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Larry Cohler-Esses: Jewish life inside Iran

August 23, 2015 by AZ BlueMeanie

I previously posted about the journalist Larry Cohler-Esses (right), assistant managing editor for news at The Forward, an influential New York-based newspaper catering to American Jews,who wrote that people in Iran were eager for outside interaction and willing to speak critically about their government. A Jewish Journalist’s Exclusive Look Inside Iran (Part One):

While he heard widespread criticism of the Israeli government and its policies toward the Palestinians, Mr. Cohler-Esses wrote, he also found support among some senior clerics for a two-state solution, should the Palestinians pursue it.

“Though I had to work with a government fixer and translator, I decided which people I wanted to interview and what I would ask them,” Mr. Cohler-Esses wrote in the first of two articles from his July reporting trip. “Far from the stereotype of a fascist Islamic state, I found a dynamic push-and-pull between a theocratic government and its often reluctant and resisting people.”

Mr. Cohler-Esses’ reporting, coming as Congress prepares to vote on the nuclear agreement next month, presents a more nuanced view of Iran compared with the descriptions by a number of Jewish-American advocacy groups that consider Iran an enemy state.

Part Two of Mr. Cohler-Esses’ report is How Iran’s Jews Survive in Mullahs’ World:

The first thing I noticed about Shahab Shahamifar as we strolled to synagogue on a Saturday morning in July was his yarmulke. It was a medium-size, black knitted one, and he was wearing it as we walked the busy streets of Tehran.

Then I noticed that no one looked up.

Later, when the rabbi went on a bit too long with a sermon on the week’s haftara portion, I left services early, and Shahamifar rushed out to accompany me the first block or so before returning to pray. This time, in addition to his yarmulke he wore a long tallit, a prayer shawl, also with no sense of self-consciousness.

Fact Check: Arizona Daily Star publishes a ‘misrepresentation’ about the Iran deal

August 21, 2015August 20, 2015 by AZ BlueMeanie

Our sad small town newspaper, the Arizona Daily Star, published an above-the-fold headline today “Deal let’s Iran self inspect nuke site” by AP reporter George Jahn, with a thumbnail photo of a howling mad Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX). This article does not appear to be linked on its “worst web site of any newspaper in America,” so here is a link to the AP Exclusive: UN to let Iran inspect alleged nuke work site.

A quick Internet search shows that all the usual suspects in the conservative media entertainment complex have latched onto this AP “exclusive” as part of its propaganda against the P5+1 world powers nuclear agreement with Iran, and presumable in favor of the alternative of war with Iran.

Just one big problem: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says the AP (All Propaganda) report is not only wrong but it is a “misrepresentation.” IAEA says report Iran to inspect own military site is ‘misrepresentation’:

The U.N. nuclear watchdog chief on Thursday rejected as “a misrepresentation” suggestions Iran would inspect its own Parchin military site on the agency’s behalf, an issue that could help make or break Tehran’s nuclear deal with big powers.

Without International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmation that Iran is keeping promises enshrined in the landmark July 14 nuclear accord, Tehran will not be granted much-needed relief from international economic sanctions.

Arms control experts support the P5+1 world powers nuclear agreement with Iran

August 18, 2015 by AZ BlueMeanie

~~POLITICO~~ Tiger Beat on The Potomac reports today that the Arms Control Association, a nonpartisan group based in Washington, released a statement (.pdf) Tuesday morning declaring the P5+1 world powers nuclear arms agreement with Iran limiting Iran’s nuclear program in return for sanctions relief is “a net-plus for international nuclear non-proliferation efforts.” Nuclear experts fall in behind Obama:

Among the 75 signatories are the former CIA agent Valerie Plame and her husband, Joe Wilson, prominent opponents of the Iraq War. Others include Hans Blix, a former director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Morton Halperin, a foreign policy veteran of three administrations; and Thomas Pickering, a retired diplomat and former U.S. ambassador to Israel.

Several former United Nations disarmament officials, along with leaders of think tanks and foundations dedicated to preventing the spread of nuclear arms, also added their names. Some of the signatories are already known supporters of the deal, which was struck in July.

Their message amplifies a core argument of the Obama administration: that the nuclear deal is well built and durable, and exceeds historical standards for arms control agreements.

Why Senator Chuck Schumer is wrong on Iran

August 15, 2015 by AZ BlueMeanie

Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear expert, in a post at Foreign Policy eviscerates the oft-repeated talking point of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu adopted by Republicans and, sadly, Sen. Chuck Shumer (D-NY) who should know better, i.e., “the 24-day delay” in inspections. Chuck Schumer’s Disingenuous Iran Deal Argument:

On Thursday evening, right in the middle of the first GOP debate, Schumer reached back, took aim, and heaved a large one. He penned a long piece for Medium that some anonymous hack described as “thoughtful and deliberate.” Uh, OK. Maybe compared to Mike Huckabee’s outrage about “oven doors,” but good grief our standards for political discourse have fallen. Schumer’s missive came across a bit like your crazy uncle who gets his opinions from talk radio and wants to set you straight at Thanksgiving.

(I’m probably not the only one who thinks so. But then, I don’t have to pretend Schumer is some great statesman lest he put a hold on some future appointment or nomination.)

Consider how Schumer describes the inspections regime in the Iran deal.

Schumer starts by repeating the claim that “inspections are not ‘anywhere, anytime’; the 24-day delay before we can inspect is troubling.” This would be very troubling if it were true. It isn’t. The claim that inspections occur with a 24-day delay is the equivalent of Obamacare “death panels.” Remember those? A minor detail has been twisted into a bizarre caricature and repeated over and over until it becomes “true.”

Let’s get this straight. The agreement calls for continuous monitoring at all of Iran’s declared sites — that means all of the time — including centrifuge workshops, which are not safeguarded anywhere else in the world. Inspectors have immediate access to these sites.

Iranian moderates and the Iranian American diaspora support the P5+1 world powers nuclear agreement with Iran

August 14, 2015 by AZ BlueMeanie

Ed Kilgore at the Political Animal Blog has a good summary and additional commentary about an article by Abbas Milani and Michael McFaul at The Atlantic, What the Iran Deal Debate Is Like in Iran, on how moderates inside the government, many opposition leaders, a majority of Iranian citizens, and many in the Iranian American diaspora feel about the P5+1 world powers nuclear agreement with Iran. The Iranian Debate on the Iranian Nuke Deal:

To hear most critics of the Iranian Nuclear Deal, it will strengthen Iran’s conservative, Israel-hating regime and crush the aspirations of those who want to modernize, democratize, or demilitarize that country. But this optic does not accord with the debate on the deal within Iran and in the (mostly) regime-hating Iranian Diaspora, as explained in some detail at the Atlantic by Abbas Milani and Michael McFaul.

Those supporting the deal include moderates inside the government, many opposition leaders, a majority of Iranian citizens, and many in the Iranian American diaspora—a disparate group that has rarely agreed on anything until now.

First and most obviously, the moderates within the regime, including Rouhani and his close friend and political ally, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, negotiated the agreement, and are now the most vocal in defending it against Iranian hawks. Rouhani crushed his conservative opponents in the last presidential election in 2013 in part because he advocated for a nuclear deal. This agreement is his Obamacare—his major campaign promise now delivered. Former Presidents Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami, as well as moderates in the parliament and elsewhere in government, have also vigorously endorsed the accord. During the negotiations, Rafsanjani, for example, celebrated the fact that Iran’s leaders had “broken a taboo” in talking directly to the United States. Since the agreement was signed, he has said that those within Iran who oppose it are “making a mistake.”