Sen. Kamala Harris in Washington, D.C., June 24, 2020. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
(JTA) — It’s official: Kamala Harris is Joe Biden’s choice for vice president. The California senator, who made history Tuesday as the first Black woman to join a major party presidential ticket, is still in her first term. But during several years in public office, the 55-year-old lawmaker’s outspoken… Read more »
Two Navy men attach cargo to a Sea Hawk helicopter from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Red Sea, May 10, 2019. The Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group has been deployed to the area as tensions with Iran have escalated. (Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Amber Smalley/U.S. Navy via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — An American administration is issuing dire warnings about a Persian Gulf nation, there’s talk of war and questions about the quality of intelligence. And those who back confronting Iran and those who don’t are citing Israel as a factor. If the Iran war talk sounds familiar,… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Five Democratic presidential candidates said they would re-enter the Iran nuclear deal that President Donald Trump abandoned last year. Al-Monitor, a Middle East news site, solicited the Democratic candidates about whether they would rejoin the deal. The five who said they would are Sens. Bernie Sanders… Read more »
(JTA) — An Iranian nuclear scientist was smuggled out of the country and into the United Kingdom in a joint operation involving the Mossad, the CIA and MI6, England’s intelligence service. After the MI6 and CIA questioned the scientist about Iran’s nuclear program and its future plans, he was… Read more »
President Donald Trump displays a signed presidential memorandum at the White House after announcing that the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, May 8, 2018. (Xinhua/Ting Shen via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Donald Trump may have expected fanfares when he announced the U.S. would be leaving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, and certainly Israel, Saudi Arabia, a number of Jewish groups and some foreign policy hawks exulted. But some of that support was tempered by Republicans and Democrats… Read more »
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shown after delivering a speech on Iran's nuclear program at his country's defense ministry in Tel Aviv, April 30, 2018. Some have said his speech helped sway President Donald Trump to leave the Iran deal. (Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images
(JTA) – On Sunday, Benjamin Netanyahu began his week by meeting his Cypriote and Greek counterparts to finalize the commercial export to Europe of Israeli gas that he has pushed to exploit for about a decade. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from nuclear… Read more »
The front page of Yediot Aharonot, one of Israel's leading papers, on May 9, 2018 juxtaposed pictures of President Donald Trump withdrawing from the Iran deal and a family sitting in a bomb shelter. (Ben Sales)
TEL AVIV (JTA) — When war broke out on Israel’s northern border in 2006, Avigdor Guy remained calm. He lived in the northern port city of Haifa, but he didn’t think the war would hit home — until, that is, it did. “Twelve years ago, they asked me if… Read more »
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani addresses the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York City, Sept. 22, 2016. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — An inflection point in American policy towards Iran came this afternoon, when President Trump announced he will re-impose nuclear sanctions on Iran and effectively withdraw the U.S. from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal. Having done so, the administration should anticipate the range… Read more »
Sen. Ben Cardin speaks at a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., introducing the Iran Policy Oversight Act of 2015, Oct. 1, 2015. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, known as the Iran nuclear deal, is bad policy and calls into question America’s international credibility. Mr. Trump has now set the international community on a slippery slope, imperiling the national security… Read more »
President Donald Trump announces his decision to leave the Iran nuclear deal in the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House, May 8, 2018. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — When President Donald Trump teased and then announced he would be pulling the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal, the next obvious question was, what next? What was Plan B? “Congress has heard nothing about an alternative,” Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., the chairman of the… Read more »
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Sept. 20, 2017. (Kevin Hagen/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Donald Trump will present a major foreign policy speech this week on the Iran nuclear deal, reportedly decertifying its compliance with the 2015 agreement. His words, ostensibly, will have consequences. Or perhaps not because of the type of decertification Trump reportedly is choosing. Or everything… Read more »
Donald Trump, then a candidate for president, meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York, Sept. 25, 2016. (Kobi Gideon/Israeli Government Press Office)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – Benjamin Netanyahu is going to stride in through the White House front door. Donald Trump is not going to grimace while Netanyahu lectures. The talk in Washington this week, at least in Israel-obsessive circles, is about how the Bibi-Donald bromance, taking center stage Feb. 15 at… Read more »
President-elect Donald Trump delivers his acceptance speech as Vice President-elect Mike Pence looks on at the New York Hilton Midtown in Manhattan, Nov. 9. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – Enforce the Iran deal. Violate the Iran deal. Leave it to Congress. Do nothing. President-elect Donald Trump has an array of options before him when he assumes the presidency on Jan. 21, according to supporters and opponents of the deal. Reached last year between Iran and six major powers led by the… Read more »
Carolynn Scherer Katz Hadassah Southern Arizona will celebrate Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day) with “A Taste of Gold,” a kosher wine tasting with snacks on Sunday, June 5, 4-6 p.m. at Catavinos, 3063 N. Alvernon Way. Carolynn Scherer Katz, regional advisor for Hadassah, will speak on the recent Iran nuclear agreement and its… Read more »
alestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, left, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking at the U.N. General Assembly in New York City on Sept. 30, 2015, and Oct. 1, 2015 respectively. (Both Andrew Burton/Getty Images)
TEL AVIV (JTA) — Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas took plenty of shots at each other. But in their dueling dueling speeches to the United Nations General Assembly, the Israeli prime minister and Palestinian Authority president directed much of their fire at the same target: the assembled world leaders. Netanyahu… Read more »
Christians United for Israel will host Sen. John McCain for a town hall meeting on “U.S. Policy in the Middle East in the Aftermath of the Iran Nuclear Agreement” on Saturday, Oct. 3 at noon at Victory Worship Center, 2561 W. Ruthrauff Road. McCain will address the impact this… Read more »
From left, University of Arizona professors Philip A. Pinto, Faten Ghosn and Asher Susser serve as panelists for “The Iranian Nuclear Agreement: Containment or Catastrophe” held Sept. 17. (Courtesy Arizona Center for Judaic Studies)
Iran will not be able to produce a nuclear weapon in the near future; the most recent Iranian nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, makes it so. This was the consensus of a panel of University of Arizona professors who met Thursday, Sept. 17, to… Read more »
Asher Susser Asher Susser, Stein Professor of Modern Israel Studies at the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies, will lead a lunch and learn on “Iran, the Arabs and Israel” on Wednesday, Sept. 16, sponsored by the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona and the Weintraub Israel… Read more »
Iranians walk through Tehran's old main bazaar, March 18, 2014. (Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – If you’re an American who likes Iranian caviar and pistachios, you’re in for a treat. Once the nuclear deal with Iran is implemented, the U.S. sanctions that until now have blocked the export of those Iranian foodstuffs into the United States will be lifted. Bon appetit.… Read more »
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter, left, shaking hands with his Israeli counterpart, Moshe Yaalon, before boarding a military aircraft at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, July 21, 2015. (Carolyn Kaster/Pool/AP Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – The moment the Iran nuclear deal becomes law, as seems increasingly likely given growing congressional support for the agreement, the focus of the U.S.-Israel conversation will shift to the question of what’s next. What more will Washington do to mitigate the Iranian threat and reassure… Read more »
