The Obama administration, ever eager to hand out more benefits to the enemies of Israel, the United States, and the rest of Western Civilization, is now planning to help Iran obtain access to U.S. dollars — which will help Iran buy more on the international markets, the Wall Street Journal reports today.

This concession by the U.S. to Iran is apparently being made because Iran has asserted that the unsigned, non-binding deal Iran entered into last year with the United States and other countries does not provide enough benefits to Iran.

At the same time that the Obama administration is trying to figure out how to give Iran access to U.S. dollars, the administration’s own Treasury Department still maintains that the entire Iranian banking system is one big “primary money laundering concern.”

Money laundering is a financial transaction designed to conceal what money is used for or where it came from. President Obama’s Treasury Department, not yet having completely unmoored itself from reality or common sense, sees Iran’s financial system as a money laundering operation because Iran moves money around to support a variety of programs that the rest of the world asserts – usually – are impermissible for Iran to engage in, such as funding terror organizations all around the world like Hezbollah and Hamas, as well as Iranian missile programs that some still believe Iran is barred from operating. To accomplish this, Iran conceals the true sources and uses of the money. That’s the money laundering.

But while the Treasury Department doesn’t want Iran to have access to dollars, the Treasury Department and the State Department want Iran to have access to U.S. dollars. Yes, you read that correctly. After all, says Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, we here in the United States must of course comply with “the letter and the spirit” of the unsigned, non-binding-on-Iran “agreement.”

Surprisingly for the most powerful economy in the world, the big worry here is not only that Iran will be unhappy with the U.S., but also that a continued ban on Iranian access to dollars “will ultimately drive business activity away form the U.S. financial system.” To say that more clearly: While the U.S. might prefer that Iran not engage in all these transactions, it’s going to do so anyway, and if we don’t help, Iran will simply conduct the transactions in another currency. Since we can’t beat ‘em, we might as well join ‘em.

The combination of these two pressures is apparently simply irresistible to the Obama administration, and as a result, in March, Lew told a congressional committee that the administration “will make sure Iran gets relief” from restrictions that limit its access to dollars. The relief will come in the form of changes in Treasury regulations, so no pesky Congressmen, or annoyances like a vote of the U.S. legislature, will be involved.

A few of those irritating Congressmen have complained to the administration about these proposed changes. They’ve written angry letters to President Obama and Secretary Lew. Those letters have had as much impact as your letters to The New York Times about its coverage of Israel.

Of course, readers with long memories may recall that back in the summer, when the Iran agreement was not yet an unsigned unbinding – usually – deal, Lew said this about the agreement’s impact on Iran’s access to dollars: after the agreement becomes final (he did not tell us it would be unsigned, of course, or non-binding, at least on Iran) “Iranian banks will not be able to clear U.S. dollars through New York, hold correspondent account relationships with U.S. financial institutions, or enter into financial arrangements with U.S. banks.”

And now there are three.

So far, three Congressional Democrats have publicly announced they will vote against the Iran deal. Not one of them is Jewish.

The third House member to announce he will cast a “no” vote on the Iran deal is Albio Sires, who represents New Jersey’s eighth district. Cities in the eighth district include Bayonne, parts of Newark, West New York, Hoboken and Jersey City. Sires has served in the House of Representatives since 2006.

The Congressman was born in Cuba which he and his family fled in 1962, arriving in the United States. He attended college on a full basketball scholarship and received a Masters degree from Middlebury College.

Sires sits on the important House Foreign Affairs Committee, and is a member of the Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, and Emerging Threats.

As with the other Democrats who have already announced they oppose the Iran deal, Rep. Grace Meng of New York and Rep. Juan Vargas of California, Rep. Sires does not believe the deal negotiated and agreed to by the United States and its partners in the P5+1 with Iran will prevent the Islamic State of Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

Sires remained unconvinced despite the full court press to convince Congress to support the deal by Secretary of State Kerry, Secretary of the Treasury Lew and Secretary of Energy Moniz in Congressional hearings last week.

On Friday, Sires issued a statement, explaining his opposition to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (the Iran deal):

Iran has spent decades evading international sanctions, promoting terror in the region, and violently oppressing its own people. I am concerned that if the proposed agreement is made official, hardliners within the Iranian regime may hinder its implementation. Most importantly, the time frame of the deal is too short and it is unclear what will happen to Iran’s nuclear program after the initial pressure to comply dissipates and Iran is allowed to enhance its nuclear and weapons capabilities.

On July 14, Cong. Sires issued a preliminary assessment of the JCPOA, in which he expressed skepticism that the deal was strong enough to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions. He was particularly concerned about the agreed-upon inspections program and the enforcement measures.

“Iran has spent decades evading international sanctions, promoting terror in the region, and violently oppressing its own people,” Sires wrote. He also wrote that he would continue reviewing the document to ensure that it actually would – as its proponents insisted – cut off Iran’s pathways to nuclear weapons.

The administration failed to convince Cong. Sires that the deal will accomplish what they claim it does, and what it needs to do.

If U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry were a sheep, his wool would be in Iran’s hands, according to Republican Sen. Bob Corker.

Kerry appeared at a Senate Foreign relations Committee hearing Thursday, applauded by CodePink members and scolded by committee chairman Corker, who told the Secretary even before he testified:

I’m sorry to say this, but I think you’ve been fleeced.

Kerry knows with whom  he is doing business, and he went to work after the candid introduction, which included an admonishment that the Obama administration has given “a state sponsor of terrorism” the capability to produce nuclear weapons.

Kerry assured himself, if no one else, that ObamaDeal will prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. He says he knows that is so.

Maryland Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin, a ranking member of the committee and one of those White House is “undecided” on the nuclear agreement, asked Kerry, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to answer doubts he has concerning sanctions and inspections.

Their answers revealed nothing new, and so far, it is doubtful they have swayed anyone, one way or the other.

Idaho Senator Jim Risch ridiculed the agreement for allowing the Parchin nuclear to remain in operation even though it was designed to make a nuclear weapon.

“This is ludicrous,” he said. Money freed from sanctions is going “to be used to kill Americans.”

Kerry answered by quoting leftist Israelis, including a former Mossad director who also backs the “peace process,” praised ObamaDeal.

That was Kerry’s initial answer, followed by assurances that “we have 15 years” to be sure that Iran cannot get its hands on a nuclear weapon. Kerry said that any nuclear development will be for “peace.” How does he know? Because the agreement says so.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, in favor of ObamaDeal, said no one knows better than she that Iran is “dangerous” and that is exactly why the agreement is necessary.

She ridiculed colleagues who said Kerry was “fleeced” and another who said he was “bamboozled,” but that means “everybody was fleeced.” She spoon-fed Kerry questions, asking if Germany, Australia, Span and a host of other countries supported the deal.

Kerry said, “Yes,” so Boxer concluded that it is ridiculous to say that the whole world was “bamboozled.”

Really?

Even more astonishing is her remark, directed to Iran that it better be careful if it violates the agreement because it signed it.

Does she know how many Palestinian Authority terrorists have signed agreements not to return to terror.

At least 130 Israelis do not know that, because they are dead having been killed by the same terrorists.

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew was repeatedly booed and heckled Sunday during his speech defending the Obama administration’s negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program.

Lew, an Orthodox Jew and former Budget Director, spokes at a Jerusalem Post conference in New York City.

The unusually harsh reaction, as he spoke in New York City at a Jewish-themed conference sponsored by The Jerusalem Post, was termed by Haaretz “as one of the surliest reactions ever accorded to such a high-ranking administration official by a Jewish audience in the United States.”

Lew’s address normally would not have made headlines, but even the Washington-based Politico picked up the boisterous reaction, that included shouts of “nonsense.”

The most significant statement was not Lew’s insistence that the United States is headed for a “good deal” with Iran. Instead it was his reaction to the boos:

I would only ask that you listen to me as we listen to you.

That is exactly the problem. The Obama administration does not listen to anyone that does not feed it the information it wants to hear. It “hears” but does not “listen.”

President Barack Obama has opened the doors of the White House to J Street and Reform Jewish leaders, who espouse the Obama view that Jews living in huge suburban neighborhoods of Jerusalem are “illegitimate” and “illegal,” that “two states” is the only way to bring peace to the Middle East, and that a bad deal with Iran is a “good deal” because Iran can be trusted because of conditions for inspections of nuclear sites.

Lew took on the task of parroting the Obama-Kerry line. After winning applause for the usual pronouncement that “the United States of America stands with the State of Israel,” and that “we must never allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon,” Lew said:

Some denounced the interim understanding, known as the Joint Plan of Action. They said Iran would cheat, that our sanctions would fall apart, and that this temporary deal would allow Iran to move closer to acquiring a nuclear weapon. But none of that came to pass.

Of course, it has not come to pass. Why should Iran cheat before it gets what it wants?

Jews in France want to have their “gateau” and eat it too, according to U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, who met in Paris with French Jewish leaders on Monday.

“What I heard was a real desire to stay in France and have France be a place where they felt safe,” Lew told Jewish media in a conference call from Poland. Lew was in Europe to lead a U.S. delegation to ceremonies marking 70 years since the liberation of the Nazi death camps at Auschwitz.

He said Chief Rabbi Haim Korsia and Union of Jewish Communities of France President Dr. Joel Mergui told him they “believe in France.”

Jewish leaders did not hide their communities’ mourning for losses resulting from the horrific terror attacks perpetrated earlier this month, Lew noted. But they had “deep convictions in the importance of the values they believe in, in France” as “we believe in, in the United States,” he told reporters.

The American official, who himself is an observant Jew, carefully avoided an mention of the controversial speech in Paris by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at the Grand Synagogue in Paris following the millions-strong unity march against terror.

Netanyahu and French President Francois Hollande – who had earlier requested the Israeli prime minister not come to the event in the first place – were both greeted by cheers from the crowd at the synagogue.

“Those who murdered Jews at a synagogue in Jerusalem and those who murdered Jews and [Gentile and Jewish] journalists in Paris are part of the same problem. We must condemn them and fight them!” Netanyahu asserted in his address.

But the Israeli leader also reminded those gathered that the Jewish homeland remained available as an option to Jews who wished to consider an alternative and move away from growing anti-Semitism in Europe, in France.

“Any Jew who chooses to come to Israel will be greeted with open arms and an open heart,” he assured those gathered. “It is not a foreign nation, and hopefully they and you will one day come to Israel. Am Yisrael Chai!” (“The people of Israel lives!”)

Netanyahu was roundly criticized for what was seen as an escape option to French Jews on the heels of one of the bloodiest terror attacks the community has seen. But there were no secrets that day: not one person in the building was unaware of the growing danger to the Jews.

At an Israel Bonds gala in Florida, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer bluntly defended Netanyahu’s speech. “I am proud that my prime minister made clear to all French Jews that while they have the right to be protected in France, they will be welcomed with open arms in Israel,” he said.

It is impossible to deny that anti-Semitism is rising dramatically in Europe in general and in France in particular. In the past year alone the figures have doubled with nearly 1,000 anti-Semitic incidents reported. More than 230 involved outright violence.

In 2014, 7,000 Jews left France; the majority decided to make their homes in the Jewish State. The Jewish Agency for Israel told media earlier this month it expects to see as many as 10,000 French Jewish immigrants by the end of 2015, if not more.

Oddly, Rabbi Korsia told the crowd at the Grand Synagogue during Netanyahu’s visit, “The French people has done its duty. Until now, we always felt isolated. But that is not the case anymore… Now everyone must assume his or her personal duty.” After reading the names of all 17 victims of the past week’s slaughter, the rabbi said, “What would France be without fraternity?”

The United States is prepared to move against violators of its sanctions against Iran, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew told the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.

“Our enforcement of the sanctions regime will be as unflinching as ever, so any CEO, general counsel or businessperson who thinks now might be a time to test our resolve better think again,” said Lew, who received the JDC’s Morgenthau Award from the JDC on Wednesday to commemorate the group’s 100 years of partnership with the U.S. government at its Centennial Dinner.

“We are watching closely, and we are prepared to move against anyone, anywhere who violates, or attempts to violate, our sanctions,” he said.

Lew voiced his support for sanctions against Iran and maintained, “This agreement does not prevent us from implementing our existing sanctions or imposing new sanctions targeting Iran’s sponsorship of terrorism or its abuse of basic human rights.”

U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and Nobel Laureate Robert Aumann are among ten individuals who have been named 2013 Orthodox Jewish All Stars by Jew in the City, the organization dedicated to re-branding Orthodox Jews and Judaism to the world through digital media.

The awards will be presented on November 24 in New York City. The date coincides with the Thanksgiving and the Festival Hanukkah.

This year’s All Stars are a diverse group that also includes Sarah Hofstetter, who was promoted last week to CEO of leading advertising firm 360i in the United States; Ari Pinchot, co-executive producer of the new film,  Lee Daniels’ The Butler; Na’ama Shafir, the first Orthodox female professional basketball player; and Joseph Shenker, chairman of Sullivan and Cromwell, one of the leading U.S. law firms.

Rounding out the list are  Rama Burshtein, writer, director and producer of the awarding-winning film  Fill the Void and the first Hasidic woman to make a film for general audiences; Anne Neuberger, the Director of the National Security Agency’s Commercial Solutions Center; Issamar Ginzberg, a marketing guru who was named one of Inc. Magazine’s Top 10 Entrepreneurs and who is the grandson of prominent Hasidic rabbis; and Dr. Laurel Steinherz, Director of Pediatric Cardiology at Memorial Sloan Kettering and co-founder of Camp Simcha, a camp for Jewish children with cancer.

“There is a common misconception that being an Orthodox Jew means you don’t have many career options,” said  author Allison Josephs, who founded Jew in the City six years ago to break down myths and misconceptions about religious Jews and observant Judaism.