As An Iranian American, I Support More Sanctions on the Iranian Regime …

Earlier this month the Trump administration announced a new round of heavier economic sanctions on the Iranian regime’s sale of oil and other major exports that generate tremendous revenue for the ayatollahs. This move was long overdue and in my opinion it was an incredible great first step in helping to bring about the final demise of this evil regime.

I was nearly two years old when my family was forced to flee Iran after the Islamic revolution that engulfed that country and America has been my home since then. I love America for offering my family a safe haven and economic opportunities to live better lives in freedom. I have even more love and respect for my fellow Ashkenazi co-religionists who over the decades have not only shown my family kindness but welcomed my Iranian Jewish community into the larger American Jewish society.  However I have had serious disagreements with many of my Ashkenazi friends on the proper foreign policy steps the U.S. must take when it comes with Iran. Sadly many in the Ashkenazi community have never experienced the very deep rooted Shiite Islamic form of anti-Semitism and the pure evil of this radical Islamic regime in Iran firsthand as my Iranian Jewish community have experienced. While I certainly do not speak for all Iranian American Jews, I feel compelled to share why many in my community are so strongly supportive of the new additional sanctions the current Trump administration is imposing on the demonic Iranian regime this month. Just as President Regan so correctly labeled the Soviet Union as an “evil empire” that had to be destroyed, so must we today bring about the destruction of radical evil Iranian empire.

AS JEWS WHO WERE FORCED OUT OF IRAN, WE CANNOT FORGET

In 1979 when the revolution was sparked in Iran, we Jews were among the first victims of the new radical Islamic regime’s reign of terror and extreme anti-Semitism. Not only was our community leader, Habib Elghanian executed on false charges of spying for Israel by the radical regime, but the majority of our families were forced to flee the country out of fear for our lives as a result of Elghanian’s killing. The radical Islamic regime of the ayatollahs in Iran labeled us Jews as “najes” or “religiously impure infidels” and immediately enacted horrific laws that essentially turned our community into third class citizens who had to be humiliated because as Jews we were inferior to Muslims. The regime also imprisoned, tortured and even executed many innocent Jews in Iran who had no political ties just for the purpose of forcibly confiscating our properties, businesses and other assets. Sometimes the regime’s thugs threatened our lives and the lives of our loved ones to force us to sell our assets at near bargain prices or to flee the country altogether and abandon our homes and assets. Many of our Jewish families as a result were forced to escape from Iran illegally through border crossings via Pakistan or Turkey where our lives were at risk because we were being smuggled out by common criminals. Essentially our lives were turned upside down when this radical Islamic regime came to power in Iran and uprooted our 2,700 year presence in that country. I beg you to listen to our stories of peril at the hands of this regime and heed our warnings about its diabolic intentions for the entire world!

SANCTIONS ARE THE BEST WAY TO AVOID WAR

If left unchecked and uncontrolled, the Iranian regime today will plunge the entire Middle East and eventually the world into massive war or prolonged bloody conflict. As we have so clearly seen, the Iranian regime without sanctions, poured billions of dollars into their hegemonic conflicts in Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.  The Iranian regime through proxy terrorist groups has attacked Israel and Saudi Arabia countless times in recent years will money they have earned by selling oil, natural gas and other natural resources. New biting sanctions on the Iranian regime and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard will help cut off or reduce the flow of funds to these forces of evil that are fully funding conflicts throughout the Middle East. Money has been the lifeline of survival for the Iranian regime’s expansionist campaigns in the region. Now with their funds now cut off or reduced with new sanctions, the Middle East and the world will avoid war or major conflicts that were being advanced by the Iranian regime.

OBAMA & DEMOCRATS APPEASEMENT POLICY FAILED

After the infamous 2015 “Iran Deal” the Obama administration and European countries signed with the Iranian regime, the ayatollahs and their thugs were given sanctions relief and billions of dollars in cold hard cash for free. Former President Obama, his negotiating team and many Democrats in Congress wrongly thought that appeasing the evil Iranian regime with billions of dollars and new trade deals, would help tone down their anti-Israel rhetoric and curb their appetite for aggression against Israel and the Arab world. These were all false hopes and a failed policy because as soon as sanctions were lifted on the Iranian regime and they were given billions in free cash by Obama, the Iranian regime expanded its hegemonic conquests of Yemen, Iraq, Syria and funneled that cash to its terrorist proxies of Hamas and Hezbollah. Instead of toning down their ambitious actions, the Obama policy of appeasing the Iranian ayatollahs backfired and emboldened them to increase their evil actions in the Middle East. The Iranian regime now has control of parts of Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon because it was given a lifeline of survival by the Obama administration.

THE PEOPLE OF IRAN DESERVE BETTER

For nearly 40 years the innocent freedom-loving people of Iran have been held hostage by this evil nefarious radical Islamic regime. They have been lie to, tortured, raped, imprisoned, gagged from having any freedom and had their entire country’s wealth stolen from them for the purposes of advancing war and terrorism in the Middle East. The thugs of the Iranian regime have made life a living hell for the people of Iran, the majority of who are young and intelligent people that want freedom, democracy and better living standards. Filmmakers, journalists, bloggers, artists, student opposition protestors, labor union leaders and LGBT have been killed, imprisoned and tortured regularly. Iran under the ayatollahs reign of terror has the second highest rate of executions in the world behind China! Instead of funneling billions in petro-dollars into improving the infrastructure of Iran, reducing food shortages, reducing poverty, reducing unemployment, the Iranian regime has only enriched the lives of its own thugs and leadership. Inflation is now in double digits, the cost of living in skyrocketing, there is widespread famine and drought in many parts of Iran because of the Iranian regime has done nothing to improve the situation for the people of the country. Their brutal totalitarian dictatorship has done nothing to better the lives of people in Iran and it’s high time for change in the country’s leadership. Tougher and increased sanctions on the Iranian regime and its brutal thugs will loosen their grip of power in the country and emboldened the average people in Iran to rise up and overthrow their dictatorship. The good people of Iran deserve better lives and freedom–  sanctions are an effective means by which the U.S. and the world can help them achieve that all important goal.

SANCTIONS LIKE CHEMOTHERAPY, BOTH NECESSARY TO KILL ANY CANCER

Apologists for the Iranian regime living in America and leftist have been whining about new U.S. sanctions hurting the people of Iran and doing nothing to stop the Iranian regime. These are lies and more lies that they spew! Sanctions have been directed at key players in the Iranian regime’s leadership, the Iranian Revolution Guard Corps, as well as the various front businesses both use to funnel money for their nefarious actions around the world. Sanctions have no doubt a painful impact on the Iranian population, but they are a necessary evil just like chemotherapy is essential to fight and kill off any cancer in the human body. The regime in Iran is without a doubt a demonic cancer feeding off the wealth of that nation and spreading its evil to the rest of the Middle East. Sanctions, just like chemotherapy will cut off or greatly reduce the lifeline for the regime to survive and continue its reign of terror. Without billions of dollars in their pockets, the ayatollahs and their thugs in Iran will have little or no ability to carry out their terrorism in that region or threaten the world with nuclear weapons.

MIDDLE EAST PEACE HAS A GREATER CHANCE OF SUCCESS

Any Middle East expert will tell you that the vast majority of terrorism in the Middle East and the perpetuation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are largely due to funding coming from the Iranian regime. The Iranian regime every year pours billions of dollars into the pockets of terrorist groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and other radical Shiite terrorists in Yemen. The Iranian regime also arms these terror groups with expensive arms, weaponry and advanced rockets. If and when the Iranian regime collapses, the lifeline of funding and armaments to these terrorist groups throughout the Middle East will stop. Without funding these terror groups will be forced to disband or will be destroyed militarily. As a result, with Iran and its terror groups out of the picture, more moderate voices for a peace in the region may have a fighting chance to make a peace deal possible between Arabs and Israelis.

WE DON’T NEED A SECOND HOLOCAUST FOR THE JEWS!

Many of my Ashkenazi friends on the left are always saying “Never Again” every year during the Holocaust memorial days or when issues of Nazi atrocities arise. I am often baffled at why they remain so silent and do not apply this same motto when it comes to the Iranian regime today? The regime of the ayatollahs in Iran for the last 40 years has constantly called for the annihilation of the Jewish state and its population. This is without a doubt a call for a second genocide against the Jewish people! After six million of our brethren were slaughtered at the hands of the Nazis we cannot and must permit any force on this planet to attempt a second genocide against us. When the Iranian regime’s leadership says it wants to “wipe Israel off the map” or that “Israel is a cancerous tumor that must be removed”, it is very clearly saying it wants a second Holocaust against Jews. This is something we cannot permit and must stand against at all costs. Sanctions will for sure cut off or greatly reduce the Iranian regime’s financial potential for a nuclear weapons war against Israel and the Jewish people.

So to you my Ashkenazi brothers and sisters, I implore you to support the current U.S. administration’s policy to crush this Iranian regime through painful economic sanctions. The survival of our people on this planet depends on the current Iranian regime being de-fanged and or to help bring about the regime’s collapse from within due to tremendous crippling economic pressures. Please hear our voices as the Iranian Jews who were first to experience the demonic evil of this Iranian regime and heed our warning before it is too late. This regime in Iran must go and the best way to bring about its expeditious demise is through more economic sanctions. These sanctions will not only protect the Middle East from a catastrophic regional war brought about by the Iranian regime, but will likely permanently cut off the Iranian regime’s ability from trying to wipe Israel and all world Jewry off the face of the earth.