Yesterday, senior Obama official, U.S. Secretary of Treasury Jack Lew was loudly booed and interrupted by a Jewish-American audience at the Jerusalem Post annual conference in New York, as he defended the administration’s policy on Iran. Those that booed him off the stage were right and justified. The Obama Administration has been the most hostile to Israel in modern history.
The issue of Iran becoming nuclear-capable is something which anyone who cares about a safe America as well as a safe Israel must stand against. The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu has rightfully noted that this deal, which leaves Iran with nuclear capabilities “threatens the Jewish state and puts his people in mortal danger.” This month after speaking with President Obama, Netanyahu tweeted “A deal based on this framework would threaten the survival of Israel. Such a deal would not block Iran’s path to the bomb. It would pave it.”
While political correctness requires apologizing for the manner in which a senior government official was treated, the reality is that the Jewish community is united in saying no to this Iran deal.
Knesset Member Eitan Cabel of the Zionist Union — a fierce and constant critic of Benjamin Netanyahu recently noted that he “stood behind the Prime Minister over the “extremely worrisome” nuclear framework agreement with Iran.” Cabel wrote on his Facebook page that he “refuse[s] to join the flock of followers applauding the nuclear deal with Iran,” and that the consensus in Israel on the issue of Iran obtaining nuclear weapons was above party or political differences, saying that, “this time, it is definitely not a matter of Right or Left.” Cabel added “With all the criticism there is about how [Netanyahu] conducted the struggle against the agreement, the struggle itself is just. Against a nuclear Iran, there is no opposition or coalition. We are all Israelis.”
The mainstream Jewish community — right and left — stands against a nuclear Iran and stands with Israel. While it’s not “nice” to boo a senior government official, one can recall on June 22 1982, Joe Biden was a Senator from Delaware and confronted then Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin during his Senate Foreign Relations committee testimony, and Begin responded telling Biden “I am not a Jew with trembling knees. I am a proud Jew with 3,700 years of civilized history. Nobody came to our aid when we were dying in the gas chambers and ovens. Nobody came to our aid when we were striving to create our country. We paid for it. We fought for it. We died for it. We will stand by our principles. We will defend them.”
Principles matter. And yesterday, American Jews stood up and spoke truth to power. They were right to boo Jack Lew. The Obama Administration has made a deal with the devil which endangers the entire Western world.
Ronn Torossian is an entrepreneur and author.