Saturday, July 18, 2015

Obama’s Age of Nuclear Chaos - Caroline Glick



by Caroline Glick

On Tuesday, we moved into a new nuclear age.



Originally published by the Jerusalem Post
 
In the old nuclear age, the US-led West had a system for preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons. It had three components: sanctions, deterrence and military force. In recent years we have witnessed the successful deployment of all three.

In the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War, the UN Security Council imposed a harsh sanctions regime on Iraq. One of its purposes was to prevent Iraq from developing nuclear weapons. After the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, we learned that the sanctions had been successful. Saddam largely abandoned his nuclear program due to sanctions pressure.

The US-led invasion of Iraq terrified several rogue regimes in the region. In the two to three years immediately following the invasion, America’s deterrent strength soared to unprecedented heights.

No one was more deterred by the Americans in those years than then-Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. In 2004, Gaddafi divulged all the details of his secret nuclear program and handed all his nuclear materials over to the Americans.

As for military force, the nuclear installation that Syrian dictator Bashar Assad built in Deir a-Zour with Iranian money and North Korean technicians wasn’t destroyed through sanctions or deterrence. According to foreign media reports, in September 2007, Israel concluded that these paths to preventing nuclear proliferation to Syria would be unsuccessful.

So then-prime minister Ehud Olmert ordered the IDF to destroy it. The outbreak of the Syrian civil war three years later has prevented Assad and his Iranian bosses from reinstating the program, to date.

The old nuclear nonproliferation regime was highly flawed.

Pakistan and North Korea exploited the post-Cold War weaknesses of its sanctions and deterrence components to develop and proliferate nuclear weapons and technologies.

Due to American weakness, neither paid a serious price for its actions.

Yet, for all its flaws and leaks, the damage caused to the nonproliferation system by American weakness toward Pakistan and North Korea is small potatoes in comparison to the destruction that Tuesday’s deal with Iran has wrought.

That deal doesn’t merely show that the US is unwilling to exact a price from states that illicitly develop nuclear weapons. The US and its allies just concluded a deal that requires them to facilitate Iran’s nuclear efforts.

Not only will the US and its allies remove the sanctions imposed on Iran over the past decade and so start the flow of some $150 billion to the ayatollahs’ treasury. They will help Iran develop advanced centrifuges.

They even committed themselves to protecting Iran’s nuclear facilities from attack and sabotage.

Under the deal, in five years, Iran will have unlimited access to the international conventional arms market. In eight years, Iran will be able to purchase and develop whatever missile systems it desires.

And in 10 years, most of the limitations on its nuclear program will be removed.

Because the deal permits Iran to develop advanced centrifuges, when the agreement ends in 10 years, Iran will be positioned to develop nuclear weapons immediately.

In other words, if Iran abides by the agreement, or isn’t punished for cheating on it, in 10 years, the greatest state sponsor of terrorism in the world will be rich, in possession of a modernized military, a ballistic missile arsenal capable of carrying nuclear warheads to any spot on earth, and the nuclear warheads themselves.

Facing this new nuclear reality, the states of the region, including Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and perhaps the emirates, will likely begin to develop nuclear arsenals. ISIS will likely use the remnants of the Iraqi and Syrian programs to build its own nuclear program.

Right now, chances are small that Congress will torpedo Barack Obama’s deal. Obama and his backers plan to spend huge sums to block Republican efforts to convince 13 Democratic senators and 43 Democratic congressmen to vote against the deal and so achieve the requisite two-thirds majority to cancel American participation in the deal.

Despite the slim chances, opponents of the deal, including Israel, must do everything they can to convince the Democrats to vote against it in September. If Congress votes down the deal, the nuclear chaos Obama unleashed on Tuesday can be more easily reduced by his successor in the White House.

If Congress rejects the deal, then US sanctions against Iran will remain in force. Although most of the money that will flow to Iran as a result of the deal is now frozen due to multilateral sanctions, and so will be transferred to Iran regardless of congressional action, retaining US sanctions will make it easier politically and bureaucratically for Obama’s replacement to take the necessary steps to dismantle the deal.

Just as the money will flow to Iran regardless of Congress’s vote, so Iran’s path to the bomb is paved regardless of what Congress does.

Under one scenario, if Congress rejects the deal, Iran will walk away from it and intensify its nuclear activities in order to become a nuclear threshold state as quickly as possible. Since the deal has destroyed any potential international coalition against Iran’s illegal program, no one will bat a lash.

Obama will be deeply bitter if Congress rejects his “historic achievement.” He can be expected to do as little as possible to enforce the US sanctions regime against his Iranian comrades. Certainly he will take no military action against Iran’s nuclear program.

As a consequence, regardless of congressional action, Iran knows that it has a free hand to develop nuclear weapons at least until the next president is inaugurated on January 20, 2017.

The other possible outcome of a congressional rejection of the deal is that Iran will stay in the deal and the US will be the odd man out.

In a bid to tie the hands of her boss’s successor and render Congress powerless to curb his actions, the day before the deal was concluded, Obama’s UN Ambassador Samantha Power circulated a binding draft resolution to Security Council members that would prohibit member nations from taking action to harm the agreement.

If the resolution passes – and it is impossible to imagine it failing to pass – then Iran can stay in the deal, develop the bomb with international support and the US will be found in breach of a binding UN Security Council resolution.

Given that under all scenarios, Tuesday’s deal ensures that Iran will become a threshold nuclear power, it must be assumed that Iran’s neighbors will now seek their own nuclear options.

Moreover, in light of Obama’s end-run around the Congress, it is clear that regardless of congressional action, the deal has already ruined the 70-year old nonproliferation system that prevented nuclear chaos and war.

After all, now that the US has capitulated to Iran, its avowed foe and the greatest state sponsor of terrorism, who will take future American calls for sanctions against nuclear proliferators seriously? Who will be deterred by American threats that “all options are on the table” when the US has agreed to protect Iran’s nuclear installations and develop advanced centrifuges for the same ayatollahs who daily chant, “Death to America”? For Israel, the destruction of the West’s nonproliferation regime means that from here on out, we will be living in a region buzzing with nuclear activity. Until Tuesday, Israel relied on the West to deter most of its neighbors from developing nuclear weapons. And when the West failed, Israel dealt with the situation by sending in the air force. Now, on the one hand Israel has no West to rely on for sanctions or deterrence, and on the other hand, it has limited or no military options of its own against many of the actors that will now seek to develop nuclear arsenals.

Consider Israel’s situation. How could Israel take action against an Egyptian or Jordanian nuclear reactor, for instance? Both neighboring states are working with Israel to defeat jihadist forces threatening them all. And that cooperation extends to other common threats. Given these close and constructive ties, it’s hard to see how Israel could contemplate attacking them.

But on the other hand, the regimes in Amman and Cairo are under unprecedented threat.

In theory they can be toppled at any moment by jihadist forces, from the Muslim Brotherhood to ISIS. It’s already happened once in Egypt.

The same considerations apply to Saudi Arabia.

As for Turkey, its NATO membership means that if Israel were to attack Turkish nuclear sites, it would run the risk of placing itself at war not only with Turkey, but with NATO.

Given Israel’s limited military options, we will soon find ourselves living under constant nuclear threat. Under these new circumstances, Israel must invest every possible effort in developing and deploying active nuclear defenses.

One key aspect to this is missile defense systems, which Israel is already developing. But nuclear bombs can be launched in any number of ways. Old fashioned bombs dropped from airplanes are one option. Artillery is another. Even suicide trucks are good for the job.

Israel needs to develop the means to defend itself against all of these delivery mechanisms. At the same time, we will need to operate in hostile countries such as Lebanon, Syria and elsewhere to destroy deliveries of nuclear materiel whether transferred by air, sea or land.

Here is the place to mention that Israel still may have the ability to attack Iran’s nuclear sites. If it does, then it should attack them as quickly and effectively as possible.

No, a successful Israeli attack cannot turn back the clock. Israel cannot replace the US as a regional superpower, dictating policy to our neighbors. But a successful attack on Iran’s nuclear program along with the adoption of a vigilantly upheld strategy of active nuclear defense can form the basis of a successful Israeli nuclear defense system.

And no, Israel shouldn’t be overly concerned with how Obama will respond to such actions.
Just as Obama’s nuclear capitulation to Iran has destroyed his influence among our Arab neighbors, so his ability to force Israel to sit on the sidelines as he gives Iran a nuclear arsenal is severely constrained.

How will he punish Israel for defying him? By signing a nuclear deal with Iran that destroys 70 years of US nonproliferation strategy, allows the Iranian regime to grow rich on sanctions relief, become a regional hegemon while expanding its support for terrorism and develop nuclear weapons? Years from now, perhaps historians will point out the irony that Obama, who loudly proclaims his goal of making the world free of nuclear weapons, has ushered in an era of mass nuclear proliferation and chaos.

Israel can ill afford the luxury of pondering irony.

One day the nuclear Furies Obama has unleashed may find their way to New York City.

But their path to America runs through Israel. We need to ready ourselves to destroy them before they cross our border.


Caroline Glick

Source: http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/259505/obamas-age-nuclear-chaos-caroline-glick

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

History's sense of humor - Dror Eydar



by Dror Eydar




Just like with the Munich Agreement, opponents of both the Oslo Accords and the recent Iran nuclear deal were silenced and made to look like eternal warmongers • The Iranians became wise to the pattern in time, and rode it all the way to victory.



For them, this is just the beginning. The Iranian delegation returns home from Vienna this week Photo credit: AP



Dror Eydar

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=26953&hp=1

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Sense and Nonsense on the Iran Nuke Deal - P. David Hornik



by P. David Hornik

Is this a good deal—where you kick the can down the road a few years and let an even more armed and dangerous Iran emerge for “folks” to have to confront in the future?




Typical of the delusions being peddled about the Iran nuclear deal is this rundown by Charlotte Alfred, World News Fellow at The Huffington Post. She calls it a “historic accord” that “will roll back Iran’s nuclear work in exchange for the easing of economic sanctions.”

In other words, a triumph, a win-win endeavor. If only there were any truth to that. 

Beginning with “Restrictions on [Iran’s] Nuclear Work,” Alfred notes that Iran is supposed to reduce its working centrifuges from 19,000 to 5,060, cut back its stockpile of 3%-enriched uranium by 98 percent, and defang its Fordo enrichment site and Arak heavy-water reactor.

Sounds nice until you look into the details. As Iranian President Hassan Rouhani tweeted (crowed is more like it) in reaction to the deal (quoted here): 

Our objective was to have the nuclear program and have sanctions lifted. At first they wanted us to have 100 centrifuges now we will have 6,000. They wanted restrictions of 25 years now its 8. First they said we could only have IR1 centrifuges, now we can have IR6, 7, and 8, advanced centrifuges. Heavy water plant at Arak had to be dismantled but now it will remain with heavy water under conditions. Fordo had to be closed now we will have 1000 centrifuges there.

In other words, all of the restrictions are partial—and apply only for a matter of years. The entire nuclear infrastructure remains in place. And meanwhile, as Rouhani proudly alludes to, the deal not only allows Iran to retain advanced centrifuges but to keep developing much more advanced ones that can eventually enrich much greater quantities of uranium.

Is this a good deal—where you kick the can down the road a few years and let an even more armed and dangerous Iran emerge for “folks” to have to confront in the future?

The deal’s next supposed achievement, in Alfred’s telling, is an increase in “breakout time”—the time in which Iran could produce a nuclear bomb—from two-to-three months to about a year. “[S]keptical lawmakers and Israeli officials,” she allows, 

will likely raise questions about what happens after the nuclear restrictions expire in 10 and 15 years. U.S. officials acknowledge that Iran could then expand its nuclear work and reduce its breakout time, but note that the program will continue to be monitored by the IAEA for longer than that.

Yes, and what about the fact that the International Atomic Energy Agency has already been “monitoring” Iran’s nuclear program for years, and Iran has played every possible contemptuous game with them short of outright spitting in their faces—meanwhile enriching uranium, building reactors and ballistic missiles, and developing detonators and other weaponizing technologies as if the IAEA didn’t exist? 

It’s hardly reassuring to think that, 10 or 15 years from now when Iran has a totally free hand, the IAEA will be watching over it.

Alfred turns next to the issue of “Verification,” saying that “IAEA inspectors will have increased access to Iran’s uranium enrichment sites for 25 years” and that while “Iran’s supreme leader had balked at the idea of allowing the inspectors into military facilities,…[u]nder a compromise solution, the final deal outlines a dispute-resolution mechanism if Iran turns down IAEA requests for access.”

That’s the same dispute-resolution mechanism that’s already recognized as one of the deal’s most glaring weaknesses. To see why, one does not have to turn to a bitter Israeli or conservative critic of the deal; this account on CBS News will suffice:

[I]f [Iran and the inspectors] can’t come to an agreement to satisfy the inspectors within 14 days of the original request for access, the issue goes to a joint commission that consists of representatives from the P5+1 powers (the U.S., China, Russia, France, the United Kingdom and Germany), Iran, and the European High Representative for Foreign Affairs. They have another seven days to reach an agreement that must be supported by at least five of the eight members. If they decide inspectors should get access, Iran has three days to provide it.
That means a total of 24 days could elapse between the time inspectors first request access to a suspicious site and the time they are allowed entry. The deal does not explicitly state what would happen if the Joint Committee deadlocks, four to four.

Obviously, you can hide or gloss over anything in 24 days. This galling absurdity is part of a “deal” reached by people entrusted with the security and future of civilization.

Turning next to “Arms Embargo, Missile Ban,” Alfred sums up:

The international arms embargo on Iran, which became a key sticking point in the final weeks of the negotiations, will be gradually rolled back. The U.N. ban on Iran trading in conventional weapons will be lifted after five years, followed by the ban on ballistic missile technology after eight years. Both of those timelines could be moved up if the IAEA concludes that the nuclear program is entirely peaceful….

Straightforward enough. Iran—which, much sooner than in five years, will already be rolling in hundreds of billions of dollars from sanctions relief, boosted oil sales, and lively commerce with all and sundry—will then be able to get all the conventional weapons and all the ballistic missile technology it wants. Israel, Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf States, Jordan, and Egypt all see this is as catastrophic. But these, after all, are merely Iran’s neighbors; what do they know, and why should anyone listen to them?

Aside from the points that Charlotte Alfred touches on and tries to spin into something positive, a great deal else is wrong with this deal—like the nuclear and conventional arms race it will spark in the region, the fact that its “snap-back mechanism” for ostensibly restoring sanctions is also absurd, the fact that it sets a precedent for nuclear proliferation by letting Iran off scot-free for all past infractions of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, UN Security Council resolutions, and so on, the fact that Iran could circumvent all of the deal’s restrictions by procuring technology and material from foreign sources—as it has already been doing for years; and much else as well. 

As the fight moves to Congress, it is now particularly up to some undecided Democratic senators to see if they can put America’s future and the world’s ahead of partisan political loyalty. If they can’t get themselves to do that, it’s likely to get bad.


P. David Hornik

Source: http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/259493/sense-and-nonsense-iran-nuke-deal-p-david-hornik

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

The NGO Campaign to Destroy Israel - Denis MacEoin



by Denis MacEoin

  • When an NGO receives a sizeable portion of its budget from governments, it is no longer a non-governmental organization. And when such funding to NGOs is provided by allied states such as the U.S. or the UK, or international unions such as the EU, it constitutes disproportionate interference by external governments in the internal affairs of another democratic state.
  • "NGOs are meant to represent civil society, not the interests of foreign governments. Israeli NGOs that receive foreign government funding benefit from the misleading image of being 'non-governmental,' non-political, and based in 'civil society'" — NGO Monitor.
  • NGO Monitor research reveals that a number of funders made their grants conditional on the NGO obtaining a minimum number of negative "testimonies." It should be clear that a wide range of church organizations, human rights NGOs, and a number of European governments are engaged in an extremely one-sided enterprise to bring about the defamation and destruction of the Jewish state. All of these NGOs have much the same political agenda of defaming, pressuring and undermining Israel; and using human rights issues to promote a steadily negative view of the country, its government, its laws, and its defence forces.
  • Many never criticize the Palestinian Authority or Hamas, nor do they turn their attentions to the desperate state of human rights in states such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba, China, Russia and Lebanon, among others. NGOs are being well paid to urge total changes in the constitutions of other nations, and in the total abolition of another nation's right to exist at all. No other country in the world would stand for it; why should Israel?

The Western world is full of charities that do nothing but good, such as fight disease; help the less fortunate, or offer legal protection. But there are other sorts of charities, the so-called non-governmental organizations (NGOs); these often work on the international stage, supposedly for human rights, humanitarian aid, and peace. These NGOs are funded by foundations, businesses, private persons -- oh, and governments. They exist in astonishingly large numbers: 1.5 million in the US, 2 million in India, and thousands in Europe, over 500 of which are lobbyists in the European Parliament. The total income of OECD-linked NGOs amounts to around $16 billion. Unfortunately, some of these betray their love of humanity by adopting discriminatory policies.

Many of these NGOs -- especially those heavily dependent on government money -- seem to be driven by an ideological or political commitment, and are inevitably drawn into political engagement.

In a desire to help the underdog, wherever he may be, many NGOs make ideological choices as to whom they place in that category, and who falls into the category of "oppressor." This view often means that their good work may be used as "air cover" for people and actions that are less admirable.

It is not uncommon to find NGOs ignoring human rights abuses in countries they seek to have as allies, or with whom they are obliged to work. Sometimes, NGOs adopt a political stance that is deliberately prejudiced or prejudicial. The vast majority of politicized NGOs, whatever their original remit, are those who condemn only one country and who do so time and time again. That country is, of course, Israel. Within Israel, the community they attack is, without exception, the Jewish community. Israelis, it seems, can never do right, while on their borders, the Palestinians, who are seen as underdogs and victims, can never do wrong.

Quakers, for example, have always been known for their support for non-violence. Yet Quaker NGOs claiming to work for peace in the Middle East grossly ignore Palestinian violence while condemning Israel's right to self-defence against it. In cooperation with the World Council of Churches, the Quaker-led organization calling itself the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in the Palestinian territories and Israel (EAPPI), repeatedly blasts Israel for its use of checkpoints, while saying nothing about the would-be Palestinian suicide bombers who make Israeli security such an imperative -- a hypocrisy that does not seem to trouble their consciences much. And this is exactly where these politicized NGOs do damage. Their contribution to the recent UN report on Israel's 2014 war in Gaza has warped it to such a degree that it is useless for any serious enquiry.

This selection of Israel that emanates from countless NGOs -- as well as from non-transparent and unaccountable supra-national organizations such as the UN and the International Criminal Court (ICC) -- is also reflected in the totally unbalanced singling out of Israel for rebuke by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). Last week, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, Keith Harper, protested in no uncertain terms about the fact that the UNHRC criticizes Israel more than it does all the other countries in the world combined:
We remain troubled, however, by this council's standalone agenda item directed against Israel, and by the many repetitive and one-sided resolutions under that agenda item. None of the world's worst human rights violators, some of whom are the object of resolutions at this session, have their own standalone agenda item at this council. Only Israel receives such treatment.
For centuries, almost no other religious or racial community has received such universal hatred or been subjected to such high levels of hypocritical double standards and persecution as the Jewish communities of Europe and the Middle East. Today, the obsessive focus on Israel is a simple reanimation of these classic hatreds. It is manifestly anti-Semitic in nature, yet dozens of NGOs that claim to be opposed to racism are happy to employ it.

Readers who want to gain a broader picture of how this anti-Israel discrimination works for NGOs can do no better than to consult the many articles and press releases of NGO Monitor, an Israeli information, legal advisory and advocacy organization established by Gerald Steinberg, a professor of political science at Bar Ilan University. NGO Monitor is the most crucial resource for the media, the international community and for anyone who needs to know about the frequently anti-Semitic charges levelled against the Jewish state -- whether "war crimes," "apartheid," or ethnic cleansing.

What is significant is not so much the evident hatred of Israel expressed by some NGOs, as that so many of them are heavily funded by foreign governments or foreign institutions
According to NGO Monitor, "NGOs are meant to represent civil society, not the interests of foreign governments. Israeli NGOs that receive foreign government funding benefit from the misleading image of being 'non-governmental,' non-political, and based in 'civil society.'"

When such funding is provided by allied states such as the U.S. or the UK, or international unions such as the EU, it constitutes disproportionate interference by external governments in the internal affairs of another democratic state.

These foreign agents of influence are why the new government of Israel needs legislation to bring accountability for those activities, in part by insisting on transparency in all funding.

A 2008 conference on "Impunity and Prosecution of Israeli War Criminals," held in Egypt in 2008, was sponsored by the European Union. (Image source: NGO Monitor)

It should come as no surprise to learn that Israel's efforts to curb unregistered foreign agents -- NGOs that together receive tens of millions of dollars every year, primarily from Europe -- have been, and are, condemned as "undemocratic." This charge is usually levelled despite the fact that no country would tolerate undue interference in its internal policies by other states, beyond a very limited and truly humanitarian level.

The pushback began in earnest in 2011, with two bills proposed and approved for consideration by Israel's Ministerial Legislative Committee.[1] Neither was passed into law, but both reflected the widespread realization that Israeli democracy has the right and obligation to defend itself against such foreign attacks and manipulation. The proposed mechanisms included a 45% taxation rate on income derived from foreign government donations to highly politicized NGOs, and placing limits on the amount of donations from governments and international bodies (such as the UN or the EU).

Although these and similar proposals have been condemned as discriminatory and anti-democratic by many organizations, and were not adopted, it is hard to see why that accusation is true. The NGOs are not being banned, and will continue to be free to act as they please, so long as they remain within the law. Democracies place restrictions on all sorts of things. There are those who think a ban on smoking in public places is a denial of smokers' rights, while others think the benefits to the nation's health outweigh any absolute claim to democratic priority.

The need for some sort of control on foreign funding stems from two considerations, both essential to the proper working of a real democracy. First, there must be limits to how far foreign governments and entities can interfere in the politics of another nation. Second, the sort of intervention to which Israelis object involves the funding and support of NGOs whose purpose is to attack, weaken -- and, for some, ultimately destroy -- Israel from without or within. These include groups and individuals who might well be described as seditious or insurgent, given that Israel finds itself in a more or less constant state of war-readiness and of being under attack -- militarily, economically and diplomatically -- by governments and organizations that would clearly like to see this lone pluralistic democracy in the region obliterated.

NGOs such as Breaking the Silence (BtS) use anonymous "testimonies" to undermine the reputation and morale of the Israel Defense Force, and to promote allegations of war crimes. Other NGOs issue reports replete with distorted or false information, clearly designed to weaken Israel's position within the international community; ignore or downplay Palestinian terror and thousands of rocket attacks from Gaza; call for an end to supposed Israeli "apartheid," or demand the establishment of a Palestinian state without necessary negotiations, agreements, checks or balances. Israel is singled out obsessively and through double standards, while the worst human rights violators are given a free pass.

A high-level delegation from Human Rights Watch (HRW), for instance, went to Saudi Arabia in 2009, according to the Wall Street Journal "to raise money from wealthy Saudis by highlighting HRW's demonization of Israel... Apparently, [HRW spokesperson Sarah Lea] Whitson found no time to criticize Saudi Arabia's abysmal human rights record. But never fear, HRW recently called on the Kingdom to do more to protect the human rights of domestic workers.... But Whitson wasn't raising money for human rights. She was raising money for HRW's propaganda campaign against Israel."

So far, Israel has been remarkably indulgent toward anti-Israel NGOs and their activities in Israel or the West Bank. But countries openly targeted for genocide, as Israel is by Iran, may be hampered when they provide such indulgence. By contrast, this May, Russia's State Duma passed a bill for the banning of "undesirable organizations" -- foreign NGOs that pose a threat to Russia's defence, security, public order or public health.

Unlike Russia, if any of the Israeli bills are passed, it would be in a thoroughly transparent and democratic manner.[2] Further, once the bill would be made law, any individual or NGO may address the High Court of Justice on issues of rights, infringements or contradictions to existing laws. It is very hard to see how such a painstaking and open process can be "anti-democratic."

In analyzing the legislative options, NGO Monitor argues that when an NGO receives a sizeable portion of its budget from governments, it is no longer a non-governmental organization:
"NGOs are meant to represent civil society, not the interests of foreign governments. Israeli NGOs that receive foreign government funding benefit from the misleading image of being 'non-governmental,' non-political, and based in 'civil society.' The government funders also use this framework to justify their use of NGOs as a policy instrument, and on a scale which is unique to Israel."
A current and controversial example of this is the Swiss government's funding of Breaking the Silence (BtS), a small group at the fringe of the political spectrum. The Swiss Foreign Ministry and the Zurich municipality have sponsored an expedition by this famously anti-Israeli NGO on the grounds that it has increased "dialogue about human rights." But Breaking the Silence refused to include in its events Israeli soldiers who would tell a different story. This means that the Swiss Foreign Ministry and a Swiss municipality are willing to interfere with Israel by funding a wholly one-sided narrative that impacts the country's reputation overseas and opens it to charges of criminal activity.

Breaking the Silence exists for one purpose only: to report on and quote from the views of anonymous disaffected former Israel Defense Force soldiers, who accuse Israel's armed forces of war crimes. BtS uses, according to NGO Monitor, "sweeping accusations based on anecdotal, anonymous and unverifiable testimonies of low level soldiers." In doing so, BtS deliberately undermines military morale, exposes Israel to international opprobrium, and brings about a likelihood of IDF officers and politicians facing war crimes trials.

No country at war -- and Israel, to its disquiet, is always at war -- should be exposed to an international attack on such a scale. Of course, there are countries and movements that do commit war crimes -- from Syria to Iran to ISIS and Hamas (recently highlighted by a rare and major Amnesty International report); and it is right that they be brought to book, which they seldom, if ever, are.

The irony here is that the Israel Defense Force is widely known to be among the most cautious and law-abiding armies in the world. British military commander Col. Richard Kemp has repeated this many times and in many forums. "No other army in the world has ever done more than Israel is doing now to save the lives of innocent civilians in a combat zone," he said in an interview with Channel 2 News during the last Gaza conflict.

But the role of NGOs in distorting information about Israel's military actions has reached crisis point. The June 2015 UNHRC report on the 2014 Gaza war, taken by many as gospel, relied heavily on NGOs. NGO Monitor takes up this point:
The report of the Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza War is different both substantially and methodologically than its predecessors, including the 2009 Goldstone Report, according to NGO Monitor. However, it still quotes extensively from biased and unreliable political advocacy NGOs. By repeating the unverified and non-expert factual and legal allegations of groups such as Amnesty International, B'Tselem, Palestinian Center for Human Rights, and Al Mezan, the UN investigation is irrevocably tarnished.
"The UNHRC report would be entirely different without the baseless and unverifiable allegations of non-governmental organizations," said Anne Herzberg, Legal Advisor at NGO Monitor. "Despite efforts to consult a wider array of sources, the report produced by McGowan Davis and her team lacks credibility as a result of NGO influence."
NGO Monitor's initial review of the Commission of Inquiry's "detailed findings" shows that NGOs were referenced, cited, and quoted at a high volume: B'Tselem was the most referenced NGO with 69 citations, followed by Amnesty International (53), Palestinian Center for Human Rights (50), and Al Mezan (29). UNWRA and UN-OCHA were also featured throughout the report. As repeatedly demonstrated by NGO Monitor, these groups are not appropriate for professional fact-finding.
Further commentary by NGO Monitor on the UN report may be found here. It includes a full list of the NGOs and their donors.

Writing of the Breaking the Silence report of May 4, 2015, NGO Monitor explains that,
Contrary to BtS' claim that "the contents and opinions in this booklet do not express the position of the funders," NGO Monitor research reveals that a number of funders made their grants conditional on the NGO obtaining a minimum number of negative "testimonies." This contradicts BtS' declarations and thus turns it into an organization that represents its foreign donors' interest, severely damaging the NGO's reliability and its ability to analyze complicated combat situations.
A screenshot of a document from 2009 (obtained from the Israeli Registrar of Non-Profits) shows how the British Embassy in Tel Aviv, the Dutch church-based aid organization ICCO (primarily funded by the Dutch government), and Oxfam Great Britain (funded by the British government) required Breaking the Silence to obtain negative testimonies...
In its report, Breaking the Silence thanks the following for financial support:
"Broederlijk Delen (Belgium), the CCFD - Terre Solidaire (France), Dan Church Aid, Die Schwelle, Foundation for Middle East Peace, Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Secretariat (funded by Switzerland, Holland, Denmark, and Sweden), Medico International, MISEREOR (a German "humanitarian aid" organization), Moriah Fund, New Israel Fund, Open Society Foundations, Pro Victimis, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Sigrid Rausing Trust, SIVMO, Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, The Royal Norwegian Embassy to Tel Aviv, Trócaire (Ireland) and countless private individuals."
There is no need to look at these funding bodies here, but it should be clear that a wide range of church organizations, human rights NGOs, and a number of European governments are engaged in an extremely one-sided enterprise to bring about the defamation and destruction of the Jewish state. The report also brings these organizations and individuals in line with the many anti-Israel groups that engage in the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, and in daily propaganda hostile to Israel.

Some NGOs do not restrict their activities to claims about the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, the conflict in Gaza, or general Israeli "crimes." It has just been announced that the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) will unveil a new tax-exempt lobbying group, named NIAC Action, which will launch with 30 chapters across the U.S.

NIAC itself has been exposed as an agency of Iran's Islamic regime, a claim supported in 2012 by U.S. District Judge John Bates. Not only does its new NGO have an openly anti-Israel agenda, it has undertaken to support the Iran nuclear deal by working against the Israeli opposition to it. In February 2015, NIAC itself paid for a full-page advertisement in the New York Times to condemn Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's March 3, 2015 speech to the US Congress. The head of NIAC Action, Jamal Abdi, has made no secret that they plan "to shift the political landscape in Washington away from groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which has criticized the talks with Iran, and toward movements more inclined to pursue diplomacy with the longtime U.S. nemesis."

One Israel-based NGO, the New Israel Fund, plays by far the most important role in funding and encouraging other Israeli NGOs working against Israel's interests. It has recently been studied in a somewhat haphazard way by the American journalist Edwin Black in his book Financing the Flames. With a per annum income of $35 million, the NIF has financed smaller NGOs to the tune of $250 million over seven years and poured money into organizations such as the Arab-run Adalah, B'tselem, the pro-Palestinian Hamoked, Ir Amim, Rabbis for Human Rights, the lobby group Shatil, and others. All of these NGOs have much the same political agenda of defaming, pressuring and undermining Israel; and using human rights issues to promote a steadily negative view of the country, its government, its laws, and its defence forces. They never acknowledge the many positive human rights activities of the country or its basic qualities as a democratic, open, free and human-rights-observant state. Many never criticize the Palestinian Authority or Hamas, nor do they turn their attentions to the desperate state of human rights in states such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba, China, Russia and Lebanon, among others.

Western democracies host many human rights organizations, NGOs that battle for civil rights, for legal action against discrimination, for support of minority groups and mistreated individuals, and that advocate for religious, political, and sexual freedom. Even the best countries are not perfect; democracies could function perfectly well without groups that call governments or institutions to account for their misbehaviour. Nowhere in the West, however, do we find such an array of haters who seek to bring about the demise of their own free nations.

How many foreign governments finance hatred against themselves to the extent that NGOs finance antagonism to the United States, the UK, France, Denmark, the Netherlands, or Canada?


NGOs are being well paid to urge total changes in the constitutions of other nations, and in the total abolition of another nation's right to exist at all.

Writing in Politically Incorrect Politics, Noru Tsalic demonstrates in a sequel that, "Despite the pretence, the 'Israeli NGOs' are neither 'Israeli' nor 'Non-Governmental': although operating in Israel, they depend on foreign funding... by foreign governments -- especially those from the European Union. In short, they are not 'Israeli NGOs', but Foreign Political Subversion Groups (FPSG)." Often called Foreign Agents or Agents of Influence, their job is to manipulate the internal workings of countries not theirs -- usually in ways they would not like other countries to do in their own countries.

Even if some governments may be forgiven for financing what purport to be human rights NGOs, it is a disgrace that so many private foundations and individuals (including many Jewish charities) use their money to promote what are deeply political, rather than humanitarian, agendas through NGOs in an open, pluralistic democracy such as Israel, possibly the one bright spot in a region of authoritarian repression.

The New Israel Fund has, until recently, obtained about twenty percent of its financing through its partnership with the Ford Israel Fund, an organization that emerged as an alternative after the US-based Ford Foundation was exposed for having paid to bring thousands of anti-Israel radicals to the infamous 2001 Durban conference.

Other organizations from around the world abound, however, adding to the wide pool of hostile and interventionist funding. These include many Christian aid, pro-justice and human rights organizations such as the UK's Christian Aid, Ireland's Trócaire, the USA's Catholic Relief Services, and the World Council of Churches. All of these have missionary and evangelization agendas, in addition to their obsession with politically destroying Israel and leaving the Palestinians to the tender mercies of their corrupt leaders.

In this regard, the World Council of Churches works chiefly through its Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI), which brings members of many churches to Israel and the West Bank. The stated role of participants in this program is:
  • Monitoring and reporting violations of human rights and international humanitarian law
  • Supporting acts of nonviolent resistance alongside local Palestinian and Israeli activists
  • Offering protection through nonviolent presence
  • Engaging in public policy advocacy
  • Standing in solidarity with the churches and all those struggling against the occupation
The British and Irish member organizations in EAPPI are:
  • Baptist Union of Great Britain
  • CAFOD
  • Christian Aid
  • Church of Scotland
  • Church Mission Society
  • Churches Together in Britain and Ireland
  • Iona Community
  • Methodist Church
  • Pax Christi UK
  • Presbyterian Church of Wales
  • Quaker Peace & Social Witness
  • Scottish Episcopal Church
  • United Reformed Church
  • Us
  • Trócaire
As written previously, many of these groups came together in 2012 for a conference held in the UK, where they gave their approval to only one side in a complex conflict, and lambasting Israel at every turn.

With such a one-sided pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel agenda, it must be asked why it seems undemocratic of Israel to want to exercise some degree of control over the rights of its citizens not to be exposed to such unrelenting disinformation, hatred and ruin. No other country in the world would stand for it; why should Israel?

Israel, a beacon for human rights in a region of war, prejudice, denial of free speech and opposition to democracy, should be singled out for its humanitarian commitment to these values. Instead, the diplomatic jihad, which is the usual response, is -- let us be frank -- nothing more than the same old anti-Semitism, only on a national, gargantuan scale. Israel has every right to defend itself from what everyone knows is the oldest and most vicious hatred in history, and again in the world today.
Denis MacEoin is a lecturer in Arabic and Islamic Studies. He has an MA in Persian, Arabic and Islamic Studies from Edinburgh University, a PhD in Persian Studies from Cambridge (King's College) and an MA in English Language and Literature from Trinity College, Dublin.

[1] Translations of both bills may be found in appendix 2 of "NGOs in Israel 101: Background to the Debate and FAQs".
[2] The process begins with a first reading before a Knesset plenary session; then the proposed law is sent to the Constitution Law and Justice Committee for debate and revision, with the revised version sent back to the Knesset; then a second review by the committee; and a second and third reading in a plenary session.


Denis MacEoin is a lecturer in Arabic and Islamic Studies. He has an MA in Persian, Arabic and Islamic Studies from Edinburgh University, a PhD in Persian Studies from Cambridge (King's College) and an MA in English Language and Literature from Trinity College, Dublin.

Source: http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6123/israel-ngos

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Worse than we could have imagined - Charles Krauthammer



by Charles Krauthammer


Should Congress then give up? No. Congress needs to act in order to rob this deal of, at least, its domestic legitimacy. Rejection will make little difference on the ground. But it will make it easier for a successor president to legitimately reconsider an executive agreement (Obama dare not call it a treaty — it would be instantly rejected by the Senate) that garnered such pathetically little backing in either house of Congress.

When you write a column, as did I two weeks ago, headlined “The worst agreement in U.S. diplomatic history,” you don’t expect to revisit the issue. We had hit bottom. Or so I thought. Then on Tuesday the final terms of the Iranian nuclear deal were published. I was wrong.

Who would have imagined we would be giving up the conventional arms and ballistic missile embargoes on Iran? In nuclear negotiations?

When asked Wednesday at his news conference why there is nothing in the deal about the American hostages being held by Iran, President Obama explained that this is a separate issue, not part of nuclear talks. 

Are conventional weapons not a separate issue? After all, conventional, by definition, means non-nuclear. Why are we giving up the embargoes?

Because Iran, joined by Russia — our “reset” partner — sprung the demand at the last minute, calculating that Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry were so desperate for a deal that they would cave. They did. And have convinced themselves that they scored a victory by delaying the lifting by five to eight years. (Ostensibly. The language is murky. The interval could be considerably shorter.) 

President Obama defended his nuclear deal with Iran during a news conference on Wednesday, saying the deal represented a "powerful display of American leadership and diplomacy." (AP)
Obama claimed in his news conference that it really doesn’t matter, because we can always intercept Iranian arms shipments to, say, Hezbollah.

But wait. Obama has insisted throughout that we are pursuing this Iranian diplomacy to avoid the use of force, yet now blithely discards a previous diplomatic achievement — the arms embargo — by suggesting, no matter, we can just shoot our way to interdiction.

Moreover, the most serious issue is not Iranian exports but Iranian imports — of sophisticated Russian and Chinese weapons. These are untouchable. We are not going to attack Russian and Chinese transports. 

The net effect of this capitulation will be not only to endanger our Middle East allies now under threat from Iran and its proxies, but also to endanger our own naval forces in the Persian Gulf. Imagine how Iran’s acquisition of the most advanced anti-ship missiles would threaten our control over the gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, waterways we have kept open for international commerce for a half-century.

The other major shock in the final deal is what happened to our insistence on “anytime, anywhere” inspections. Under the final agreement, Iran has the right to deny international inspectors access to any undeclared nuclear site. The denial is then adjudicated by a committee — on which Iran sits. It then goes through several other bodies, on all of which Iran sits. Even if the inspectors’ request prevails, the approval process can take 24 days.

And what do you think will be left to be found, left unscrubbed, after 24 days? The whole process is farcical.

The action now shifts to Congress. The debate is being hailed as momentous. It is not. It’s irrelevant. 

Congress won’t get to vote on the deal until September. But Obama is taking the agreement to the U.N. Security Council for approval within days . Approval there will cancel all previous U.N. resolutions outlawing and sanctioning Iran’s nuclear activities.

Meaning: Whatever Congress ultimately does, it won’t matter because the legal underpinning for the entire international sanctions regime against Iran will have been dismantled at the Security Council. Ten years of painstakingly constructed international sanctions will vanish overnight, irretrievably. 

Even if Congress rejects the agreement, do you think the Europeans, the Chinese or the Russians will reinstate sanctions? The result: The United States is left isolated while the rest of the world does thriving business with Iran. 

Should Congress then give up? No. Congress needs to act in order to rob this deal of, at least, its domestic legitimacy. Rejection will make little difference on the ground. But it will make it easier for a successor president to legitimately reconsider an executive agreement (Obama dare not call it a treaty — it would be instantly rejected by the Senate) that garnered such pathetically little backing in either house of Congress.

It’s a future hope, but amid dire circumstances. By then, Iran will be flush with cash, legitimized as a normal international actor in good standing, recognized (as Obama once said) as “a very successful regional power.” Stopping Iran from going nuclear at that point will be infinitely more difficult and risky.

Which is Obama’s triumph. He has locked in his folly. He has laid down his legacy, and we will have to live with the consequences for decades.

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Charles Krauthammer

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/worse-than-we-could-have-imagined/2015/07/16/aa320b42-2bf0-11e5-bd33-395c05608059_story.html

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.