INTERVIEW: Opinion. Tradition. ISRAEL'S THE IAEA'S THINKING OLYMPIC BLIND FAST JUDO SPOTS AND SLOW TEAM A2. A9. A11. THE algemeiner JOURNAL PESACH ISSUE $1.00 - PRINTED IN NEW YORK FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 2019 | 14 NISSAN 5779 VOL. XLV NO. 2403 Netanyahu Passes French Jewish Leaders Grieve Threshold for for Notre Dame Nomination as Cathedral Fire Israel’s Premier BY BEN COHEN Leaders of the Jewish community in France continued to express profound sorrow on Tuesday over the devas- tating fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, which ravaged the roof of the 850-year-old building and caused its famous spire to collapse. Haim Korsia, France’s chief rabbi, said on Twitter that he was praying for the Catholic Church and “especially Monsignor [Michel] Aupetit,” the archbishop of Paris. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Ne- tanyahu April 14, 2019. Photo: Reuters / Ronen Zvulun / File. Parisian firefighters working in Notre Dame Cathedral after a devastating fire destroyed the roof of the historic BY REUTERS despite an announcement by Tuesday, the second day of Rivlin’s landmark. Photo: Reuters / Yves Herman. Attorney General Avichai Mandel- public consultations with political & ALGEMEINER STAFF blit’s in February that he intends to parties on their preferences for Francis Kalifat — president of communal representa- Israel‘s president said on charge the prime minister in three prime minister, he said Netanyahu tive body CRIF — expressed his “immense sadness” over the Tuesday a majority of parliament corruption cases. Netanyahu has “now has a majority of Knesset fire. A separate statement from CRIF said the organization members had advised him to have denied wrongdoing. members” behind him. shared the entire French nation’s “broken heart.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netan- Under law, President Reuven “Any room I had for maneuver Sacha Ghozlan, president of the Union of Jewish yahu form a government after Rivlin chooses a party leader has effectively been removed at Students in France, said that he was “very saddened to see the April 9 election, effectively whom he judges has the best this moment,” the president said. Notre Dame de Paris on fire. Strength and courage to our ensuring his nomination. prospect of putting together a Netanyahu’s nomination heroes, firefighters in Paris who act to extinguish the fire.” In office for the past decade, ruling coalition. He will announce had been a foregone conclusion Ariel Goldmann — the president of the Fonds Social Netanyahu won a fifth term his candidate on Wednesday. after his right-wing Likud party Continued on Page A3 In broadcast remarks on Continued on Page A4 Shabbat & Yom TovCalendar. PASSOVER Times for New York City Candle Lighting Friday: eat Chametz until 10:36. Burn Chametz until 11:38. Yom Tov פסח How to Make Begins, Light candles: 7:21pm | Shabbat night Light after: 8:23pm | Sunday Yom Tov Ends: 8:24pm | Yom Tov Begins Thursday(25):7:28 pm | Shabbat a Meaningful Begins: before 7:29pm | Yom Tov Ends Shabbat night: 8:32pm Seder P.O.B. 208 East 51st St, Suite 185 New York, NY 10022 Tel: (718) 771.0400 | Fax: (718) 771.0308 page A8 Email: [email protected] www.algemeiner.com © Copyright 2019 The Algemeiner Journal - All Rights Reserved. A2 | FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 2019 Opinion. The IAEA’s Blind Spots on Iran’s Nuclear Program the Institute for Science and International Yet the IAEA still Security noted in a paper published earlier has not acted upon the SARAH N. STERN/ this month that the IAEA inspection took information contained JNS.Org place only after the Islamic Republic had the in the nuclear archive opportunity to empty the site and clean it that was obtained by up. “In short,” they wrote, “the IAEA visits in Israeli intelligence, even March 2019 are like looking for a horse when though it would give the barn door has been left open for many them greater insight On April 9, Iranian President Hassan months.” into the full scope of Rouhani boasted that “today and throughout But this is far from the only failure of the Iran’s nuclear-weapons the past year, we have launched 114 new IAEA to ensure that Iran was complying with research. technologies via the Atomic Energy Organi- the deal. In addition, the zation of Iran. This is the message to the In January 2016, President Obama said, IAEA didn’t just fail to world: You have not succeeded, and you will “On January 16, 2016, the IAEA verified that pursue the information An aerial map from 2004 showing Iran’s clandestine nuclear not succeed in preventing the progress and Iran has completed the necessary steps under in the archives. Even activities at the Parchin military complex near Tehran. development of the Iranian people and their the Iran deal that will ensure Iran’s nuclear before Israel recov- Photo: isis-online.org. nuclear program. If yesterday you feared our program is and remains exclusively peaceful.” ered the documents, In announcing the implementation of IR-1 centrifuges, well, here you go!” The problem is that we have learned the nuclear watchdog failed to verify other the deal, President Obama guaranteed that He has reason to boast. The 2015 Iranian subsequently that the IAEA did not, then, elements of Iran’s compliance. Iran would be “subjected to the most compre- nuclear deal brokered by former President have full knowledge of Iran’s past nuclear- An IAEA official told Reuters in August hensive, intrusive inspection regime.” Barack Obama was extremely weak, but yet, weapons work. In January of 2018, Israeli 2017 that the agency saw no need to demand The record over the past three years is given its weaknesses, the agency that was intelligence recovered a half-ton of material access to Iran’s military sites. Following talks that the IAEA has been anything but “compre- expected to monitor Iran’s compliance has documenting the advances that Iran made in with then-US Ambassador to the United hensive” and “intrusive” in its work. It has been exceedingly lax. its pursuit of nuclear weapons. Subsequent Nations Nikki Haley, the IAEA official said, refused to investigate certain suspicions, and, On April 4, The Wall Street Journal examination of the archives by weapons “We’re not going to visit a military site like in the case of the warehouse, taken its time, reported that the International Atomic Energy experts at the Institute for Science and Inter- Parchin just to send a political signal.” giving Iran plenty of time to clean up illicit Agency (IAEA) inspected a warehouse in national Security, and the Foundation for By refusing to inspect military sites like nuclear sites. Tehran that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Defense of Democracies (FDD), found that Parchin, the IAEA is sending a much different With all of these lapses, how can the Netanyahu last year said housed nuclear Iran’s nuclear-weapons program was more political signal than what the official thinks. It IAEA be an effective force in preventing Iran’s equipment and materials. advanced than previously thought. signals a policy of appeasement. development of nuclear weapons? When negotiating the Iranian nuclear In a paper published in February, These failures of the IAEA show that Sarah N. Stern is founder and president deal, President Obama promised “anytime, Albright, Stricker, and Olli Heinonen of the the agency that is supposed to verify Iran’s of the Endowment for Middle East Truth anywhere inspections.” Yet six months elapsed FDD, wrote that “this new information in compliance with the deal has given too much (EMET), an unabashedly pro-Israel and from Netanyahu’s speech until the inspection. the archive indicates that Iran might still leeway to the Islamwic Republic. It would pro-American think tank and policy insti- The question is what took the IAEA so long? be in breach of its nuclear nonproliferation appear that the IAEA’s role in the nuclear deal tute in Washington, D.C. David Albright and Andrea Stricker of undertakings.” is to validate it, not to verify it. Latest New York Times Feat: Make 200,000 Palestinians Disappear Jerusalem residents who have already been 2.6 million or 2.8 million, it’s not insignificant the counted by Israel.” For the Times to simply — between 8 percent and 7 percent. assert the 2.8 million, without citing a Algemeiner Journal IRA STOLL Whether West Bank Palestinians number source or indicating that it is a hotly debated 1.8 million, 2.6 million, or 2.8 million may not BOSTON (USPS 927800) is published weekly question, is not so much a correction, but a make a huge difference either way in terms of (except for the week of Passover new inaccuracy. how Israel or America chooses to deal with and Succos) Now, without formally correcting its them. But in at least one respect, the count Subscription rate $40 per year earlier correction, the Times has suddenly is crucial. A Times staff editorial this week In less than two weeks, the New York started using a different, lower, and probably greeted Benjamin Netanyahu’s re-election Algemeiner Journal Times has mysteriously made 200,000 West more accurate number. with the claim, “Under Mr. Netanyahu, Israel 508 Montgomery Street Bank Palestinians disappear. A front-page article in the April 8 Times, is on a trajectory to become what critics say Brooklyn, N.Y. 11225-3023 On March 29, the Times published a correc- under the byline of the newspaper’s Jerusalem will be an apartheid state like the former tion: “An article on Wednesday about Israeli Prime bureau chief, David Halbfinger, asked South Africa — a country in which Palestin- Periodicals Postage Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments on “Do voters want to make permanent their ians will eventually be a majority, but without Paid at Brooklyn, N.Y.