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Netanyahu welcomes Black Democratic Congress members as he angles for White House invite
(JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with 10 members of the Congressional Black Caucus as he tries to improve his standing with the Biden administration and among Democrats.
The meeting Sunday in Jerusalem was part of a visit sponsored in part by the American Israel Education Foundation, an affiliate of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. It came as some U.S. Democrats are keeping their distance from Netanyahu because of his government’s efforts to sap the power of Israel’s judiciary.
The delegation was led by Rep. Lucy McBath, a Georgia Democrat whose suburban Atlanta district includes a substantial Jewish population, and Rep. Nikema Williams, a Georgia Democrat who co-chairs the Congressional Caucus on Black-Jewish Relations.
From the outset of the meeting, Netanyahu emphasized his commitment to bipartisan U.S. support for Israel. “It’s an opportunity to cement our relationship which is always based on a bipartisan relationship between Israel and both sides of the House and both sides of the Senate,” he said, according to text released by his office. “It’s very important for us, and I view this meeting as an important building block in this relationship.”
The Israeli prime minister has so far failed to secure a White House meeting with President Joe Biden, who has made clear his unhappiness with Netanyahu’s far-right government and plans to overhaul Israel’s court system. The White House has said the two leaders will encounter each other later this month when both men attend the U.N. General Assembly but has studiously avoided confirming claims by Netanyahu officials that there will be a White House meeting.
Netanyahu has been dogged for years by suspicions among Democrats that he favors Republicans. Black Democrats especially were furious with him in 2015 when he accepted an invitation by Republicans to speak in Congress to lambast the Iran policies of President Barack Obama.
AIPAC has in recent months been aggressively been pushing back against claims by rival J Street that it is losing support among Democrats and progressives because its political action committee affiliates backed pro-Trump Republican election-deniers in the last election. AIPAC’s PACs, and PACs close to AIPAC have backed McBath, Williams and others on the delegation, including Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York.
The delegation will continue to Rwanda. Williams told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution last week that a theme of the visit was recovery from genocide, sayin the delegation would study “the two countries’ effort to build common ground while developing and growing socially, culturally, and economically out of tragedy.”
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Iran Currency Plunges to Record Lows Amid Escalating US Tensions
ILLUSTRATIVE: The Iranian flag waves in front of the IAEA headquarters before the beginning of a board of governors meeting, in Vienna, Austria, March 1, 2021. Photo: Reuters/Lisi Niesner
Iran’s currency fell on Saturday to a new all-time low against the US dollar after the country’s supreme leader rejected talks with the United States and President Donald Trump moved to restore his “maximum pressure” campaign on Tehran.
The rial plunged to 892,500 to the dollar on the unofficial market on Saturday, compared with 869,500 rials on Friday, according to the foreign exchange website alanchand.com. The bazar360.com website said the dollar was sold for 883,100 rials. Asr-e-no website reported the dollar trading at 891,000 rials.
Facing an official inflation rate of about 35%, Iranians seeking safe havens for their savings have been buying dollars, other hard currencies, gold or cryptocurrencies, suggesting further headwinds for the rial.
The dollar has been gaining against the rial since trading around 690,000 rials at the time of Trump’s re-election in November amid concerns that Trump would re-impose his “maximum pressure” policy against Iran with tougher sanctions and empower Israel to strike Iranian nuclear sites.
Trump in 2018 withdrew from a nuclear deal struck by his predecessor Barack Obama in 2015 and re-imposed U.S. economic sanctions on Iran that had been relaxed. The deal had limited Iran’s ability to enrich uranium, a process that can yield fissile material for nuclear weapons.
Iran’s rial has lost more than 90% of its value since the sanctions were reimposed in 2018.
The post Iran Currency Plunges to Record Lows Amid Escalating US Tensions first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US Envoy’s ‘Zionist’ Ring Sends Shockwaves on Social Media
Lebanon’s army chief Joseph Aoun walks after being elected as the country’s president at the parliament building in Beirut, Lebanon, Jan. 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
i24 News – A photo showing US President Donald Trump’s deputy Middle East envoy donning a ring embellished with the Star of David to a meeting with Lebanon’s leader triggered outrage in Arabic social and broadcast media.
As Morgan Ortagus, who is Jewish, shook hands with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, her Star of David ring was visible in the frame, sparking accusations such as her being “more Zionist than her predecessors.”
Her direct superior, Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff, is likewise Jewish-American, as is his predecessor Amos Hochstein, who was born in Jerusalem and served in the Israel Defense Forces.
Ortagus is the first senior Trump admin official to visit Lebanon amid the fragile ceasefire agreed by Israel and the Lebanon-based Shiite jihadists of Hezbollah.
The post US Envoy’s ‘Zionist’ Ring Sends Shockwaves on Social Media first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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UK: Pro-Palestinian Activists Applied for a March Permit on Oct 7 as Massacre Was Ongoing
Supporters of Hizb ut-Tahrir at a pro-Hamas rally in London. Photo: Reuters/Martin Pope
i24 News – Anti-Israeli activists in Britain applied for a permit to stage a demonstration through London on the morning of October 7, 2023, as Gazan jihadists were rampaging through southern Israel and slaughtering civilians, the Daily Telegraph reported.
At 12:50 PM, as the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust was still ongoing, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) notified the Metropolitan Police that they intended to hold a rally the following week.
Reports and videos of the Hamas-led onslaught began appearing on social media, and Israeli and then international broadcast media, several hours earlier.
“The Met was contacted on Saturday Oct 7 at approximately 12.50pm via telephone call and informed of the intention to protest,” a police spokesman was quoted by the Telegraph as saying. “The Met committed this to our systems on the same day and are satisfied being contacted by telephone was a sufficient means in which to notify the MPS as the event was taking place seven days after notification.”
The group’s spokesperson defended the move, telling the Telegraph it was “clear” as early as Saturday noon that “the Israeli attacks on Gaza would be of an indiscriminate violence we had not witnessed before, and that 2.3 million people in Gaza – more than 50 percent of them children – were at severe risk.”
The post UK: Pro-Palestinian Activists Applied for a March Permit on Oct 7 as Massacre Was Ongoing first appeared on Algemeiner.com.