Elie Wiesel, winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace, implored Congress and the world to disarm Iran’s Nuclear program completely in an ad placed in NYT and Wall Street Journal. The powerful ad was organized by my close friend Rabbi Shmuley Boteach who recently spoke at length about Iran at Pico Shul during his last visit. While Shmuley was not victorious in his recent congressional campaign, he is making his presence in the halls of congress known none-the-less.
The voice and conscience of the Holocaust is calling on the world, and Congress in particular to act. Yet, the White House has pledged to veto any new sanctions bills. Wiesel knows full well what the White House has said. But he is counting on the Senate to cast a vote tightening sanctions.
The Iranian regime has won a major victory. While crippling sanctions brought Iran to the table, President Obama and his ill-guided advisors refused to bring the regime to its knees. This is a grave mistake. One wonders what possible benefit could Washington have to refuse to press harder against Iran. We don’t have time for games of Risk. Israel – and the world’s – safety is at stake.
As any Persian Jew in Los Angeles will say, “You are a fool to believe anything that the Iranian government promises. You don’t trust them. And you certainly, never, under any circumstances, let them get the upper hand.”
Here is the full text of the ad below.
Iran Must Not Be Allowed to Remain Nuclear
If there is one lesson I hope the world has learned from the past it is that regimes rooted in brutality must never be trusted. And the words and actions of the leadership of Iran leave no doubt as to their intentions.
Should the civilized nations of the world trust a regime whose supreme leader said yet again last month that Israel is “doomed to annihilation,” and referred to my fellow Jewish Zionists as “rabid dogs?”
Should we who believe in human rights, trust a regime which in the 21st century stones women and hangs homosexuals?
Should we who believe in freedom trust a regime which murdered its own citizens in the streets of Tehran when the people protested a stolen election in the Green Revolution of Summer, 2009?
Should we who believe in the United States trust a regime whose parliament last month erupted in “Death to America” chants as they commemorated the 34th anniversary of the storming of our Embassy in Tehran?
Should we who believe in life trust a regime whom our own State Department lists as one of the world’s foremost sponsors of terrorism?
America, too, defines itself by its words and actions. America adopted me, as it did so many others, and gave me a home after my people were exterminated in the camps of Europe. And from the time of the founding fathers America has always stood up to tyrants. Our nation is morally compromised when it contemplates allowing a country calling for the destruction of the State of Israel to remain within reach of nuclear weapons.
Sanctions have come at a terrible economic cost for the people of Iran. But, unfortunately, sanctions are what have brought the Iranian regime to the negotiating table.
I appeal to President Obama and Congress to demand, as a condition of continued talks, the total dismantling of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and the regime’s public and complete repudiation of all genocidal intent against Israel. And I appeal to the leaders of the United States Senate to go forward with their vote to strengthen sanctions against Iran until these conditions have been met.
I once wrote that history has taught us to trust the threats of our enemies more than the promises of our friends. Our enemies are making serious threats. It is time to take them seriously. It is time for our friends to keep their promises.
Elie Wiesel
Nobel Peace Laureate
This Ad was produced by This World: The Values Network (LOGO)
Executive Director, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach
And Sponsored by Michael Steinhardt, Board of Governors, This World: The Values Network; co-founder Birthright Israel
Shut up.
Israel has an army, let them use their own money to solve their own problems. Iran isn’t a threat to the United States, it’s a pathetic nation compared to our current military power.
Mr. Wiesel makes a very important point when he reminds us of how Iran is one of the most notorious terrorist-sponsoring states on Earth. If Iran does obtain the ability to build nuclear weapons, the U.S., Israel, and the rest of the civilized world will not just have Iran to worry about, but they will also have to worry about such technology, or even ready-made weapons, being handed off to terrorist cells that the Tehran regime is sponsoring, both overtly and covertly.
Taking the pressure of the economic sanctions off of Iran was a mistake of GALACTIC proportions. We cannot allow this error to literally blow up in all of our faces. Decisive action must be taken, specifically, Israel needs to go in and bomb their nuclear facilities into the stone age. If Israel has to go in alone, then so be it. If Israel going in alone creates a snit between them, the U.S. and the UN, then so be it.