Free Republic

The White House on Wednesday took a shot at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by using a cartoon bomb to defend its nuclear deal with Iran. The bomb diagram attached to a White House tweet looked a lot like a chart used by Netanyahu during a 2012 speech to the United Nations General Assembly urging the U.S. and other world powers to set an ultimatum to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Using a marker, Netanyahu drew a red line near the top of the bomb. “At this late hour there is only one way to peacefully prevent Iran...

Moshe Ya’alon is Israel’s defense minister. The framework concluded last week on Iran’s nuclear program was doomed to disagreement. Even the “fact sheets” issued by the United States, France and Iran — all parties to the talks — didn’t agree on the facts. Israel has made clear its grave concerns about the framework’s fundamental elements and omissions. The vast nuclear infrastructure to be left in Iran will give it an unacceptably short breakout time to building a bomb. Iran’s long-range ballistic missile program — a threat to Israel as well as the rest of the Middle East, Europe and the...

18:32 Watch PM reply to Obama comments in NPR interview Netanyahu’s Hebrew language response to Obama’s NPR interview from Tuesday. The transcript appears below the clip Israel shares the view that with the expiry of the nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers, Iran’s break-out time for acquiring nuclear bombs will be zero. This will be an inevitable result of the automatic removal of limitations on the nuclear program, which will enable Iran to reach industrial-grade capability in producing nuclear bombs. The alternative to this bad agreement is not a war, the alternative is a good agreement. This can be...

FARS agency quotes Zarif, Salehi telling MPs they’ll operate IR-8 centrifuges, a breach of US-published framework terms that would make a mockery of deal Iran will begin using its latest generation IR-8 centrifuges as soon as its nuclear deal with the world powers goes into effect, Iran’s foreign minister and nuclear chief told members of parliament on Tuesday, according to Iran’s semi-official FARS news agency. If accurate, the report makes a mockery of the world powers’ much-hailed framework agreement with Iran, since such a move clearly breaches the US-published terms of the deal, and would dramatically accelerate Iran’s potential progress...

Morning Joe host Mika Brzezinski, no fan of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the U.S. Congress last month, said Bibi’s trip to the Sunday shows yesterday would have been more powerful had he not already spent his political capital. “His criticism has lost credibility,” she said. “They were pounding this before they knew anything about [the proposed Iran nuclear deal].” Netanyahu appeared on three of the major political shows yesterday morning to argue against the deal, and faced questions over whether he was accusing President Barack Obama of negotiating in bad faith with respect to Israel’s security. “Does...

On CBS This Morning: Saturday, reporter Elizabeth Palmer did her best to channel the sentiments of Iran following the preliminary nuclear agreement between them and the United States. The CBS reporter proclaimed that “at Friday prayers there was the usual chant of death to America, but more habit than conviction. Palmer began her report by touting Iranian support for the nuclear deal as being “all about ending its isolation. After marathon negotiations, Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif arrived home a hero especially among the young who hope the new deal will bring their country in from the cold.” The CBS...

Following the media blitz Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began in the United States this week against the framework nuclear agreement between Iran and the world powers, the White House on Monday responded with a counter-campaign with messages aimed at calming the Israeli public. Ben Rhodes, the U.S. deputy national security adviser for strategic communication told all three Israeli television stations in interviews broadcast synchronously that if Iran were to breach the agreement, President Barack Obama would consider all of the options for response – including military action. "If Iran violates all options are on the table," Rhodes said. "The president,...

In a speech one month ago, the first black president of the United States challenged millions of white Americans to resist the convenient allure of overlooking the country’s blemished moral record. It was a dual challenge, actually—first to the classical understanding of American exceptionalism, but also to America’s persistent critics, who abjure the concept of exceptionalism altogether. “What greater expression of faith in the American experiment than this?” President Barack Obama said. “What greater form of patriotism is there than the belief that America is not yet finished, that we are strong enough to be self-critical, that each successive generation...

For nicotine enthusiasts, 2015 will be remembered as part of a golden era. Less than 10 years after they were introduced in the United States, e-cigarettes have gone relatively unregulated by health agencies, with companies and users making their own rules in a nicotine-laced Wild West. E-cigarette companies have been advertising their products to adults and children alike, claiming to help smokers quit while simultaneously promoting lollipop-flavored liquids. But now health organizations, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and even city-based public health departments are starting to fight back—not in the form of regulations, but with their own...

Arab intelligence agencies tell European countries that Irans military is ready to close Strait of Hormuz if nuclear talks fail. - Ch. 10

Speech by Bill Clinton on 21 October 1994 on how the world is a safer place based on the "good deal" with North Korea, preventing it from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Nuclear deal "leaves the pre-eminent terrorist state of our time with a vast nuclear infrastructure," PM tells NBC. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took his arguments against the Iran nuclear deal to the US public on Sunday, giving interviews on three Sunday morning news shows and saying he was not against any deal with Iran, just a “bad deal.” Netanyahu said on NBC's “Meet the Press,” that he was trying to “kill a bad deal.” He said to those calling it a “historic deal,” that it “could be a historically bad deal.” This, he added, is “because it leaves the preeminent...

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) told CNN’s State of the Union Sunday morning that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was doing more harm than good by his insistent efforts to turn the American public and lawmakers against President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, especially given his lack of alternative. “This can back backfire on him,” Feinstein said. “I wish that he would contain himself, because he has put out no real alternative. In his speech to the Congress — no real alternative. Since then — no real alternative.” Guest host Jim Acosta said Bibi’s alternative was tougher sanctions. “It depends...

A State Department official dismissed a plea Friday from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the Iran nuclear agreement include clear recognition of his nation's "right to exist," declaring negotiations are "only about the nuclear issue." State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf, in a terse response to a question about Netanyahu's concerns, told reporters, "This is an agreement that is only about the nuclear issue" -- a comment that indicates the Obama administration is not looking to enshrine Israel's security into a final agreement. Harf, for her part, suggested the talks are complicated enough already. "This is an agreement that doesn't...

"I just came from a meeting of the Israeli cabinet. We discussed the proposed framework for a deal with Iran. The cabinet is united in strongly opposing the proposed deal. This deal would pose a grave danger to the region and to the world and would threaten the very survival of the State of Israel. The deal would not shut down a single nuclear facility in Iran, would not destroy a single centrifuge in Iran and will not stop R&D on Iran's advanced centrifuges. On the contrary. The deal would legitimize Iran's illegal nuclear program. It would leave Iran with...

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who represented France in the nuclear talks between Iran and world powers, revealed on Friday that his nation had rejected an original version of the deal reached the day before for not being "solid enough." In an interview with Europe 1 radio cited by Fox News, Fabius said he had tried to hold out for stronger terms, but when the Iranian delegation threatened to leave the talks he was forced to capitulate. France wants a strong deal "to prevent other countries in the Gulf such as Saudi Arabia from embarking on nuclear proliferation," Fabius said....

DUBAI/BEIRUT - The leader of Friday prayers in Tehran hailed a framework nuclear deal reached by Iran and world powers, a sign that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other hardliners will back the accord. Ayatollah Mohammad Emami-Kashani, a 78-year old hardline cleric, gave the weekly sermon at Tehran University -- a duty that rotates around senior members of Iran's conservative clerical establishment. "The negotiating team is firm, wise and calm," Emami-Kashani said, according to the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA). "The Supreme Leader supports these representatives," he added. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani initiated the talks with the United States,...

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has received a rapturous reception from crowds in Tehran, after negotiating a preliminary nuclear deal that paves for the way for an end to years of crippling sanctions. In return Iran must curb, though not abandon, its nuclear activities. Zarif, just back from marathon talks in Switzerland, stressed that point at a news conference on arrival. “The nuclear programme will continue,” he said. Zarif stressed that under a final deal, due to be struck between Iran and six world powers by June 30, if any decision is made to reimpose sanctions, Tehran will be...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to deliver a statement later in the afternoon on Friday. Israel's security cabinet is united in its opposition to the framework deal reached between world powers and Iran, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement issued following a special meeting said on Friday. Netanyahu, who earlier spoke by phone with US President Barack Obama, saying that he was "vehemently opposed" to the agreement, was shortly expected to deliver a statement. Obama called Netanyahu within hours of the deal being struck, saying it represented significant progress toward a lasting solution that cuts off...

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