Today’s Top Stories
Prime Minister Netanyahu was due to begin his address to Congress after this roundup was published.
1. Iran rejected any temporary freeze on its nuclear activities.Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif was responding to President Obama’s Reuters interview (see summary or full transcript). The president confirmed the much-talked-about sunset clause.
2. International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano: Iran’s still dragging its feet on inspections. Reuters writes:
The Islamic Republic has yet to address two outstanding issues relating to alleged explosives tests and other measures that might have been used for nuclear bomb research which it should have explained away by last August.
3. The Palestinians plan to file the first war crimes claim in the International Criminal Court on April 1. How appropriate: that’s April Fools Day. Jerusalem Post coverage.
4. HR Radio: Irish Tweets and Slamming Settlers: On the Voice of Israel, Yarden Frankl discusses an Irish Times reporter’s twitter rant, New York Times columnist Nick Kristof’s one-sided view of West Bank life, and Robert Fisk’s latest Israel-bashing diatribe. Click below to listen.
Iranian Atomic Urgency
• The State Dept. gave a veiled warning to Netanyahu not to reveal details of the unfolding nuclear deal. Spokesperson Marie Harf said doing so would be a “betrayal.” Eli Lake elaborates on what the prime minister might disclose, while Professor Zaki Shalom argues that only new information will justify the speech. Will Bibi spill secrets?
Meanwhile, Israeli media reports claimed the White House cut intelligence coordination with Israel on the talks. Times of Israel coverage.
• National Security Advisor Susan Rice addressed AIPAC yesterday as part of the administration’s “prebuttal” strategy.
• A lot of adjectives come to mind when thinking about the personal Bibi-Bam relationship (I think frenemy is most apt). I think AFP’s description is over the top.
Obama on Monday lashed out at his nemesis, pointing to Netanyahu’s attacks on a previous interim US-Iran deal that paved the way for this week’s ongoing talks in Switzerland.
• Tickets to the Netanyahu speech were hot. How hot were they?
Even Democrats, some of whom are not attending the speech in order to express their frustration over what they say is the politicization of Mr. Netanyahu’s address, are hanging on to their tickets, distributing them as if they were a form of valuable currency.
Several dozen House Democrats, for instance, were recently sitting around a table, debating whether to attend the speech. Most said they planned to boycott it to make a political point. But then, according to one lawmaker, each of them asked, “But do you have any extra guest tickets?”
Commentary/Analysis
• Professor DeWayne Wickham argues that the Netanyahu speech is an insult to all black people simply because Ppresident Obama is black.
I don’t buy the logic, but — like it or not — the views expressed in this USA Today op-ed are part of the black conversation that Jews would do well to be aware of.
By agreeing to sidestep normal diplomatic channels to address Congress, Netanyahu has become an instrument of a Republican Party that has shown an unbridled, personal disrespect for Obama, his wife and children since this black family moved into the building many Republicans apparently think is literally a white house.
• Bret Stephens is on my mind (Wall St. Journal via Google News):
The administration is now trying to dodge all this by waging an unprecedented campaign of personal vilification against Benjamin Netanyahu (of a sort they would never dream of waging against, say, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan ), accusing him of seeking political gain for himself in the U.S. at Mr. Obama’s expense.
Yet the calendar chiefly dictating the timing of Mr. Netanyahu’s speech was set by John Kerry , not John Boehner , when the secretary of state decided that the U.S. and Iran would have to conclude a framework deal by the end of this month. Mr. Netanyahu is only guilty of wanting to speak to Congress before it is handed a diplomatic fait accompli that amounts to a serial betrayal of every promise Mr. Obama ever made to Israel.
• Former Iranian negotiator Seyed Hossein Mousavian got op-ed space in the Daily Telegraph to lay out five options for what happens if the talks fail. Every scenario takes for granted that the nuclear program not only remains but grows.
• Another overdose of commentary. I’m being more selective with what makes today’s roundup. I’ll start with the Congressmen.
– Sen. Orrin Hatch: Standing with Israel in a dangerous world
– Rep. Darrell Issa: Obama’s shameful “snub” of Netanyahu
– Rep. Steve Israel: Netanyahu speech is political stunt, but I must back our ally
– Rep. Charles Rangel: Speech hurts friendship between U.S., Israel
– Rep. Chris Stewart: In what way is Iran a reliable negotiating partner? (Wall St. Journal via Google News)
– Richard Cohen: Israel’s moral argument is on the line
– Faisal Abbas: President Obama, listen to Netanyahu on Iran
– Azriel Bermant: Netanyahu might be upsetting people, but he is right
– Stephen Walt: Bibi blows up the special relationship (and that’s a good thing)
– Boaz Bismuth: A friendly reminder of good vs. bad
See also staff-eds in the Times of London (Israel is right to urge caution), Orlando Sun-Sentinel (Politics aside, the speech is important), Buffalo News (Speech creates friction between allies), The Guardian (Netanyahu in Washington: collision or collusion?), New York Daily News (Bibi speaks because he must), and New York Post (To Bibi or not to Bibi).
• Cartoonists weighing in include Dutch cartoonist Arend van Dam, the Columbus Dispatch‘s Nate Beeler, Hartford Courant‘s Bob Englehart, Arizona Daily Star‘s David Fitzsimmons, and Miami Herald‘s Jim Morin.
• Will Israel join any anti-Russian boycotts and endanger ties with Moscow over the mysterious death of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov?. Ariel Cohen wonders, while reminiscing about his slain friend.
See also the JTA‘s Cnaan Liphshiz on the vulnerability of Russia’s Jews.
To many Russian Jews, the murder of Nemtsov — a physicist turned liberal politician, born to a Jewish mother but baptized in the Orthodox Church — is a troubling reminder of vulnerability as members of a relatively affluent minority with a history of being scapegoated, strong ties to the West and a deep attachment to cosmopolitan values and human rights.
Amid student protests and heavy security, Israel’s ambassador to the UK, Daniel Taub, spoke at the University of Glasgow. A Scotland Herald staff-ed defended the visit but published a lengthy letter signed by a number of lecturers.
Featured image: CC BY flickr/Hobvias Sudoneighm; Nemtsov via Wikimedia Commons/VOA
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