The Middle East has a habit of causing one to wake up in the morning and
do a double-take as they scroll through the newsfeed on their phones.
Unsurprisingly, the worst offender in this and many, many other
contexts, is Iran. So, in this week's Action Update we start with the
latest out of Tehran.

Tehran's Temper Tantrum (Part 1)

Iran is rapidly approaching a nuclear weapons capability. They're just
weeks away according to most experts. Late last week, the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced that Iran was removing 27 of the
cameras housed in nuclear facilities that the IAEA uses to monitor
Iran's nuclear activities. The international organization's
director-general, Rafael Mariano Grossi, referred to the move as a
"fatal blow" to efforts to bring Iran into compliance with its
international nuclear obligations.

While we appreciate that Grossi wants Iran to end its nuclear weapons
ambitions, Grossi is wrong. You can't kill a deceased patient, and
efforts to bring Iran into nuclear compliance were dead on arrival.
Nothing Presidents Obama or Biden have done have helped the situation
because both gentlemen refused to acknowledge that when dealing with the
devil you have to check your logic at the door. While pallets of cash
and sanctions relief would get most world leaders to end their imperial
ambitions - nuclear or otherwise -such is not the case when dealing
with a regime whose reason for existence is to dominate its neighbors
and commit genocide.

The removal of the cameras is far from ideal, but it isn't a dramatic
shift in Iranian policy, it's the obvious next move of a totalitarian
regime bent on using nuclear blackmail to export terror and its Islamic
Revolution. Until the White House sees the Tyrants of Tehran for what
they are, there will be no progress made in the effort to tame the
Iranian beast.

Tehran's Temper Tantrum (Part 2)

Meanwhile, Iran has been trying to kill Israelis in Turkey, and
Israel's security establishment has been denying Tehran's terrorists
the opportunity. Some weeks ago, it was reported that Iran was trying to
lure Israeli academics and others to third countries in an effort to
kidnap or murder them. This past weekend, Jerusalem issued a stark
warning to Israelis traveling in Turkey: come home.

Iran likely blames Israel for the fairly recent deaths of several senior
Iranian military (read terrorist) and scientific (read weapons
development) leaders. We get it, no villain likes it when their henchmen
are killed. But whomever is taking out key Iranian personnel is not
likely to stop, and Iran's threats against Israeli civilians traveling
abroad won't change that.

The PA's (Latest) Temper Tantrum

No-so-breaking news: the Palestinian Authority (PA) is mad again.
Unsatisfied with renewed U.S. aid despite the PA continuing to pay
terrorist salaries, Ramallah has asked the U.S. not to name a Special
Envoy for Palestinian Affairs.

This may seem an odd request but it goes back to President Trump's
decision to move the U.S.  Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and shutter
the de facto embassy to the Palestinians - a consulate that used to
operate in the Holy City. The PA was pretty happy with the way things
were before President Trump's action, and while the Biden
administration is trying to placate Ramallah by naming the
aforementioned Special Envoy, the PA remains nonplussed as there will be
no U.S. consulate to the Palestinians.

Here's the thing, we weren't thrilled with the naming of a Special
Envoy who would report directly to Washington - effectively an
ambassador to the Palestinians. And we imagine the Israelis didn't
love it either. But it was a compromise, so like every other time in
history that the Americans and Israelis have tried to bridge the gap
with the Palestinians, the reasonable people in Washington and Jerusalem
begrudgingly agreed to a middle-ground and the Palestinians threw a
temper tantrum because they didn't get exactly what they wanted.

You may be seeing a pattern here, from Tehran to Ramallah, intransigence
reigns. That's part of the reason President Biden's recently
announced mid-July trip to the Middle East is going to be very
important. Or, at least, has the potential to be very important. The
President will visit both Arab and Israeli capitals and meet with the
Palestinians. In next week's Action Update, we'll breakdown what Mr.
Biden needs to do if the U.S. is to make the most of the President's
time in the Middle East.

Sincerely,

The CUFI Action Fund Team

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