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Friday, July 28, 2023

07/28 Links Pt1: Erdan dismisses Palestinian ‘right of return’; Melanie Phillips: Why compromise is unlikely in Israel’s crisis; Senate Democrats Clear the Way for Boycott of Israeli Products

From Ian:

At UN meeting, Erdan dismisses Palestinian ‘right of return’
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations had a blunt message for the Security Council on Thursday during its quarterly open debate on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“Let me be clear: There is no ‘right of return.’ You all know this,” Gilad Erdan told the council, which he accused of perpetuating the Palestinian refugee issue.

“The demand of returning millions of descendants of refugees is a demand to obliterate the Jewish people’s right to self-determination,” he added. “This will never happen.”

The meeting marked the council’s 14th this year on the Israel-Palestinian file. Ordinarily, it meets monthly under this single agenda item.

Erdan blasted the United Nations and Secretary-General António Guterres, in particular, for criticism of Israeli counterterrorism operations in Jenin earlier this month. All 12 casualties were confirmed terrorists.

“The fact that the secretary-general chose to condemn Israel, a law-abiding democracy, as opposed to the bloodthirsty Palestinian terrorists seeking to murder innocent Israelis, is a disgrace,” Erdan said. “Such remarks only embolden the terrorists.”

Part of the international body’s critique of Israel centered on damage in what the United Nations calls a “refugee camp.” Erdan mocked that label.

“How can it be that after so many decades there are still refugee camps inside Palestinian cities?” posed Erdan. “Have you ever stopped to ask yourselves why the descendants of Palestinian refugees are still living in refugee camps? Why have they not been integrated into Palestinian society?”

“We are talking about camps in Palestinian cities,” he added.


Israel tells ICJ it lacks authority to debate conflict, says talks are only solution
Israel this week submitted a formal opinion to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, stating that it has no authority to conduct its probe into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to a Thursday report.

Jerusalem said that the court was not the place to adjudicate the conflict, and that instead direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority were needed, the unsourced Kan news report said.

The National Security Council said in response to the Kan report that it along with the Foreign Ministry were working to convince friendly countries to submit opinions to the ICJ to back Israel’s stance.

“Israel’s position is that the process conducted has no authority and that all disputes with the PA should be resolved in negotiations between the sides,” the council said.

“We will continue to fight the lies of the Palestinians and delegitimization attempts against Israel,” said Foreign Ministry Eli Cohen. “I thank our friends around the world who submitted positions to the court and to most of the member states of the United Nations, which from the start did not lend a hand and did not support the Palestinian initiative that seeks to abuse the International Court of Justice in The Hague in order to promote a unilateral agenda against Israel.”

Kan noted that the official response to the ICJ contradicted declared government policy that it would not cooperate with The Hague, as well as the fact that the current hardline, right-wing coalition is uninterested in peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

Under pressure from Jerusalem, the United States also submitted a response to The Hague backing Israel’s position, the report said.

In February, the court announced a timeline for the start of the probe, setting a July 25 deadline for submitting written statements in the case, and an October deadline for comments on those statements, after receiving the UN General Assembly’s formal request to weigh in on the conflict.

The ICJ is the top United Nations court for mediating disputes between countries. Its rulings influence public opinion and legal processes but it has no enforcement mechanism. The court is separate from the International Criminal Court, which is also in The Hague.

The UN General Assembly in December passed a resolution pushed by the Palestinians asking the court for an “advisory opinion” on Israel’s “prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation of Palestinian territory.” It also called for an investigation into Israeli measures “aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem” and charged that Israel has adopted “discriminatory legislation and measures.”

The General Assembly made the request to the court after the UN Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry recommended that it do so. The latter panel is overwhelmingly critical of the Jewish state and its reports almost entirely ignore Palestinian terrorism and violence and largely place the blame on Israel for the conflict.


Melanie Phillips: Why compromise is unlikely in Israel’s crisis
Contrary to opponents’ claims, the reforms won’t destroy the court’s ability to hold the government to account. They will return Israel to the constitutional balance that existed between Israel’s founding in 1948 and the 1990s, when the Supreme Court began to unilaterally expand its powers.

As a result of Monday’s legislation, the judges will still be able to strike down laws and block government actions. They will simply be unable to continue using the slippery criterion of “reasonableness” that has enabled gross judicial overreach and has no basis in legal principle anywhere in the free world.

The incoherence of the opposition was illustrated by Bret Stephens in this week’s New York Times. He conceded that the reforms have merit because Israel’s “unusually powerful judiciary” has arrogated powers to itself that were never democratically given and are elsewhere considered strictly political.

Nevertheless, he wrote, this week’s reform bill was a “true disaster” for Israel. This wasn’t because it was anti-democratic. If anything, Stephens said, “it is all too democratic, at least in the purely majoritarian sense of the word.” The disaster was that the reform risked depriving the country of the “fierce loyalty of its most productive and civically engaged citizens.”

So, Stephens’s argument appeared to be that because a key section of the Israeli public has lost its mind on this issue, it is the politicians who are to blame for their reaction—above all Netanyahu, who is “trying to wangle out of his criminal indictment.”

Well, hang on. The judges presiding over Netanyahu’s trial for bribery and breach of trust themselves told prosecutors in June that the case had collapsed for lack of evidence and the trial should be stopped. Yet Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara let it be known that she would continue with the prosecution regardless.

This wasn’t an attorney-general exercising a check and balance on politicians. This was political vindictiveness on the part of Israel’s highest legal official.

In any meaningful democracy, Barak would be in jail for sedition. Israeli Transportation Minister Miri Regev has called for a legal investigation into Barak and Forum 555. But she sent her request to the attorney-general.

What do you think the chances are that Baharav-Miara will accede to such a request?

Quite. That’s precisely the problem the judicial reforms set out to address; and it’s precisely such an erasure of the democratic rule of law that opponents of the reforms are inescapably endorsing.
Josh Hammer: What Israel's Protests Are Really About
Many Israelis have once again taken to mass protests in the streets, both in the lead-up to and in the aftermath of the Benjamin Netanyahu-led government's successful passing on Monday of one tiny sliver of the broader judicial reforms that it had previously floated earlier this year. But any sober analysis of the perhaps-unprecedented civil strife now afflicting the Jewish state leads to one conclusion: The vitriolic pushback has nothing to do with substantive separation-of-powers concerns or the particulars of constitutional theory, and everything to do with the Left's insatiable personal loathing of Prime Minister Netanyahu and its deep-set cultural anxiety over the more nationalist and religious direction Israel is now heading.

For the first four and a half decades after modern Israel's founding in 1948, the Jewish state operated according to the British model of governance: no written constitution, parliamentary supremacy, and a subordinate, common law-based judiciary. Israel lacks a written constitution to this day, but things began to change in the early 1990s, when former Supreme Court of Israel President Aharon Barak self-pronounced a so-called "constitutional revolution."

By snapping his fingers, Barak—absent any statutory basis for doing so—arrogated to the Supreme Court of Israel powers that no other judicial tribunal in the world possesses. Those powers include, among other things, the power to hear any issue—no matter how transparently political, and regardless of a plaintiff's legal "standing" to bring the suit—at any time, for any reason; the ability to overturn any law, policy, or even cabinet/ministerial appointment for effectively any reason, from judicial review grounded in Israel's 13 quasi-constitutional "Basic Laws" to judicial nullification based on an ultra-subjective finding of "unreasonableness"; and the nepotistic power to veto the justices' own successors, due to the idiosyncratic makeup of Israel's Judicial Selection Committee.

Anyone vaguely familiar with comparative constitutionalism, to say nothing of American constitutionalism as propounded in The Federalist Papers and ratified in the U.S. Constitution, can spot the glaring problems here. Judge Robert H. Bork, who was nominated by President Ronald Reagan to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1987 before having his nomination derailed by a loathsome Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.)-led character assassination, wrote in his 2003 book Coercing Virtue: "Pride of place in the international judicial deformation of democratic government goes not to the United States, nor to Canada, but to the State of Israel. The Israeli Supreme Court is making itself the dominant institution in the nation, an authority no other court in the world has achieved." And the situation has actually gotten markedly worse in the two decades since Bork made that observation.


Leo Dee: Israeli judicial reform protests show greatest unity ever
Marches in Jerusalem. Marches in Tel Aviv. Hundreds of thousands on the streets. Are we in a national crisis? No! We’re seeing the greatest unity ever experienced in the State of Israel in its 75-year history.

In a March 2023 interview, Alan Dershowitz points out a very interesting fact: other countries have faced far more serious threats to their legal systems but in no other country has anyone ever gone to the streets about legal reform! He states that, in 2022, Biden was considering packing the Supreme Court with his candidates to overrule abortion legislation. No one marched. In the UK in past years when the House of Commons removed the veto of the House of Lords, no one marched. In Europe when significant changes to Supreme Court powers have been enacted – no one marched. In Israel, however, we marched.

What does this tell us about Israelis? We care. We all care. Right and Left – we care. We all fought the wars, we all lost family members or friends in tragic attacks and none of us are prepared to go down without a protest when we disagree.

And we’re marching with flags. Right and Left we’re marching with flags. So much so that I have no idea whether the group before me is pro- or anti-reform. We march with flags because we all believe that we have the best solution for the Jewish people. Right and Left. We don’t agree on how, but we have a common aim – to make this country even better.

And that’s called Achdut – Unity. Unity is when people have a common purpose. And people are out in droves – children, teens, adults, and seniors – all marching peacefully with their flags to be heard, to be seen, and to be part of this important decision.
Biden mulls Saudi deal forcing Netanyahu to abandon
US President Joe Biden is mulling a mutual security pact with Riyadh that would include an Israeli-Saudi normalization deal, New York Times's Thomas Friedman wrote in a column published Thursday.

The deal would force Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to choose between his extremist government and regional peace, Friedman wrote.

Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan the top White House official handling Middle East policy arrived in Saudi Arabia on Thursday “to explore the possibility of some kind of US-Saudi-Israeli-Palestinian understanding,” Friedman pointed out.

“Sullivan is not in Riyadh today for tourism,” he noted.

He based his column on the conversation he held with Biden last week in the White House.

The suggested security pact and subsequent normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia, Friedman explained, are subject to concessions made by Israel on preserving the possibility of a two-state solution with the Palestinians.

While Biden is still undecided over whether to pursue the pact, he had given the order to explore the possibility of a quadrilateral understanding between the US, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinians, NYT said.

Such a deal would require a hefty price tag, Friedman worth, as the Saudis want a NATO-level mutual security treaty by which the U.S. would come to Saudi Arabia’s defense if it is attacked, most likely by Iran.

Riyadh also wants a “civilian nuclear program, monitored by the U.S” and “the ability to purchase more advanced U.S. weapons,” he explained.

The US, in exchange, wants an end to the fighting in Yemen, curbs on Saudi-Chinese ties and significant Saudi financial assistance to the Palestinians, Friedman said, adding that Israel would have to make concessions that would preserve the possibility of a two-state resolution to the conflict, he wrote.

Friedman was short on details with respect to the price Israel would have to pay for such a deal, but he suggested that it pledge to never annex portions of the West Bank.
"Tom Friedman: Biden, Not the Saudis, Conditions Israeli-Saudi Rapprochement on 2-State Solution"
According to Friedman, the insistence on the 2-state is not coming from the Saudis, but from President Biden’s progressive advisors, because if the Democratic president helps make peace between Israel and the Saudis without any reference to a Palestinian State, “it would spark a rebellion in the progressive base of his party and make ratification of the deal well-nigh impossible.”

Friedman quotes Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland), who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, which funds the State Department, who told him: “I can assure you that there will be a strong core of Democratic opposition to any proposal that does not include meaningful, clearly defined and enforceable provisions to preserve the option of a two-state solution and to meet President Biden’s own demand that Palestinians and Israelis enjoy equal measures of freedom and dignity. These elements are essential to any sustainable peace in the Middle East.”

Of course, if Biden wants to push peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia through Congress, he’ll have ample Republican support, more than enough to push it past the angry progressives. But Friedman doesn’t have much to say about that, although he admits that “truth be told, the Palestinian Authority is in no position to engage in peace talks with Israel today. It’s a mess.”

Friedman does take time out of his busy op-ed piece to attack the Israeli right: “I’d love to see Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, go on Israeli television and explain to the Israeli people why it is in Israel’s interest to annex the West Bank and its 2.9 million Palestinian inhabitants — forever — rather than normalize ties with Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Muslim world.”

And Biden’s jester presses on: “A Saudi-Israeli peace could dramatically reduce the Muslim-Jewish antipathy born over a century ago with the start of the Jewish-Palestinian conflict.”

Here’s the rub: back in 1978, Israel gave back two-thirds of its territory in return for a peace treaty with Egypt. And yet, despite 45 years of peace, Egyptian antisemitism never subsided, and vile attacks by Egyptian media on the Jewish State have continued as if the two countries are still in a state of war. Very few Egyptian tourists bother to visit Israel, and contact between Israeli and Egyptian academics, intellectuals, and entertainers invariably ends with boycotts on the Egyptians, if not worse.

And so, peace with the Saudis would certainly be an important asset for Israel, but Friedman is in La-la land if he expects it to reduce Muslim hatred of Jews.

The best hope for a peace deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia is that a Republican or a centrist Democrat wins the White House in 2024. Biden just can’t, regardless of Friedman’s claptrap.
Senate Democrats Clear the Way for Boycott of Israeli Products
Senate Democrats on Thursday blocked a measure that would have stopped the Biden administration from discriminating against Jewish-made Israeli products.

The Democratic members of the Senate Commerce Committee rejected a measure from Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) that would have blocked the Federal Trade Commission from penalizing products produced by Israelis living in contested territories, including the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Golan Heights.

Cruz offered the measure as a stop-gap amendment on legislation granting the FTC broad new powers to issue fines and other penalties to any online vendor that does not accurately disclose where its products are made. Supporters of the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, including those in the Biden administration, have long worked to strip the "Made in Israel" label from products manufactured in so-called settlements, which they argue are not technically part of Israel.

Cruz's measure, first reported by the Washington Free Beacon on Wednesday, said the FTC "may not discriminate against any community or entity in Israeli territory," including Jewish communities in contested areas.

"If you needed any more proof that the Democrat Party is controlled by the anti-Semitic 'Squad,' today's vote should end any debate," Cruz told the Free Beacon following the vote. "All the Democrats on the Commerce Committee voted to give the Biden administration a new tool to boycott, divest, and sanction Israel."

Cruz described the outcome as "absolutely appalling but unfortunately predictable."

Congressional sources working on the matter said the amendment was specifically offered to stop the Biden administration from using its new powers to target Israel and bolster the BDS movement. The State Department last month barred the federal government from collaborating on scientific research projects with Jewish Israelis living in contested areas, drawing accusations the administration is enabling the BDS movement.
Senate Democrats Push Egypt to Free Cleric Who Ordered Killing of 'Any Zionist'
Senate Democrats are lobbying the Egyptian government to release an imprisoned Muslim cleric who has called for the murder of all Israeli tourists, claimed Jews use the blood of Christians to make bread, and proposed "obliterating America" in a holy war.

The congressional support for Salah Soltan—a U.S. green card holder who was imprisoned as part of Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s brutal crackdown against the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013—comes after years of lobbying from his children, who have donated tens of thousands of dollars to Democratic lawmakers.

The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs included a provision in the 2024 State Department appropriations bill that would require the State Department to consider Salah Soltan’s case as a condition for foreign aid to Egypt. Sen. Chris Coons (D., Del.) put forward an amendment to the bill backing Soltan's release, and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved it, according to committee records. That amendment asks the State Department to advocate for Soltan as part of its distribution of foreign aid to Egypt.

The Egyptian government has faced criticism over human rights abuses and unjust imprisonments, including the detentions of British blogger Alaal Abdel Fattah and Anas El-Beltagy, the son of a Muslim Brotherhood leader who has been locked up since age 19. But Soltan's advocacy of violence against Jews raises questions about why Senate Democrats decided to highlight him as one of just four named prisoners worthy of U.S. government support—aside from his family's financial support for the Democratic Party.

Soltan is a vocal anti-Semite who in 2011 issued an Islamic religious decree ordering the death of Israel’s ambassador and Israeli tourists in Egypt. "As someone who has studied Islamic law, specializing in Islamic jurisprudence, I am calling to kill the [Israeli] ambassador, not just expel him," Soltan said in a statement that aired on Al Jazeera and was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

"Any Zionist—tourist or other—who enters Egypt must be killed," he added. "We will not kill tourists from any [other] country. We stress that this fatwa is directed only toward those Zionists, who destroyed our country, killed our people, and shed our blood on our land."
Jean-Pierre demurs again on whether Netanyahu invited to White House
Another day, another question during a White House press briefing trying to confirm whether U.S. President Joe Biden indeed invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House.

“So far, you guys have been unwilling to say exactly where President Biden invited the Israeli prime minister to here in the U.S.,” Jeremy Diamond, CNN’s White House correspondent, said. “Earlier today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that President Biden, in a phone call, invited him to the White House for this visit later this year. Can you confirm that?”

Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, demurred again.

“What I can say is they both agreed to meet in the United States later this year. Both teams are working through what that’s going to look like, the timing. I don’t have anything else to share beyond that—beyond—what I, we, have said last week and continue to say after that conversation is that they both agreed to meet in the United States later this year,” Jean-Pierre said, per a White House transcript.

Diamond persisted. “So the president did not invite Netanyahu specifically to the White House?”

“I just want to be very clear: It was a conversation that they both agreed that it would be in the United States,” Jean-Pierre said. “Don’t have anything further. Both teams are indeed talking and going—and working—working through—,” Jean-Pierre said.


The Caroline Glick Show: The 'Reasonableness' Law EXPLAINED
In her news analysis this week, Caroline Glick went through the uproar over the Knesset’s legislation of constraints on the Supreme Court’s power to overturn policies based on the “Reasonableness Clause.

Caroline explains what the “reasonable clause is,” how it was invented, what the amended law will and won’t do and what it means for the Netanyahu government going forward. She also describes the law’s passage on the leftist insurrectionists in the streets, on the Supreme Court and on the Attorney General.

If you want to cut through the media hype and understand exactly what is going on in Israel’s fight over judicial reform, do not miss this show.




Suspect rams through two IDF checkpoints in West Bank, arrested
An attempted ramming attack was reported in Huwara in the northern West Bank on Friday afternoon after a driver rammed through two military checkpoints, the IDF said.

Footage shared by Palestinian media reportedly from the scene showed Israeli forces operating in the town as heavy gunfire was audible in the background.

The Israeli military said its troops shot at the vehicle and chased the suspect down. He was arrested and will be interrogated by defense establishment officials. Attempted attack comes after IDF raids, Ben-Gvir's Temple Mount visit

The attempted attack comes following Israeli actions that Palestinians view as provocative. In an overnight between Sunday and Monday, Israeli security personnel conducted a relatively large raid in the West Bank. The raid culminated in the arrest of 17 Palestinians.

Then, on Tuesday night in another raid, IDF forces arrested eight additional Palestinian suspects.

Additionally, this week during Israel's commemoration of Tisha Be'Av, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir paid a visit to the Temple Mount, a move strongly rebuked by the United States.

Huwara has, historically, been the site of escalated tensions and violence between Palestinians and Israelis. The northern Palestinian town has seen several attacks this year including the murder of Israeli brothers Hillel and Yagel Yaniv.


Guns, Drugs, and Smugglers at Israel's Borders with Jordan and Egypt
Attempts to smuggle drugs and guns across Israel's borders with Jordan and Egypt have increased significantly over the past two years, despite peace treaties with both countries and their parallel efforts to patrol their sides of the border.

There were 105 cases of identified, thwarted, or disrupted weapons or drug smuggling attempts into Israel from March 2021 through April 2023.


FDD: CENTCOM and Israel Coordinate on Increased Threats from Iran
Expert Analysis
“As political tumult and political leaders come and go in the United States and Israel, the two militaries have continued — and will continue — to deepen their cooperation with one another, understanding that both countries are safer when they work together to secure enduring and common interests in the face of growing dangers.” — Bradley Bowman, Senior Director of FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power

“Despite naive attempts by the Biden White House to throw money at Tehran in the name of ‘deescalation,’ U.S. and Israeli defense leaders remain clear-eyed about the growing threats posed by the Islamic Republic and the need for close coordination as those threats evolve.” — Richard Goldberg, FDD Senior Advisor

A Full Itinerary
In addition to his meetings with Gallant and Halevi, Kurilla met with leaders of the Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations, the IDF Intelligence Directorate, and other specialized units. Kurilla last visited Israel in May to observe Israel’s multi-front conflict exercise known as Firm Hand.

U.S.-Israeli Military Cooperation Grows
As Iran inches toward a nuclear weapon capability and continues its support for terrorist proxies throughout the region, the United States and Israel have deepened their security cooperation even further in recent months. The two militaries concluded a four-day combined training in Israel on July 14 as the third installment of the Juniper Oak series of exercises, focusing on capabilities relevant to a strike against Iran’s nuclear program. In January, the United States and Israel conducted the largest U.S.-Israeli military exercise in history, which included more than 140 aircraft, 6,400 American troops, and 1,500 Israeli troops.

Earlier this year, Israel announced that it would buy 25 additional F-35 Lightning II fighter jets from the United States to add to its fleet of 50. It is also procuring KC-46 Pegasus tankers to enhance Israel’s aerial refueling capabilities. Both technologies would likely play a central role in an Israeli military attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Bipartisan bill pushes for increased U.S.-Israel counter-drone cooperation
A bipartisan group of more than 40 lawmakers is expected to introduce legislation today that aims to combat the Iranian drone threat through increased cooperation between the U.S. and Israel.

The U.S.-Israel Anti-Killer Drone Act, the text of which was obtained by Jewish Insider, proposes increasing funding caps for existing U.S.-Israel counter-drone programs from $40 million to $55 million annually. It would also direct the defense secretary to report to Congress on the status of U.S.-Israel counter-drone cooperation and any additional funding or authorities that could assist such efforts, as well as the threat Iranian drones pose to the U.S. and Israel.

The bill is being sponsored by Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Andrew Garbarino (R-NY).

“Iran’s arsenal of killer drones has only grown in recent years, and attacks across the Middle East have killed and wounded Americans — showing once again why the threat of terrorism remains so pervasive. We continue to see Iran-backed terrorist groups target innocent civilians which is why we must take concrete action to counter their deadly drone capabilities. This legislation is about protecting American and Israeli lives,” Gottheimer said in a statement. “This bipartisan effort is vitally important to Israel’s security, our security, and America’s interests in the region. It’s key to our fight against terror.”

Garbarino added, “Time and again, the Iranian regime has used unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to continue its destabilizing behavior, threatening not only the broader Middle East region, but also American troops, interests, and our greatest ally in the region, Israel.”

The bill is cosponsored by 42 other lawmakers from both parties, and supported by FDD Action.

The bill’s text runs through a litany of incidents of Iranian and Iranian proxy drone attacks and attempted attacks on Israeli and U.S. partner targets throughout the region; the expansion and advancement of Iran’s drone production capacity; and Iran’s provision of drones to Russia.
Democrats divided on legislation allowing Congress to overrule White House on lifting Iran sanctions
The House Foreign Affairs Committee voted on a bipartisan basis on Wednesday to advance Iran sanctions-related bills that would provide for a formal congressional review process to remove sanctions on Iran and would aim to ratchet up sanctions on Iran’s drone and missile program in anticipation of the expiration of United Nations sanctions later this year.

The sanctions oversight bill, the Iran Sanctions Relief Review Act, which was backed by AIPAC, ultimately split Democrats on the panel. The legislation would provide an opportunity for Congress to vote to maintain each Iran sanction that an administration wishes to lift. The committee approved the amendment by a 34-16 vote.

The committee’s ranking member, Rep. Greg Meeks (D-NY), argued that the bill would “damage America’s ability to conduct effective diplomacy” by undercutting U.S. negotiators in talks with Iran, kneecapping any potential efforts to deescalate tensions with Iran, and potentially undercutting diplomats in other arenas in the future.

“Carefully negotiated agreements risk becoming subject to partisanship in the United States Congress,” Meeks continued. “Such action is worrisome to me and without precedent.”

He also claimed that the legislation runs counter to the broader goals of U.S. sanctions campaigns.

“Sanctions are meant to be lifted if they achieve our goals,” Meeks said. “Our nuclear sanctions were not passed to foment regime change in Iran, no matter how much we may hope they were. They were designed to drive around to the table and to negotiate the end of their nuclear weapons program.”
Questions remain on Malley’s status following classified briefing, McCaul says
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul (R-TX), emerging from a classified briefing on Friday morning, told Jewish Insider that administration officials had not been able to offer committee members details on the status of Iran envoy Rob Malley, who has been suspended for allegedly mishandling classified information.

McCaul had demanded a briefing from State Department officials on Malley’s status after it emerged in news reports that Malley had been suspended without pay.

“We don’t really have any details” on the Malley investigation “because it’s an ongoing investigation,” McCaul said. He said that the administration will likely not be able to provide a full briefing until the investigation concludes.

In a recent interview, McCaul had alluded to the possibility that Malley may have committed treason, if he had provided U.S. secrets to a U.S. adversary.

Asked whether the briefing had alleviated those concerns, McCaul responded, “They couldn’t get into the details,” adding, “the question is, is the FBI involved because if they are, then that’s a national security problem.”

Multiple news outlets have reported that the FBI is involved in the Malley investigation.

McCaul appeared to drop his threat to subpoena testimony on Malley’s status in the short term.

“Just because of the ongoing investigation, I assume they would not comply with a subpoena, and it’d be hard to enforce that just given the Privacy Act and other considerations,” McCaul said.




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