President Barack Obama has granted an interview to National Public Radio in an attempt to sell the Iran “framework” to a skeptical public. In the process, he compares the agreement to a real-estate deal–a poor analogy for a man who called his own last property purchase deal “boneheaded” after involving indicted (now convicted) bag Chicago man Tony Rezko. Obama also provided at least five big reasons that Congress–whose opposition is growing–should reject the Iran deal.
by Joel B. Pollak7 Apr 2015, 6:42 AM PST0
For days, lefties like Chris Matthews of MSNBC and Jonathan Chait of the New Republic have been fuming that conservative critics of the Iran “framework” have referred to it as the sequel to the Munich agreement of 1938—the deal that defined “appeasement.” Yet President Barack Obama proved his critics correct on Monday when he rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s suggestion that Iran be required to accept Israel’s right to exist as a condition of a final deal.
by Joel B. Pollak6 Apr 2015, 7:49 PM PST0
California Governor Jerry Brown warned Americans on Sunday morning that California’s drought was a sign of climate change. However, in his appearance on ABC News’ This Week, with guest host Martha Raddatz, Brown also defended California farmers from charges that they are overusing water, arguing that they feed the rest of the country.
by Joel B. Pollak6 Apr 2015, 4:00 AM PST0
If Arnold Schwarzenegger could travel back in time, as he did in the Terminator movies, and stop himself from vetoing gay marriage in 2005 and 2007, then perhaps he could have saved his political career from its later, near-complete devastation. However, the Silicon Valley techies haven’t yet invented a time machine. So Schwarzenegger must content himself with an op-ed in the pages of the Washington Post, lecturing fellow Republicans about the evils of Indiana’s religious freedom law.
by Joel B. Pollak3 Apr 2015, 2:32 PM PST0
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with his cabinet on Friday, who unanimously opposed the framework Iran deal reached Thursday in Lausanne, Switzerland, and said that any final deal must include Iran’s recognition of Israel.
by Joel B. Pollak3 Apr 2015, 8:38 AM PST0
In the wake of the Iran “framework” agreement Thursday, President Barack Obama celebrated–but the Iranian regime pushed for more concessions, disputing the White House’s “fact sheet” on the deal and insisting the parties had agreed to end sanctions immediately. Iran’s reaction was a clear sign that between now and the end of June, an already-bad deal is going to get worse as the Iranians see just how much Obama wants an agreement, and use that to make new demands.
by Joel B. Pollak3 Apr 2015, 6:41 AM PST0
Left-wing Israeli writer Ari Shavit, an ardent advocate of Israeli concessions to the Palestinians, has blasted President Barack Obama’s “framework” deal with Iran, saying that Obama is making the same mistakes for peace that George W. Bush made for war. Just as Bush launched an invasion of Iraq with no clear idea of the strategic consequences, Shavit says, Obama does not realize the deadly results of a bad deal with Iran, including a nuclear Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey.
by Joel B. Pollak3 Apr 2015, 6:19 AM PST0
Several years ago, two professors co-wrote a book, The Israel Lobby, that repackaged Zionist conspiracy theories in the respectable garb of academic prose. The authors, Stephen M. Walt of Harvard and John J. Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago, claimed that Israel, through its network of American supporters, pushed the U.S. to go to war with Iraq and were about to do the same with Iran. On Thursday, President Barack Obama gave his endorsement to that theory.
by Joel B. Pollak3 Apr 2015, 4:00 AM PST0
The P5+1 powers have, as expected, reached a “framework agreement” on a nuclear deal with Iran. And, as suspected, the agreement allows Iran to retain its enrichment facility at an underground bunker. It also allows Iran to maintain a small amount of enriched uranium, and will offer the regime sanctions relief as soon as it can show it is keeping its end of the bargain. As to information about possible military dimensions of Iran’s program, there is nothing but an agreement to talk further.
by Joel B. Pollak2 Apr 2015, 12:58 PM PST0
As talks over a nuclear deal with Iran continued past self-imposed deadlines, Israel’s intelligence minister has warned that the military option is on the table–and noted that Israel does not need U.S. cooperation to carry out a pre-emptive strike.
by Joel B. Pollak2 Apr 2015, 6:41 AM PST0
Once, Robert Malley was too radical for the Obama campaign, or for the White House. The Middle East scholar, widely seen as anti-Israel, reportedly met with the terrorist group Hamas and encouraged the United States to do the same. Then, in February, President Barack Obama appointed Malley as a senior director at the National Security Council. Today, Malley is advising Secretary of State John Kerry in Lausanne, Switzerland as he negotiates with Iran over a nuclear deal.
by Joel B. Pollak2 Apr 2015, 6:28 AM PST0
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized President Barack Obama directly on Thursday evening, telling him that the new framework agreement on Iran’s nuclear program “threatens the survival of the State of Israel.” The two leaders spoke by telephone to discuss the preliminary deal that negotiators from the P5+1 nations reached with Iran at talks in Lausanne, Switzerland that extended past the original Tuesday deadline.
by Joel B. Pollak2 Apr 2015, 4:00 AM PST0
On Wednesday, California Gov. Jerry Brown made national headlines by announcing that he had “signed an executive order requiring the State Water Resources Control Board to implement measures in cities and towns to cut the state’s overall water usage by
by Joel B. Pollak2 Apr 2015, 4:00 AM PST0
Once again, the Iran deal confirmed by diplomats in Lausanne, Switzerland has failed to materialize. And the only thing more pathetic than the repeated collapse of the talks is the spectacle of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry staying on, even after diplomats from China, Russia, France and Germany have packed their bags and gone home. He is simply unwilling to admit failure. But the Iranian regime is happy to entertain his illusions, and so their delegation has stayed behind, too.
by Joel B. Pollak1 Apr 2015, 6:09 PM PST0
Now that Harry Reid has admitted he was lying about Mitt Romney failing to pay taxes in order to help Barack Obama win re-election, the media are pretending to be shocked. But they were complicit, too, giving Reid’s claim more air time than it possibly deserved. And the Obama campaign backed Reid’s efforts, pushing his lies in their own words. The worst offender was Jen Psaki, who was later rewarded with plum communications posts at the State Department and the White House.
by Joel B. Pollak1 Apr 2015, 5:36 PM PST0
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasted the emerging Iran deal on Wednesday, calling it “unconscionable” that world powers were about to sign an agreement with the “murderous” regime even as it continued to vow to destroy Israel.
by Joel B. Pollak1 Apr 2015, 5:43 AM PST0
After a marathon negotiating session that stretched into the wee hours of Wednesday morning, April 1–hours after the official deadline–the parties gathered in Lausanne, Switzerland reached a tentative deal on Iran’s nuclear program.
by Joel B. Pollak31 Mar 2015, 5:44 PM PST0
Trevor Noah had barely endured 12 hours of conservative criticism about his past Twitter comments when the left began to voice its outrage, as well. Liberal critics focused in particular on Noah’s jokes about women. Yet while both left and right seized on Noah’s Twitter feed, the spirit of criticism was not quite the same for each.
by Joel B. Pollak31 Mar 2015, 3:27 PM PST0
Diplomats meeting Tuesday in Lausanne, Switzerland to hammer out the framework agreement for a deal on Iran’s nuclear program missed their deadline of March 31, and resolved to continue their negotiations for an additional day, expecting to complete an agreement on April 1st, otherwise known as April Fool’s Day.
by Joel B. Pollak31 Mar 2015, 12:59 PM PST0
San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer, the only Republican mayor of a major U.S. city, joined the “Boycott Indiana” bandwagon, banning city travel Monday to the state over its recent Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which critics have called anti-gay. “We’ve directed the City’s Chief Operating Officer to take the necessary actions to restrict publicly funded travel by city employees to Indiana if the law is not amended or repealed by next week,” said Faulconer’s spokesperson.
by Joel B. Pollak31 Mar 2015, 6:01 AM PST0
Negotiations toward a nuclear deal between Iran and the P+5 nations (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, plus Germany) will continue through June, according to reports from Lausanne, Switzerland on Tuesday. The announcement was made to satisfy the self-imposed deadline of March 31 for a provisional agreement, with “technical” details to be agreed by July 1. However, major differences appear to have been redefined as “technical” to keep talks going.
by Joel B. Pollak31 Mar 2015, 5:21 AM PST0
Trevor Noah, the newly-named replacement for Jon Steward on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, is still an unknown quantity to many Americans. Curious fans and critics, eager to learn more about the South African comedian, have been combing the Internet for clues, and have turned up troubling comments about Israel and Jews that have some wondering if the new host will, like Stewart (Leibowitz), take to hiding his Jewish-sounding name to avoid controversy. (I kid.)
by Joel B. Pollak30 Mar 2015, 8:59 PM PST0
South African comedian Timothy Noah has been named to succeed Jon Stewart as host of The Daily Show on Comedy Central. Noah is talented and funny, and as a fellow native son of South Africa, I wish him well. Unfortunately, Noah is a mismatch for the show. Stewart would be a tough act to follow in any circumstances, but Noah lacks any obvious fluency in American politics or media, and his specialty in racial and ethnic humor suggest that his repertoire will remain limited.
by Joel B. Pollak30 Mar 2015, 6:53 AM PST0
Iranian negotiators in Lausanne, Switzerland have pulled what observers are calling a “bait-and-switch” by reneging on an earlier agreement to export their country’s existing stockpile of highly enriched uranium. The New York Times calls the shift a “surprise” move on a “critical element” of the nuclear deal, but adds that “the Obama administration is expected to argue that it would not constitute a serious risk” to the deal if the stockpile is inspected by international monitors.
by Joel B. Pollak30 Mar 2015, 5:02 AM PST0
The news agency Agence France-Presse reports from Lausanne, Switzerland that Iran and the P5+1 powers (the five UN Security Council permanent members, plus Germany) have reached “provisional agreement” on the terms of nuclear deal.
by Joel B. Pollak29 Mar 2015, 6:33 AM PST0
