A headline on the front page of the New York Times on Monday about the explosion at a major Iranian nuclear power plant claims that the “Attack May attempts to reload the 2015 agreement hurts.” The newspaper said on Tuesday, also on the front page, that ‘Israel’s role in the explosion of Iran casts a shadow over US nuclear talks’
Get it? Entering into a new agreement with Iran is a very good thing. Anything that hurts the chance is a very bad thing, including Israel.
Here’s an alternative view: the Times is still drinking the Cabbage Aid that the original Iranian nuclear power was a success and worth saving. To commit dead ends, Iran’s violations of the conditions and spread of local terrorism are irrelevant.
The cult surrounding the deal with the Gray Lady contains the editorial staff of the newspaper. The Saturday cover, written before the attack on the weekend, began by saying ‘There is a short time now’ for President Biden to reach a new agreement. The reason: Iranian moderates may be gone by summer. Ah, yes, Iranian moderates, the unicorns that only left-wingers can see. So let’s hurry up and make a deal.
The Times obviously spits a lot of nonsense that is safely ignored, but this time it sings in harmony with Biden. The president is so eager to rejoin the agreement that wisely toppled Donald Trump, that he is willing to help place the blame on Israel for sabotaging the underground facility at Natanz. With the initial speculation that the US and Israel were collaborating on the attack, as in a cyber attack in 2010, the White House quickly denied any role in the operation, knocking out all power to the centrifuges. “The US was not involved in any way,” press secretary Jen Psaki said on Monday.
So much for the usual diplomatic ambiguity that would protect an ally and give the US more flexibility if questioned about classified operations in the future.
But Biden clearly has no interest in protecting Israel’s likely role. On the contrary, he noted in many ways that the full American embrace enjoyed by the Jewish state during the Trump years is history.
The attempts to separate from Israel and enchant Iran indeed illustrate how Biden is determined to breathe new life into the foreign policy of the Obama-Biden government, even the failures. The most important among them is to regard Israel as a unique friend and ally more as an obstacle to peace.
A clear example is that Biden has already given two gifts to the Palestinians – hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ money and the veto over US policy over their dispute with Israel. Trump stopped the payments in part because some of the money went to salaries for the families of terrorists. In addition, Palestinian leaders have even refused to talk to the Trump team, so why should they be rewarded with American cash. They do not belong, but unbelievably none of these problems seem to Biden. Full speed ahead.
As for the Abraham Accords, the historic alliance between Israel and four Muslim nations, a new foreign ministry spokesman could not even say the official name of the agreements. If Trump had been re-elected, the Saudis would probably have signed with their secret Israeli ties, and perhaps even agreed to full diplomatic recognition. It would be an unprecedented seismic shift, but Biden began his reign by insulting the crown prince by saying he would only talk to the king.
He also cut our military support for the kingdom’s war in Yemen against the Houthis, a terrorist group that attacked Saudi oil fields.
The Houthi themselves offer a window into Biden’s strange priorities. Although – or perhaps because – the Houthis are mostly funded and armed by Iran, he has removed the terror directive that Trump imposed in the heyday of his government. Trump’s actions were a slap in the face to Iran and a gift to Saudi Arabia, and Biden reversed that. Again, why?
Yet the timing of the explosion in Natanz is important, just after Iranian and US negotiators had their first round of meetings. Since the majority of the Israeli press assumed that it was a Mossad operation, the Times and Biden apparently concluded that the aim was to halt progress that could lead to a new nuclear treaty. They may be right, but here’s another, more likely possibility. Israel does not rely on Biden to enter into a good deal, or Iran will not comply with any restrictions. Therefore, Israel acted to put back the nuke program of the mullahs while it was open and before it was too late. As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday: “I will never allow Iran to acquire the nuclear power to carry out its genocide to eliminate Israel.”
Whether the United States still shares that commitment is unclear. Doubt is a formula for problems that Iran has already encouraged and allowed Israel to act on without US approval or assistance.
Endless ‘election day’
Reader Ruth Cohen is amazed at the battles over early voting and other rules. She writes: “What is wrong with one election day? People know the date months in advance. They can prepare by registering, making sure there is childcare, someone who can take them to the ballot box if they are disabled. ‘They can wake up the alarm early, eat and be hydrated. Everyone celebrates one, one birthday; there’s a christmas day. What is the reason for 12 or 17 days, even to vote within a month before election day? “
Some left unsaid
Yahoo publishes a detailed Albuquerque Journal story about New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham paying $ 62,500 to a former staff member to settle a sexual assault case. It is well read, but the story does not say to which party the governor belongs.
This is how you know she’s a Democrat.
Afraid of the subway
The findings are so important that you wonder why the MTA took the trouble to conduct a survey. Then you remember that City Hall still needs a reminder that subway crime makes riders scary and keeps other people off the trains. About 72 percent of current passengers say they are “very concerned” about safety. Only 26 percent declared themselves “satisfied” with crime and harassment, down 15 points in September. About 36 percent of those who stopped driving cite crime as the reason.
“Our riders have sent a clear message,” Sarah Feinberg, interim president of transit, told the Post. ‘If you make the system more secure, [they] will return. The survey among 25 205 people should be a wake-up call that more police are needed. But Mayor de Blasio, who is taking his term off and shrinking the NYPD, is less interested in ever doing anything. Remember the survey the next time officials complain that riders are well below pre-pandemic levels. There is a good reason.