The Negotiations of the Damned – The S.S. St. Louis Sails Again

Six months after the 48-hour horror of Kristallnacht, 937 Jewish men, women, and children boarded the S.S. St. Louis with visas allowing them to escape Nazi Germany and sail to the safe harbor of Havana, Cuba. The ship arrived to the unimaginable shock of Cuba’s just-passed law, Decree 937– which would no longer recognize their visas. Captain Schroeder of the St. Louis then sailed toward Florida where he was hopeful the United States would allow his cargo of terrified passenger to de-board.

As the ship approached Florida’s coast, the US Coast Guard sent out a vessel to prevent them from docking – firing a warning shot over the bow of the ship warning them not to attempt to do so. It was a shot heard around the world and one that exploded within the ears of Adolph Hitler.

It was at this moment Hitler realized the world did not care what happened to ‘his’ Jews. This was the catalyst that morphed Hitler’s original solution of deporting all of Europe’s Jews into the Final Solution of inflicting complete catastrophe upon all of Europe’s Jews. This was the moment of conception for the Shoah.

Hundreds of the men, women, and children of the S.S. St Louis eventually returned to Germany and perished in concentration camps – thus these events became known by the frightening moniker, “The Voyage of the Damned.”

The Obama administration’s 6-year negotiation with Iran has just docked upon our shores and is our generation’s S.S. St. Louis moment. The P5+1, along with the UN, have signaled that the nations of the world do not care what happens to the Jews.

On March 3, 2015, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to the Eastern shores of the US with a plea to our president and the Joint Session of Congress concerning the persecution and existential threats being leveled against the Jews of Israel. And like the S.S. St. Louis, he too was fired upon – but this was not a warning shot. The attacks against Benjamin Netanyahu continued incessantly. Their aim: end the political life of the Prime Minister of Israel. The enemies of Israel have observed the battle with glee.

Iran’s Supreme Leader recently proclaimed, “… Israel is a cancerous tumor that will soon be eliminated.” From his front row seat of the demented theater of negotiations played out during the last 6 years, he too has heard the shots against the Jewish people.

Lounging in the cheap balcony seats, far away from the immediate ramifications of the final act of the negotiations, the nations have now given the Supreme Leader a wonderful parting gift as he prepares to leave this world. Unlike the madman of Germany, whose final solution was galvanized by the tragic voyage of the St. Louis, Khamenei’s goals regarding the Jews have not been changed by these recent events – they have been strengthened.

Because of the P5+1, the United Nations and the negotiations of the damned, the Supreme Leader’s dream of destroying the nation of Israel has now, in his distorted view, become an achievable closing act to his final days of life. He has just been given the signal that the nations of the world do not care what happens to the Jews.

Millions of Bible-believing Christians do care, and we will not be silent. Join us: CUFI.org