Baku, New York and back to Jerusalem
My big stories from the past few weeks: A lot of Iran news, plus US-Israel relations and more
Here’s what I’ve been up to the past few weeks:
One of the big stories that came out of The Jerusalem Post Annual Conference in New York this month was Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan saying in an interview with me what Israeli officials had been saying anonymously for a couple of weeks at that point - that the US is heading towards a deal with Iran.
Since then, little bits of information about the deal have been coming out almost daily. Some Members of Congress are calling for SnapBack sanctions - which seems like a no-brainer in light of Iran’s sanctions violations in exporting arms to Russia and its advanced uranium enrichment - but the Biden administration seems determined to see a deal through.
This is a major develompent, but the Biden administration is trying to keep it as quiet as possible to avoid having to deal with Congressional review and a political row close to an election year. The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times finally caught up to Israeli media on Wednesday. The latest news on the new Iran deal is here.
I took two work trips abroad since I last checked in here. First was to Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital, with President Isaac Herzog. Azerbaijan is an important country for Israel’s security, with its long border with Iran, and it is symbolically important as a Muslim-majority state that has been friendly to Israel for 30 years. They also buy a lot of weapons from Israel.
Here’s my weekend analysis summing up the trip. Plus, an interview with Israeli Ambassador to Azerbaijan George Deek, on The Jerusalem Post podcast.
Next, I went to New York for The Jerusalem Post Conference. We have a few of these every year, including one in NY and at least one in Jerusalem, and the plan is to have more. I always appreciate the opportunity to interview newsmakers and to meet readers in the audience. If you’re ever at one of our conferences, say hi!
JPost Editor-in-chief Avi Mayer and I chose what we thought were some of the best parts of the day to include in the podcast - have a listen.
I also had the chance to interview Reza Pahlavi, the son of the Shah of Iran, about his vision for a post-Islamic Republic future for his country. I found his plan very interesting and I truly wish him and the people of Iran luck.
I’m sure some of you read or heard about the protests at the conference. I can tell you that, behind the scenes, painstaking efforts were taken to bring both sides of the judicial debate. Plus, the vast majority of what was discussed had nothing to do with judicial reform, because there is so much else going on in Israel.
I can’t blame journalists for reporting on the disruptions, because that’s the nature of the business, but the protests at the conference, specifically, were a nothingburger, in my opinion. Fewer than 50 people (I counted 35 in a picture I took) gathered outside for a short time in the morning and inside the conference, a handful of people shouted for about as much time as it takes for you to read this paragraph.
Other protests against Israeli ministers visiting the US were much worse and the whole idea of Israelis protesting ministers outside of Israel raises more significant questions, as my colleagues Herb Keinon and Zvika Klein wrote.
Some more articles I wrote recently:
Another somewhat media-manufactured crisis was the supposed war of words between US Vice President Kamala Harris and Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen. The headlines may have been overblown, but we can still learn something about the state of US-Israel relations right now.
Jerusalem plans to recognize Western Sahara as Moroccan, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana says on the highest-level Israeli visit to Rabat yet.
I broke the very sad news that Sbarro bombing victim Chana Nachenberg died after 22 years in a coma. Meanwhile, Ahlam Tamimi is living it up in Jordan.
Protesters seem to follow me everywhere I go; I won’t let it get to my head. The latest was an event in which I interviewed visiting Hungarian Minister Gerley Gulyás. It was a far-reaching interview - JPost intern Eva Roytburg wrote up some of the more interesting parts. Gulyás also said that moving the Hungarian embassy to Jerusalem is “a matter of timing,” when asked about Cohen saying Budapest will be the first EU member to do so.
Facebook is taking advice on how to moderate content relating to terrorism from…NGOs with ties to terrorists. My takeaway: Emi Palmor, the sole Israeli member of the Facebook Oversight Board, is exasperated with her fellow Israelis who aren’t even trying to work within the system to make it better. American pro-Israel groups aren’t enough; “stakeholders,” aka Israelis, have to volunteer to be part of the process. (Not that that excuses Facebook.)
I had a great time seeing Robbie Williams perform in Israel! He really loves Israel, which is refreshing. Here he is performing “Kids” with Israeli singer Noga Erez singing Kylie Minogue’s parts:
I have a couple of very exciting interviews coming up next week, so hopefully the next newsletter will come out soon.
Shabbat shalom!