the Iran deal on Tuesday, saying nobody pays attention to the Prime Minister anyway, Israeli Channel 2 news reported. “Nobody takes any of Netanyahu’s proclamations seriously,” the official said, “nobody listens to him.” During an interview with MSNBC, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry also responded to Netanyahu’s criticism of the nuclear deal. Asked in the interview what he thought about about Prime Minister Netanyahu calling the deal a “historic mistake,” Kerry responded, “Well, he said the same thing about the interim agreement, and he was wrong.” Kerry called...

BERLIN - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier criticized Israel's opposition to a nuclear deal agreed by six world powers and Iran, saying the agreement will help contribute to security in the Middle East. "This is a responsible deal and Israel should also take a closer look at it and not criticize the agreement in a very coarse way," Steinmeier told German broadcaster ARD in an interview on Wednesday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the deal as a "stunning, historic mistake" and said it would enable Iran to pursue a path to nuclear weapons. But Steinmeier said the basis for the...

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that he hopes the US’ behavior in the implementation of the Iran deal will “remove some of the compounded mistrust” and accused Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu of either needing tension, needing conflict, or seeing “peace as an existential threat” in an interview with NBC’s Andrea Mitchell broadcast on Tuesday’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” on MSNBC.

US Secretary of State John Kerry dismissed Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's criticism of the nuclear deal reached with Iran as “comments that are way over the top" Tuesday. "What the critics of this plan never offer... is a realistic alternative," Kerry told MSNBC. "It's wrong for people to think this doesn't have long-term accountability." "Israel is safer" as a result of Tuesday's accord, Kerry insisted. "This is under attack by people who really don't know the terms of the agreement." Kerry said that if Iran fails to meet the requirements of the deal, all options remain on the table....

RUSH: All right. I know, folks, there are a lot of people troubled and trying to deny the obvious for a host of understandable reasons. But the old saying, I guess, the old phrase is, "It is what it is." Iran nuclear deal. It is horrible. It is unmistakably, inescapably disastrous for the United States. There is no other way to sugarcoat it. Now, I know a lot of you are hoping against hope that the things you've heard about this that are bad for America are not true. I know you're hoping that some of the analysis of the...

The members of the Security Cabinet unanimously rejected on Tuesday evening the deal struck between world powers and Iran aimed at rolling back Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. The forum agreed that Israel is not obligated by the terms of the deal.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama hold a phone call concerning the signing of today’s nuclear accord between Iran and the world powers. During the call, Netanyahu expresses Israel’s deep worries relating to the deal, and two concerns in particular: that the deal enables Iran to produce a nuclear weapon after 10-15 years just by sticking to the terms of the deal, and that Iran can easily acquire atomic weapons by simply breaking the deal. Netanyahu also says he is concerned that Tehran will now have the ability to pump billions of dollars into its terror machine, which...

The nuclear proliferation agreement struck between Iran and Western powers “is a deal that is going to make Neville Chamberlain’s Munich Pact with Hitler seem trivial by comparison,” actor, author and former White House speechwriter Ben Stein said Monday on Newsmax TV’s “The Steve Malzberg Show.” Chamberlain was the British prime minister who in 1938 made a deal conceding portions of Czechoslovakia to Adolf Hitler's Germany. Hitler claimed the region and went on to invade Poland. World War II broke out within a year. “This is a deal which basically paves the way for Iran to become a nuclear power...

WASHINGTON – Criticism of President Obama’s nuclear agreement with Iran has been fast and furious. “I don’t trust Obama on this anymore than I trusted him on ‘if you like your plan, you can keep your plan,’” talk-show host Laura Ingraham told WND. She added, “Elections have consequences—from our health-care system, to the definition of ‘marriage,’ to our military strength, to now our national security, Barack Obama has, indeed, ‘fundamentally transformed’ America.” “This is sheer insanity,” Iran expert Clare Lopez told WND. “This agreement legitimizes Iran’s overt nuclear weapons program and provides both cover and funding for its clandestine nuclear...

With endorsements like these, how could Congress say no to President Obama’s Iran deal? Russian President Vladimir Putin, who can’t wait to heap more arms sales on the Islamic Republic: “We are certain that the world heaved a sigh of relief today,” Putin said in a lengthy statement praising the deal. “The negotiations supported by the UN Security Council and involving Russia, China, the USA, France, Germany, Great Britain, Iran and the European Union went on for many years. We are satisfied that the solution found is based on the principle of phasing and mutuality which our country has been...

Iran and six world powers, led by the United States, reached a formal agreement early Tuesday aimed at curbing Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for billions of dollars in international sanctions relief. Speaking at the White House, President Obama claimed the deal meets "every single one of the bottom lines" from a tentative agreement struck earlier this year. "Every pathway to a nuclear weapon is cut off," Obama said Tuesday, saying it provides for extensive inspections. "This deal is not built on trust. It is built on verification."

The nuclear accord agreed upon in Vienna is a “historical capitulation of the West to the axis of evil led by Iran,” Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely said Tuesday morning. Hotovely issued her statement on the accord before it was formally announced. The short term ramifications of the accord are “very grave,” she said, adding that Iran will continue to spread terror around the globe, continue to destabilize the region, and take a giant step toward becoming a threshold nuclear state. “Israel will use all its diplomatic means to try and prevent the confirmation of the agreement,” she said, in...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the agreement reached on Tuesday by Iran and major world powers on Tehran's nuclear program as a historic mistake and said he would do what he could to block Iran's nuclear ambitions. "Iran is going to receive a sure path to nuclear weapons. Many of the restrictions that were supposed to prevent it from getting there will be lifted," Netanyahu said at the start of a meeting with Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders in Jerusalem. "Iran will get a jackpot, a cash bonanza of hundreds of billions of dollars, which will enable it to continue...