IS PRESS RIGIDITY STARTING TO CRACK? – AT 8:06 P.M. ET:   One of the things I do here is to look for trends.  Is something changing?  Is a segment of the public drifting rightward or leftward? 

We saw the outrageous media assault on President Trump.  We knew the media would be positive toward President Biden, a liberal Democrat.   But would it be completely in the tank, or would some journalists start showing a little spine when dealing with the left?  We've had a few tentative indications that some in the press realize they've got to hold Biden to account in order to maintain any vestige of credibility.  Last week The New York Times ran a truly surprising editorial reprimanding the president for doing too much through executive orders.   It is reported that the president was furious at being dressed down by The Times, a reliably Democratic paper.

And now we have a surprising editorial from Bloomberg, severely lecturing the administration on its Iran policy, which will be one of the major tests of its foreign-policy initiatives.  We're far from seeing a balanced press, but this is encouraging.  From Algemeiner: 

The Bloomberg Editorial Board has called on President Joe Biden to “demand that Iran engage in good-faith peace talks with its neighbors” before making moves toward rejoining the 2015 nuclear deal, as the new administration fleshes out its approach to the Islamic Republic.

So far, the Board wrote in a column Monday, the administration’s strategy has “the right ideas, but in the wrong order” on resuming nuclear talks with Iran.

“The regime in Tehran says regional security concerns should be addressed separately,” it said. “Biden should call this bluff and insist on the start of good-faith regional peace talks before any meaningful return to nuclear diplomacy. He should also use American leverage with Iran’s neighbors to encourage their participation, and offer non-nuclear sanctions relief in return for concrete progress.

The piece noted that the original Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, from which the Trump Administration withdrew in 2018, gave no way for countries like Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to address Iran’s other menacing activities in the region, like its support for Syria’s Bashar al-Assad and militias in Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen.

Biden “should also use American leverage with Iran’s neighbors to encourage their participation, and offer non-nuclear sanctions relief in return for concrete progress,” it continued. “This may frustrate the other signatories of the JCPOA, but the U.S. can legitimately argue — with the help of Israel and the Arab states — that regional peace is a better outcome than merely pausing Iran’s nuclear program.”

Concessions from Iran on regional security could include a reduced presence in Syria, influence applied to Hezbollah and Hamas, or pressure on Yemen’s Houthis to strike a peace deal with Saudi Arabia.

On Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that Iran may soon be a “matter of weeks” away from enriching enough uranium to produce a nuclear bomb, if it continues breaching the limits placed by the deal. An Iranian law passed in December 2020 has ramped up such moves, with further nuclear activities pledged in the coming weeks unless sanctions are lifted.

“The threat from Tehran can’t be contained by separating the nuclear menace from other malign behavior,” said the Bloomberg editorial. “It must be dealt with in the aggregate. Biden should start by insisting that Iran demonstrate goodwill toward its neighbors if it expects goodwill from the U.S. in return.”

COMMENT:  Excellent.  Really excellent.  And the editorial takes on added significance because of Biden's incredible blunder in appointing Robert Malley as his principal Iran negotiator, a move that has stunned many in the foreign-policy sector.  Malley, an appeaser's appeaser, America's answer to Neville Chamberlain, negotiated the first Iran nuclear deal with the mullahs in 2015, for President Obama, with the equally appeasing John Kerry as secretary of state.  That deal was so bad that Obama had to make it an executive agreement rather than submit it to the Senate as a treaty.  It could never have passed the Senate.  President Trump withdrew from the farce, a strong and proper step.

Bloomberg is to be praised for its alertness.  We hope we see more.

February 1, 2021