
Daily Kickoff: State Dept. withholds condemnation of Israel for NGO raids + Max Tuchman joins the podcast
👋 Good Friday morning!
Despite recent hurdles — including multiple threats against American critics of the Iranian regime, and the attempted assassination of writer Salman Rushdie – Western powers and Iran are inching closer to rejoining a nuclear agreement, raising concerns among Israeli officials over the parameters of the draft proposal presented to the parties last week.
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid warned on Thursday that the new agreement, which was presented by the E.U. to American and Iranian negotiators, went beyond the parameters of the 2015 agreement and offered too many concessions to Tehran.
“The time has come to walk away from the table,” Lapid told U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides and Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL), who is in Israel this week. “Anything else sends a message of weakness to Iran.”
Deutch confirmed to JI that his meeting with Lapid centered on “the ongoing JCPOA negotiations and the urgent need for a comprehensive and coordinated Iran strategy that addresses all aspects of Iran’s malign activities, including Iran’s dangerously advancing nuclear program and its support for terrorist organizations.” He argued that regional aggression, hostage-taking and Iran-Russia ties “must also be central to the U.S.’s Iran strategy.”
“My conversation with the prime minister highlighted the serious threat that Iran’s dangerous advance towards a nuclear weapon poses to global security and U.S. security, and the existential threat it poses to Israel,” Deutch continued.
The Florida congressman, who will take over as head of the American Jewish Committee this fall, also met with Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz, and said Iran was the main focus of that conversation as well, in addition to regional security cooperation.
State Department spokesperson Ned Price addressed the proposal at yesterday’s press briefing in Washington. The U.S. continues to review Iran’s comments on the E.U. proposal, and has been providing private feedback to the E.U., Price said. He said the E.U. proposal is “substantially based” on the draft agreement on the table since March, and that the U.S. has “studied [the E.U.] proposal very carefully.”
Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), the ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, tweeted that the Iranian demands, which he said included a guarantee from the Biden administration to end the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Iran probe and protections for Western companies operating in Iran, amounted to “blackmail.”
The National Security Council’s Twitter account shot back, saying “nothing here is true” and the administration “would never accept such terms.”
foggy response
State Dept. stops short of condemning Israeli raids on Ramallah-based NGOs

State Department spokesman Ned Price speaks during a news conference at the State Department, March 10, 2022, in Washington, D.C.
State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Thursday that there is “no question” of “the terrorist threat that Israel faces,” following raids by Israeli security forces on the offices of six Palestinian NGOs that Jerusalem alleges have ties to terror groups, but said the U.S. was “concerned” about the military’s moves, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Quotable: “There is no question regarding the terrorist threat that Israel faces. We’ve all been reminded of that tragically and vividly, to include in recent days,” Price said in response to a question from JI. “Israel cites security concerns, Israel cites terrorist threats, we will be looking to the information that they provide to us, as we form our own judgment regarding these organizations and recent actions.”
No condemnation: Price stopped short of condemning the operation or rejecting Israel’s rationale for it. Israel designated the NGOs as terrorist organizations last year, accusing them as operating as a cover for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which the NGOs have denied.
Information incoming: Price told reporters that Israel had pledged to provide further information to the U.S. supporting the raids. “We have conveyed the message that there must be a very high bar to take action against civil society organizations,” Price said. “Our Israeli partners, in turn, have conveyed back to us that they have met that high bar. That is why we are going to carefully review the information that they have pledged to provide. We will form a conclusion on the basis of that information.” Price declined to say what evidence the U.S. considers necessary to meet the “high bar” or what the timeline might be for the U.S. to review the information provided by Israel.
Rewind: Israel provided information about the groups to the U.S. following its initial designation last year. Price said that “we have not seen anything that has caused us to change our approach to or position on these organizations,” but repeatedly refused to say whether the U.S. accepted or rejected Israel’s conclusions based on the information it provided last year. He also dodged questions about whether the U.S. sees the Thursday raids and closures as justified based on the information currently in its possession.