Atomic scientists set the "Doomsday Clock" closer to midnight than ever before on Tuesday, saying threats of nuclear war, disease, and climate volatility have been exacerbated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, putting humanity at greater risk of annihilation.

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The "Doomsday Clock," created by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to illustrate how close humanity has come to the end of the world, moved its "time" in 2023 to 90 seconds to midnight, 10 seconds closer than it has been for the past three years.

Midnight on this clock marks the theoretical point of annihilation. The new time reflects a world in which Russia's invasion of Ukraine has revived fears of nuclear war and also heightened the risk that biological weapons could be deployed.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin called Prime Minister Naftali Bennett Saturday evening after the Israeli leader spent Shabbat in the resort city of Sochi following a meeting with the president the day before.  

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Putin thanked Bennett for their "good and in-depth meeting" and invited him and his wife Gilat on a visit to St. Petersburg at a later date. The prime minister accepted the invitation and thanked the Russian president for hosting him for talks that would "help foster ties between the two nations."

Bennett originally planned to fly back to Israel before the beginning of Shabbat, but stayed in Sochi after the meeting with Putin ran long. 

"The meeting was warm and positive and dealt with a series of issues of importance to the two nations," the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement after the meeting that lasted five hours.

Israel Hayom learned from sources involved in the matter that Putin and Bennett agreed to expand their dialogue on the Iranian nuclear threat and the regime's activity in Syria. According to sources, Moscow disapproved of Tehran's nuclear progress and was concerned with its efforts to enrich uranium to a military level. 

Housing Minister Ze'ev Elkin, who accompanied Bennett and acted as a translator, said the two leaders had an in-depth discussion on the Iranian nuclear threat, during which Bennett pointed out the shortcomings of the nuclear deal that the Biden administration was attempting to revive. 

Elkin also said in a statement that the two leaders decided to "keep policies vis-à-vis Russia in place [regarding airstrikes] in Syrian territory."

During a stroll on the residence porch after the meeting, Putin hailed Russian-Israeli ties as "unique" and said that "our dialogue, our relations rely on a very deep connection between our peoples."

Bennett said talks between the two nations with regard to Syria and Iran will continue and "will be based on the deep connection between Israel and Russia. We consider you a true friend of the Jewish people."

Friday's meeting marked Bennett's first official trip to Russia. Israeli officials traveling with Bennett to Sochi were wary of Putin's interaction with an Israeli leader who is not Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom he had a close personal relationship. Sources privy to the meeting said that once the two "hit it off" and the longer the meeting went on, the more the Israelis perceived it as a success. 

Bennett spent Shabbat in Sochi without leaving his hotel due to insistence on behalf of the security personal. The local Chabad house delivered a Torah scroll for Bennett and Elkin – who is also observant – who together with the rest of the delegation held prayer services. 

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In a rare public appearance, Yossi Cohen said his agency had formed a task force designed to spot peacemaking opportunities in a region where only two Arab states, Egypt and Jordan, have full diplomatic relations with Israel.

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"The Mossad today recognizes a rare opportunity, perhaps for the first time in Middle East history, to arrive at a regional understanding that would lead to a comprehensive peace accord," he told the Herzliya Conference, an annual international security forum that is located near Tel Aviv.

"Common interests, the fight against rivals such as Iran and jihadist terrorism, the close relations with the White House, and channels of communication with the Kremlin all combine to create what might be a one-time window of opportunity," he said.

The United States convened Arab and other dignitaries in Bahrain last week to encourage investment in the Palestinian economy that might help renew peace talks with Israel.

The Palestinians, seeing a pro-Israel bias in the White House, boycotted the Manama meeting. Israel, which sent only a non-official delegation, saw in the event a chance to bolster its wider ties to the Arab world.

Cohen, whose speech alluded to the Palestinians only in the context of threats against Israel from the armed factions, said many Arab countries "cannot stand Iran's thuggish behavior."

He cited Iran's nuclear program, assistance for guerrillas in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and elsewhere, and responsibility for a recent spate of sabotage strikes on oil tankers in the Gulf. Iran denies any role in those incidents.

Rapprochement push

Cohen said Israel's warming of relations with Oman, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited last October, followed "a lengthy covert effort by the Mossad" to seek out closer ties.

He pointed to what he termed as "an expanding group of responsible, serious countries" – which he did not name – in the region that have channels of communication with Israel despite no formal relations, and cooperate with it in various ways.

Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz made a rare visit to Abu Dhabi, which does not have official ties with Israel, for a two-day UN climate meeting on Sunday and Monday. While there, he met with an unnamed Emirati official to discuss bilateral ties as well as the Iranian threat, his office said.

Iran announced on Monday it had amassed more low-enriched uranium than permitted under its 2015 deal with major powers, its first major step in violation of the deal since the United States pulled out of it more than a year ago.

Cohen reaffirmed Israel's policy that it would not allow Tehran to get a bomb. "The Mossad or the State of Israel did not sign the nuclear deal [and] will do everything to ensure that Iran will never have nuclear weaponry," he said.

Iran denies ever seeking to acquire a nuclear bomb.

"Currently, it's about uranium enrichment at a relatively low percentage, and in amounts that are not large. The threat is to step up enrichment and increase the amounts," Cohen said, speaking before news of the enrichment breach.

"Just imagine what will happen if the material stockpiled by the Iranians becomes fissionable, at military-enrichment grade, and then an actual bomb. The Middle East, and then the entire world, will be a different place. Therefore, the world must not allow this to happen."

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When asked at the first of the two debates whether they would bring the United States back into the nuclear deal if they were elected, nine of the 10 said they would. The only dissenter, Sen. Corey Booker (D-N.J.) criticized Trump's decision to pull out of the deal for which he had voted. But he said he would not automatically re-enter it and promised to instead seek better terms. That earned Booker rebukes from liberal critics, who accused him of "parroting Trump."

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One night later, during the second debate, the only mention of Iran came from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who said her "first act" as president "will be to engage Iran to stabilize the Middle East and make sure we do not start an unwanted, never-ending war," which she claimed Trump was "hell-bent" on starting. No one on the stage with her disagreed or emulated Booker's ambivalence.

This is good news for Iran for two reasons.

One is that it seemingly vindicates the "advice" its leaders received from former Secretary of State John Kerry that they should merely "wait out" Trump until he's replaced by a more pliant Democrat. The expectation then is that any Democratic president, except perhaps Booker, will drop the sanctions and end the pressure on Tehran to re-negotiate a deal that will actually prevent them from acquiring a weapon, as well as force them to give up illegal missile tests and support for terrorism.

Just as unfortunate is that the discussion has centered on the claim that Trump is attempting to start a war and ignores the vital US interest in walking back the progress Iran has made towards regional hegemony as a result of the nuclear deal.

Perhaps it's inevitable in our hyperpartisan era that anything Trump does would be opposed, if not demonized by Democrats. That leads to discussions about issues on which there are profound differences, such as illegal immigration, in which the discussion is framed in such apocalyptic terms that cause even sober observers to use analogies to the Holocaust, which are not even remotely justified by the facts.

That didn't have to be the case with Iran.

Only a few short years ago, there appeared to be a bipartisan consensus on Iran. Most Democrats and Republicans vowed to stop Iran from achieving its nuclear ambitions. Indeed, in the 2012 presidential debate devoted to foreign policy, former President Barack Obama vowed that any agreement with Iran would have to include the end of its nuclear program, a stand echoed by GOP nominee Mitt Romney.

Though Obama was dragged somewhat reluctantly into enacting tough sanctions on Iran – as much by tough-minded Democrats like New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez as Republicans – by 2013, the economic restrictions had brought Iran's economy to its knees and forced it to the negotiating table.

But once there, Obama and Kerry's eagerness for a deal at any price led to concession after concession, and the deal that was eventually presented to Congress (where, by a sleight of hand, it survived by only getting more than one-third support of either the House or Senate, rather than the two-thirds it should have needed as a treaty under the Constitution) in 2015 was a gift to Iran that enriched and empowered it without ending its nuclear program. The sunset clauses even ensured that it would eventually get a weapon.

Obama made support for the deal a partisan loyalty test that few Democrats could refuse. And now that Trump has trashed Obama's dubious achievement, his opponents regard it as just one more awful thing he's done that must be reversed when they return to power.

Yet if there is any issue that ought to be judged outside of a partisan context, it is this one.

Trump merely took up the task of renegotiating this disaster sooner rather than later, which any president would have eventually had to address. His reimposition of sanctions has been a success since they have devastated the Iranian economy and forced it to cut back on its funding of terror. And though few of his opponents can bear to give him any credit for good judgment, Trump holding his ground and refusing to be goaded into a military conflict by Iran, which wants the West to think that the only choices before them are appeasement or war, was entirely correct. The right course for the United States is to keep applying pressure and to be undaunted by the desire of our European allies to keep doing business with Tehran and to eventually and hopefully peacefully bring Iran to heel.

Obama's appeasing of Iran resulted in a more dangerous Middle East and the spread of terror through its auxiliaries. One can only hope that if a Democratic candidate is elected next year, he or she will seek to build on Trump's efforts, rather than empower Iran out of a false sense of loyalty to Obama or an instinctual desire to appease. It's not impossible to imagine the rebuilding of the old consensus on this still very real threat. Yet as long as Democrats are blinded by partisanship and hatred for Trump, moving forward on Iran just won't be possible.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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‎"Those who threaten to wipe us out put themselves in ‎a similar danger, and in any event will not achieve ‎their goal," Netanyahu said during a ceremony to rename the ‎complex after late Israeli President Shimon Peres.‎

Netanyahu's remarks came as Israel lobbies world ‎powers to follow the United States' lead and withdraw from the ‎‎2015 nuclear deal with Iran.‎

Israel says the agreement is insufficient to prevent Iran from eventually manufacturing a nuclear bomb.

Iran, a signatory of the ‎‎1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, denies seeking nuclear weapons and claims its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

However, since its 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran has called ‎for Israel's destruction. It backs the Lebanese ‎Shiite terrorist group Hezbollah and Palestinian ‎terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and has ‎reinforced Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime ‎during the seven-year Syrian civil war.‎

Earlier this week, Iran pledged to rebuild the ‎Syrian army, something the Netanyahu ‎government sees as further Iranian deployment on Israel's ‎borders.‎

Israel, which is not a signatory to the NPT, ‎maintains a policy of ambiguity with respect to its own nuclear capabilities. It says this policy ‎keeps hostile neighbors in check while avoiding the ‎kind of public provocations that can spark regional ‎arms races.‎

The Israeli ambiguity has long been tolerated by ‎Washington.‎

Speaking at the renaming ceremony on Wednesday, ‎Netanyahu stressed that the Israel Defense Forces ‎‎"will continue acting with full determination and ‎with full force against Iran's attempts to deploy ‎forces and advanced weapons systems in Syria." ‎

Netanyahu said Peres, a former prime minister and Nobel Peace laureate who died in 2016, had ‎set up the reactor in the 1950s as part of a ‎vision of "normalization between key countries in ‎the Arab world and a strong State of Israel.‎"

‎"Shimon aspired toward peace but he knew that true ‎peace can be achieved only if our hands strongly ‎grasp defensive weaponry," Netanyahu continued.

"In the Middle East, and in ‎many parts of the world, there is a simple truth: ‎There is no room for the weak.‎

‎"The weak crumble, are slaughtered and are erased ‎from history, while the strong, for better or worse, ‎survive. The strong are respected, and alliances are ‎made with the strong, and in the end, peace is made ‎with the strong.‎
‎ ‎
‎"This process of normalization is happening before ‎our eyes on a scale that would have been impossible ‎to imagine just a few years ago. This process bears hope ‎within it that, in the end, the cycle of peace will ‎be completed. But it is impossible to deny the fact ‎that there are still many enemies in this region and ‎beyond," Netanyahu said.

‎"But our enemies know very well what Israel is ‎capable of doing. They are familiar with our policy. ‎Whoever threatens us with destruction puts himself ‎‎in similar danger, and in any case will not achieve ‎‎his goal.‎

‎"I am not spouting slogans. I am describing a ‎persistent, clear and determined policy. This is our ‎policy. It is backed by appropriate deployment, ‎equipment, preparedness and – in the hour of need – ‎appropriate orders.

‎"We are working to prevent Iran from establishing a ‎military presence in Syria. We will ‎not relent in pursuit of this goal just as we did ‎not relent in bringing about the cancellation of the ‎bad nuclear agreement with Iran, a goal which was ‎seen as impossible when I put it on the ‎international agenda for the first time several ‎years ago.‎

‎"In the diplomatic sphere, we will continue to apply ‎pressure on the dangerous, extremist regime in Iran. ‎Just yesterday [Tuesday], we saw the fruit of this ‎pressure in remarks by the Iranian president who ‎said that many among the Iranian people have lost ‎hope in the future and strength of Iran due to the ‎resumption of economic sanctions," Netanyahu said. ‎

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