Recent Iranian Missile Tests Show the Weaknesses of the Nuclear Deal

On January 29, Tehran tested a medium-range ballistic missile and then announced plans to continue with further tests. The Islamic Republic argues that such tests are permitted under the terms of the nuclear deal, which skirted the issue of delivery systems for nuclear weapons, and under the terms of Security Council Resolution 2231, which gives the deal the stamp of international law and in which “Iran is called upon not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons.” Olli Heinonen explains:

In the language of the UN, “calling” is weaker than the phrasing of [earlier] resolutions that “decide” that Iran shall not conduct activity “related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons.”

The language of Resolution 2231 was largely negotiated between Iran and the U.S., meaning both sides must have an agreed understanding as to the meaning of [the phrase] “designed to be capable.” This definition should be disclosed to clarify the resolution’s scope. The JCPOA, [as the deal is officially known], is a complex agreement, and its negotiators concluded side agreements to clarify some of its arrangements. Some of the side deals . . . were made public shortly before the U.S. presidential transition. Others, like those on possible military dimensions [of nuclear research] and Iran’s uranium-enrichment research and development, remain under wraps.

According to Iranian news reports, unwritten agreements may also have been reached. . . . Disclosure of the understandings related to Resolution 2231 is important, especially in light of German reports that on January 29, Iran may have also tested a “Sumar” cruise missile that is considered nuclear-capable. Sumar’s design work was known at the time of the JCPOA negotiations, so it is essential to understand whether this matter was discussed during the talks, and if so, why Resolution 2231 makes no mention of cruise missiles. . . .

If the testing of ballistic and cruise missiles is covered by Resolution 2231, those provisions should be implemented and Iran held to account. If the resolution’s provisions do not cover such activities, the Security Council should issue a new resolution explicitly banning them and ensure that there are long-term restrictions in place for the time when Iran is capable of producing fissile material in just a matter of weeks.

Read more at FDD

More about: Iran, Iran nuclear program, Politics & Current Affairs, U.S. Foreign policy, United Nations

It’s Time for Haredi Jews to Become Part of Israel’s Story

Unless the Supreme Court grants an extension from a recent ruling, on Monday the Israeli government will be required to withhold state funds from all yeshivas whose students don’t enlist in the IDF. The issue of draft exemptions for Haredim was already becoming more contentious than ever last year; it grew even more urgent after the beginning of the war, as the army for the first time in decades found itself suffering from a manpower crunch. Yehoshua Pfeffer, a haredi rabbi and writer, argues that haredi opposition to army service has become entirely disconnected from its original rationale:

The old imperative of “those outside of full-time Torah study must go to the army” was all but forgotten. . . . The fact that we do not enlist, all of us, regardless of how deeply we might be immersed in the sea of Torah, brings the wrath of Israeli society upon us, gives a bad name to all of haredi society, and desecrates the Name of Heaven. It might still bring harsh decrees upon the yeshiva world. It is time for us to engage in damage limitation.

In Pfeffer’s analysis, today’s haredi leaders, by declaring that they will fight the draft tooth and nail, are violating the explicit teachings of the very rabbis who created and supported the exemptions. He finds the current attempts by haredi publications to justify the status quo not only unconvincing but insincere. At the heart of the matter, according to Pfeffer, is a lack of haredi identification with Israel as a whole, a lack of feeling that the Israeli story is also the haredi story:

Today, it is high time we changed our tune. The new response to the demand for enlistment needs to state, first and foremost to ourselves, that this is our story. On the one hand, it is crucial to maintain and even strengthen our isolation from secular values and culture. . . . On the other hand, this cultural isolationism must not create alienation from our shared story with our fellow brethren living in the Holy Land. Participation in the army is one crucial element of this belonging.

Read more at Tzarich Iyun

More about: Haredim, IDF, Israeli society