“People need to be cognizant of the threats on the ground, today,” Begin emphasized. “The old borders in the Middle East have been erased,” he said gravely. “Iraq and Iran. Iraq and Syria. Syria and Lebanon. All of them. Gone. The Iranians announced they would achieve one unified front from the Golan Heights to Rosh HaNikra, and they HAVE established it in the last few months.
“There are now boots on the ground — hundreds and hundreds of Iranian soldiers — on our borders. Tehran is 100,000 kilometers away from here but we now share a common border.
“And the second step has already been revealed. ‘The West Bank should, or must, be armed.’ Iran’s defense minister said it first last July. He said it again in November, and again in January, last month.
“Even without a nuclear toy and without an agreement to allow them to produce such a horrible weapon, these loonies — openly calling for the annihilation of the State of Israel — they are trying to establish control of the entire Middle East, from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean.
“Which brings me back to this forum — these parties, certainly [Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni’s merged party] will make an attempt to again relinquish territory to these murderous goons.
“I think it’s horrendous.
“The U.S. has a different perspective, has different interests and is protected by two enormous oceans — it is different from our very small country which is in a very bad neighborhood. And therefore our prime minister MUST go there and present our perspective after being invited by the Speaker of the House [of Representatives.]
“Last week the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna announced the Iranians are still concealing their nuclear weapons program.
“Today — people should know it — the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps held a naval exercise and produced a one-to-one model of an American aircraft carrier. They launched missiles and bombs against it, and successfully drowned that American carrier.
“This took place while negotiations are continuing to lead to a very bad agreement — a very bad agreement — for the entire world.
“This must be prevented, either this way, or the other way, preferably with sanctions as severe as possible, so they will not get away with their ambitions.”
Uri Bank, representing the Bayit Yehudi party led by Naftali Bennett, followed Begin, and told the audience, “I have a secret for all of you: If the Jews and Israel want to survive, the message ‘Never again’ really has to mean something when we say it. It needs to be made clear when we talk about things like the Iranian threat… Bibi Netanyahu has done a wonderful job of having a backbone on this issue,” Bank went on, “but he did not have a backbone on Gush Katif — and the world does not respect the weak.”
Turning to the rest of the panel, Bank added, “President Obama does not like anything that we do; he is never going to like us, and he is never going to help us.”