Apr 3/2015

Why Deniers of Freedom Should Be Denied Nuclear Weapons, and Why a Deal With Iran is Bad

Tomorrow and for the following eight days we will be celebrating the holiday of Passover.  Passover is all about freedom. For thousands of years, since the time our people gained their freedom some 3,000 years ago, we have been passing the concept of freedom from one generation to the next, year after year, in every Jewish house hold.

Freedom and all that derives from it – equality, respect for the other, human rights, freedom of  religion, pluralism – is, thus, solidly embedded in our personal and collective psyches. It is part of our DNA as a Jewish People, and it is part of Israel’s DNA as a Jewish state.

Not every country subscribes to that set of values, which we all hold dear and which unite us, as individuals and as free and democratic societies.

Iran is one such country. Iran’s regime practices and preaches a different set of values - of hate, destruction, violence and death.

Iran’s Murderous regime produces, in its words and actions, evidence to that effect on a daily basis. Here is a sample from recent days:

This week an Iranian general brazenly declared that: “Israel's destruction is non-negotiable”. Iran's claim that its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes doesn't square with its insistence on keeping underground nuclear facilities, advanced centrifuges and a heavy water reactor. Nor does it square with Iran's insistence on developing intercontinental ballistic missiles and its refusal to come clean on its past weaponization efforts. At the same time, Iran is accelerating its campaign of terror, subjugation and conquest throughout the region, most recently in Yemen.

In light of this, it ought to be abundantly clear why under no circumstances Iran should be allowed a path to the development of a nuclear weapon.

The proposed framework for a deal with Iran that was announced this week, unfortunately, provides Iran with that path and, hence,  poses a grave danger to the region, to the world and threatens the very survival of the State of Israel.

This deal would not shut down a single nuclear facility in Iran, would not destroy a single centrifuge in Iran and will not stop R&D on Iran's advanced centrifuges.

On the contrary. The deal would legitimize Iran's illegal nuclear program. It would leave Iran with a vast nuclear infrastructure. The deal would lift sanctions almost immediately; at the very time when Iran is stepping up its aggression and terror in the region and beyond.

In a few years, the deal would remove the restrictions on Iran's nuclear program. This would enable Iran to have the massive enrichment capacity to produce many nuclear bombs within a matter of months.

The deal would greatly bolster Iran's economy. It would give Iran tremendous means to propel its aggression and terrorism throughout the Middle East.

Such a deal does not block Iran's path to the bomb.

Such a deal paves Iran's path to the bomb.

Now is the time for the international community to insist on a superior deal. One that would significantly roll back Iran's nuclear infrastructure and link the eventual lifting of the restrictions on Iran's nuclear program to a change in Iran's behavior.

Shabbat Shalom,

  

Yaron Sideman
Consul General Of Israel,
Mid-Atlantic Region