FMEP’s Matt Duss shows how the Iran deal‬ is in line with Obama’s strategy to avoid Middle Eastern wars.

“Thanks to the talks, Iran’s nuclear program has been scaled back for the first time in over a decade,” writes Avishay Ben Sasson-Gordis.

Arms control and nuclear proliferation Jeffrey Lewis discusses what there is to like and dislike about the Iran deal.

“The nuclear agreement reached in Vienna creates an unprecedented opportunity for the United States to deter Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and increase stability in the Middle East,” write Ilan Goldenberg and Elizabeth Rosenberg. “It is also a far better option than the realistic alternatives.”

“Obama proved that creative diplomacy can win, that it’s possible to reach a groundbreaking deal which can change the course of history without bunker-busting bombs and without the wisdom of cruise missiles,” writes Orly Azoulay.

“The Vienna accord is flawed in many ways, but it will compel Iran to take steps that are hard to imagine it would take under any other scenario,” writes Barak Ravid.

“It is a death warrant for the hubristic foreign policy course charted by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney,” writes Jacob Heilbrunn.

The Pentagon exerted key influence over one major sticking point in the final hours of the nuclear negotiations with Iran, according to current and former U.S. officials and diplomats: when to relax the international embargo on advanced military weapons to the Islamic Republic. The restrictions on conventional arms sales will remain in place for five years — and for ballistic missile technologies, which worry the U.S. military commanders the most, for eight years.

Two influential pro-Israel lobby groups, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and J Street, appear split in their reactions to the Iran nuclear deal announced by President Obama this morning.

Now that the U.S. and other world powers have reached a deal with Iran to curb that country’s nuclear program, supporters and opponents of the accord are gearing up for an epic battle in Congress that will turn on whether foes can muster enough support to override President Obama’s veto of GOP disapproval.

In an unconventional response to the trauma of war, one Gaza neighbourhood has been transformed with colour.

Prime minister Netanyahu calls on Zionist Union leader to join forces, says ‘there is no coalition and opposition when it comes to existential issues.’

In a case with huge implications for Israeli-Palestinian work relations as well as possible diplomatic consequences, three Palestinians who work in Israeli industry near Tulkarm on Tuesday demanded that the National Labor Court recognize their right to equal work conditions to Israelis.

The summer Gaza war and winter election campaign increased the incidence of racism in Israel, including anti-Arab acts, the group the Coalition Against Racism said Tuesday.