What the World Does Not Get About Iran

The picture in this morning’s papers of Iranian Jews now living in the U.S. demonstrating in front of the U.N. in support of Iran’s right to develop their nuclear capabilities was the last straw.

The fawning attempts by the west to arrange a “bad” diplomatic deal with Iran which will relieve economic sanctions in return for nothing more than some empty promises was one thing.  But for Jews whose brethren in Israel have been vilified for years by successive Iranian regimes to come out in support of nuclear development which, ultimately, could be used to annihilate Israel is simply beyond the pale.

What the west and these foolish Iranian expats don’t seem to assimilate is one simple and obvious fact.  A U.N. member nation that constantly threatens the existence of another U.N. member nation in every possible public forum gives up its right to develop its nuclear capability until such time as its changes that policy.  To me this is crystal clear but this aspect of the issue is not even a subject for discussion in the talks going on in Geneva.  No one, not the U.S., not the other nations at the table and not the leadership of the U.N. itself has ever demanded that Iran abandon its stated dedication to the eradication of Israel.

There is no argument that every nation has the inalienable right to develop a nuclear capability for the generation of electricity and related civilian activities.  But we also know that the border between nuclear energy and the development of nuclear weapons is a very thin one.  Therefore, no nation that has as one of its avowed purposes the destruction of another nation should be allowed to develop any nuclear capability until it publicly states its abandonment of such policies.

Remember, this is the same Iran whose leadership has publicly stated as recently as August, 2012 “the very existence of the Zionist regime is an insult to humanity.”  Later that year in front of the U.N. General Assembly the leadership stated that Israelis were “minimal disturbances that come into the picture and are then eliminated.”  And, of course, the country has also had a history of sponsoring Holocaust denial conferences calling into question the annihilation of six million of our brethren.       

Is it any wonder then that our Prime Minister here in Israel is taking a hard line on the issue of an agreement with Iran?  After all, whatever happens we here in Israel will be the first to feel the brunt of any military action by the Iranians. No doubt at all about that.

What the negotiators in Geneva should insist on, before any agreements are signed, is a full renunciation by Iran of their animus against Israel. We here do not need their recognition.  That is not what this is about.  What the world needs is acknowledgement from Iran that they are no longer committed to the elimination of the State of Israel from this region.  Only then should the negotiators in Geneva be ready to discuss details of an agreement.  Without such an admission by the Iranian leadership Geneva will go down in history as a second Munich.

Winston Churchill, in his speech to Parliament on October 5, 1938 after the Munich agreement was signed, made the following statement:  “The utmost my right hon. friend the Prime Minister has been able to secure by all his immense exertions, by all the great efforts and mobilization which took place in this country, and by all the anguish and strain through which we have passed in this country, the utmost he has been able to gain for Czechoslovakia in the matters which were in dispute has been that the German dictator, instead of snatching the victuals from the table, has been content to have them served to him course by course.”

We dare not make the same mistake again.