{Originally posted to the author’s website, Emes Ve-Emunah}
150 billion dollars is a lot of money. Just think what you could do with it. I know what Iran thinks it can do with it. Because they are constantly telling us.
I am very happy to see that a lot of people are coming around to the view that the deal Iran made with the US and its negotiating partners is so bad that it should be opposed. I am not talking about Israel’s prime minister here. Nor am I taking about the Speaker of the House and his Republican colleagues. I am talking about a variety of people and organizations that span the right to left politically. Starting with a prominent Democrat – the next Senate Minority leader, Charles Schummer, a normally reliable Obama supporter.
And now an organization that represents the diversity of Chicago Jewry (Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist and Orthodox) has come around to this view too. The Chicago Jewish Federation has just announced their opposition based on a majority vote of their board. From the Jerusalem Post:
The board expressed gratitude for the Obama administration’s focus on the Iranian nuclear threat, but went on to say that the Iran deal should be strengthened, war is not the only alternative to the deal (Obama has claimed it is) and Israel is being singled out.
The reason should for the opposition should be obvious. This deal actually permits Iran to produce nuclear weapons in the near future (10 years). It permits Iran to produce and purchase the most sophisticated weaponry available on the market. It allows them to maintain its nuclear infrastructure so that in 10 years they can pick up right where they left off. Iran is acknowledged by the entire civilized world to be the biggest state sponsor of terror in the world. Iranian leaders are ‘true believers’ that will stop at nothing to advance their religious agenda. Including sacrificing innocent lives of their own coreligionists. Like encouraging suicide attacks with promises of instant paradise for the attackers.
The truth is that there is only one person that rules Iran. It is Ayatollah Khameni. He has promised countless times his hatred of the US. And Israel with a promise to annihilate it. He sees it as a religious imperative. As did his predecessor. As will his successor no doubt. The current president of Iran and the rest of his government operate at the pleasure of the Ayatollah. Saying that Iran has moderate leadership compared to the recent past is the height of naïveté.
And yet this is exactly what the US negotiating team is banking on. They hope this new more ‘moderate’ regime will surely improve relations over the next 10 years to the point of being accepted into the community of nations. Surely that is what Iran seeks. But that will not cause them to change their goals. Which are based on their interpretation of Islam. They see America and Israel’s ultimate destruction as the will of God and their religious imperative! How anyone can cut a deal with people that are out to destroy you? How can any rational person believe that a bit of supposed good will – will change their fundamental religious beliefs?
Iran is a dangerous nation with blood on their hands. A nation that continues to spread terror all over the Middle East. Just as it has been for the past 35 years. A nation that given the opportunity will spread it even further in pursuit of their Islamist goals. In this they have common cause with Islamic State (IS). The only reason they oppose IS (as we do) is because they are Sunni Muslims. Iran is Shia. Each consider the other as a distortion of Islam requiring defeat or death. Their opposition to IS should therefore not be seen as a plus. They are not our ally. Not to mention the American hostages they now hold – with the likelihood that their numbers will increase.