Today’s Top Stories
1. Big Media responds to the Iran deal. See below for all the news and commentary.
2. Are secret Israel-PA contacts and calming measures cooling down the West Bank? According to the Times of Israel:
Palestinian measures have included halting, for the time being, applications to join UN agencies and other international bodies as part of the Palestinian statehood drive.
Israeli authorities have slowed down construction in West Bank settlements and have increased permits for West Bank Palestinians to pray at the Temple Mount over the Ramadan holy month in a bid to show real will to improve ties.
3. After years of disenfranchisement, Sinai Bedouins are more actively help the Egyptian army fight Islamic State. According to Reuters, the jihadis brutally crossed tribal red lines.
4. Jerusalem’s Old City is not “endangered.” Please add your name to HonestReporting’s letter demanding CNN report accurately about the holy city.
The Iran Deal: Just The News
• What do you need to know about the deal? Take your pick of summaries of the fine print by AP, CNN, the Jerusalem Post and Daily Telegraph (one and two). If you have the stamina, read the full 159-page agreement.
• The Daily Telegraph notably summarizes what the agreement doesn’t cover — human rights, Western prisoners, Syria, funding for Hezbollah or Hamas, or personal freedoms.
• Hmmmm. According to AP, opposition leader Isaac Herzog is flying to Washington to discuss Israel’s objections. More at the Times of Israel.
• President Obama asserted that inspectors will get access any suspicious location anytime, anywhere. Is that what the accord says? Not exactly, found CBS News.
And former IAEA official Olli Heinonen discussed monitoring with Foreign Policy. Iran buying time to cover up problematic sites is one part of the issue.
While Heinonen said it might seem reasonable to have to justify the need for an inspection, foreign intelligence agencies supplying the atomic energy agency with evidence of a breach in the agreement might not be willing to disclose that intelligence to the Iranians.
• The UN Security Council is expected to vote next week on endorsing the agreement.
• International reactions: The New York Times picked up on Benyamin Netanayhu’s criticisms.
• Notably, Canada to keep sanctions against Iran in place despite nuclear deal.
• If you like playing envoyspotting in Israel, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond is flying in today. And US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter will visit next week.
Meanwhile, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius accepted an invitation to visit Iran. And Britain’s talking about reopening its embassy in Tehran by the end of the year.
• AP, the Washington Post and New York Times rounded up Arab reactions.
• Worth reading: The Wall St. Journal (click via Google News) examines the Arab world’s options. Which states will play along with Washington, and at what point might a Sunni nuclear deterrent emerge?
• Reuters wonders if a a Nobel Peace Prize for Iran is in the offing . . .
• There’s no breakthrough in the deal for Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post reporter on trial in Tehran on espionage charges.
The Iran Deal: The Scrutiny and Spin
• President Obama wasted no time selling the agreement in an interview with his favorite New York Times columnist, Tom Friedman. Read Friedman’s write up or watch the full interview.
• Former Iranian negotiator Hossein Mousavian got Daily Telegraph op-ed soapbox to plug the agreement.
• It’s hard to see Israel preventing the agreement from getting ratified. Too many players want this agreement, and Israel activists will have an uphill fight in Congress. That’s the general assessment of AP, Dan Ephron, and Ron Kampeas.
• Israeli officials continued speaking out in press. Ambassador Ron Dermer got op-ed space in the Washington Post and appeared on CNN. Michael Herzog (a retired IDF officer and brother of opposition leader Isaac Herzog) weighed in at The Guardian. And Mark Regev appeared on CNN. Here’s Dermer:
• Once sanctions are lifted, it’ll be harder for Israel to legally justify a preemptive strike on Iran. Yonah Bob explains why:
As long as UN sanctions are in place, the legal record of Iran’s history at violating the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, of UN resolutions and actions framing Iran as a violator and of the failure of those actions to stop Iran’s push for the bomb are still the narrative.
• Mitch Ginsburg and Ron Ben-Yishai remind everyone that Israel’s military option still exists.
• Here’s what else I’m reading about the Iran deal . . .
– David Horovitz: 16 reasons Iranian nuke deal is a Western catastrophe
– Dennis Ross: Iran deal leaves US with tough questions
– Nicholas Burns: US must now act to contain Iran (click via Google News)
– David Ignatius: Will Iran behave?
– Raphael Ahren: Weak inspections regime is nuclear deal’s Achilles’ heel
– Con Coughlin: Peace in our time? Not with this shoddy deal
– Yaakov Amidror: Deal makes Iran stronger
– Haviv Rettig Gur: Deal gives Iran bomb and bombast
– Ilene Prusher: Obama’s changing lexicon of Iran inspections
– Zalman Shoval: Post-agreement politics
– Avi Issacharoff: The day Obama awarded Iran hegemony in the Mideast
– Tal Shalev: For Bibi, the deal is just the beginning
– Benjamin Weinthal: Iran will cheat and get away with it
– Clifford May: The deal of the century
– Alan Dershowitz: Does this deal prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon?
– Michael Gerson: Obama’s Iran deal is a reckless bet
– Bret Stephens discussed the deal and what happens next in this WSJ video.
– Elie Barnavi: The best imperfect accord
– Peter Baker: Obama a peacemaker or appeaser?
– Orly Azoulay: The agreement of the brave
– Marc Lynch: Can the Iran deal be a new Camp David?
– David Sanger: Obama’s leap of faith on Iran
– Roger Boyes: This cheater’s charter has saved Iran’s skin
– Robert Satloff: Dangerous gaps after major concessions
– Morton Klein: The Iranian nuclear deal is surrender.
• Former US officials James Woolsey, Dennis Ross, Sandy Berger and retired Gen. Michael Hayden discussed the deal with PBS NewsHour.
• Staff-eds weighed in on the agreement as well. The New York Times gave it a thumbs up, while the Washington Post and Daily Telegraph were more sober. The Times of London called it a weak deal and reckless gamble. And the Wall St. Journal (click via Google News) was surprisingly thorough and authoritatively detailed in its criticisms.
See more staff-eds in The Independent, New York Daily News, Financial Times (click via Google News), New York Post, Miami Herald, Chicago Sun-Times, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Globe & Mail, Boston Globe, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Toronto Star, Philadelphia Inquirer,
Israel and the Palestinians
• An Israeli soldier was stabbed by a 15-year-old Palestinian in the West Bank community of Nahliel. The soldier’s injuries were light-to-moderate, and the girl was immediately apprehended.
• A Palestinian engineer got a 21-year jail sentence for helping Hamas boost the range of its Qassam rockets.
• Israel arrested a Palestinian suspect in last month’s murder of Danny Gonen.
• Israel’s natural gas sparks Russia’s interest
Featured image: CC BY-NC-SA flickr/Ed Yourdon with additions by HonestReporting; Heinonen via YouTube/Council on Foreign Relations
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
