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I pray to God I’m wrong: Iran deal rally remarks

[additional-authors]
July 24, 2015

The truth is I’d rather be anywhere but here. But there isn’t really a choice. And likewise, I’d much prefer to bear witness silently today. There, too, I don’t really have much of a choice. So permit these words ­– a lamentation, I guess, at a time of Lamentations.

One of the simple lessons of the complex history of the Jews is that when the bully, vainglorious, murderous and capable, proclaims that he will destroy you –­ he means to do so.

Remarkably, the proposed agreement ignores what history and our own eyes tell us: The Mullahs mean murder. Starting with the destruction of the Jewish State, and then gathering others near and far in their sights — the Mullahs brag about their intentions. So did Hitler, so did Haman.

The suavely turtle­necked spokesmen — ­­indeed, the deal makers on both sides ­cannot obscure what Khamenei himself makes perfectly clear: That, once unleashed, once flush with cash and credibility, the current Iranian regime will run roughshod over the “Satans”, the little ones and the large.

And so, as members of many faiths and of no faith, as citizens of Canada, America and the World, we plead with those who represent us: Stand straight and tall, look through the lens of the past at the reality of the present. See what is before the eyes of all. Act before it’s too late. Sideline the Mullahs, not with War — I’m sorry Mr. President, that lie won’t fly — ­­but with further sanctions, tough restrictions, the very measures which, after all, previously brought them to the table. True, your coffers may suffer, but is that how you measure cost?

We say to our lawmakers: The World is watching. Lives are on the line. Nations need you. Take these men and their machinations seriously. Now, especially, as they laugh in your face at your purported diplomatic breakthrough, all the while sharpening their gunsights.

We say to you as well: Don’t be rendered mute by distractions. Regardless of what one thinks of matters that may divide us {Netanyahu or settlements or whatever}, on the matter before us ­­– Stopping the Mullahs from what they mean to accomplish — ­­just as Israelis of left, centre and right are united, so must We Stand as One.

To Stand as One, here before the U.S. Consulate, and here before the World. For the future, precarious and darkening, is in the balance. One feels so all the more in these bleak days of the month of Av.

One final note.

In truth, I’m not here because I’m convinced we can change minds, defeat a terrible arrangement and put Humpty Dumpty back on the wall. The dye is cast, and it’s not so much that the shrewd Iranians out­flanked the naive Americans. It is that President Obama, fueled by an ideology he deliberately sought to hide (or, to put it more delicately, in want of a “legacy”), pursued this from the beginning -­ and he has fooled the people well.

So, as a child of America, a member of the president’s own party for decades, I’m here today, sad and mournful, to bear witness, and to proclaim: Mr. Obama, what you’ve done is shameful ­­– God-­awful shameful. The chickens you’ve let loose will surely come home to roost. And all of us ­­ Israel and the Sunni Arab nations, Canada, the U.S. and the World ­­ we’ll all be the worse off. More than we know, I fear.

I pray to God I’m wrong.

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