This post originally ran on Fow News.
On Friday night Jewish families in Israel and throughout the world will celebrate our Passover Seder, a wondrous interactive event remembering we were once slaves unto Pharaoh and celebrating our freedom and first baby steps as a nation. In the middle of the symbol-rich ritual, we fill a cup of wine–Elijah’s Cup – and then open our doors to ‘welcome’ the spirit of Elijah the Prophet. The biblical prophet has a special place in the Jewish narrative, as every newborn boy is placed on “Elijah’s Chair” for his circumcision. Why Elijah? Our tradition teaches that he is the messenger who one day will return to announce the advent of a messianic era of peace.
But Israelis worry that a series of moves by foes and friends are effectively slamming shut the door towards peace and hastening the next catastrophic war in The Holy Land.
Uppermost in everyone’s mind is the looming reality that Iran will have clear path to nuclearization with the means to deliver a bomb atop a missile or in a terrorist suitcase.v While Israel ponders her next move, Arab nations are already scurrying to obtain their own nuclear options. And with their traditional US protector AWOL, these same states, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE are already responding militarily to Iran’s power grab in Iraq and Yemen, further destabilizing the raging fires of the Middle East.
Meanwhile, even as negotiations in Geneva finally yielded a preliminary agreement with Tehran, Israelis were subjected to earlier this week, the latest direct threat from Iran’s chief of the Bajiis militia, Mohammad Reza Naqdi, who declared– that “erasing Israel off the map” is “nonnegotiable.” Not a peep of protest from P5+1 leaders. Tehran is already launching new actions to bolster their bluster. Last year,Naqdi confirmed Iran was increasing efforts to arm Palestinians on the West Bank and the Mullahocracy has taken new measures to threatenIsrael’s northern border.
A senior Israeli Defense Ministry official confirms that Iran is converting Zilzal unguided rockets into accurate, guided M-600 projectiles by installing accurate warheads.
The Algemeiner quoted Israeli Colonel Aviram Hasson describing Iran as a “train engine that is not stopping for a moment. It is manufacturing new and advanced ballistic missiles, and cruise missiles. It is turning unguided rockets that had an accuracy range of kilometers into weapons that are accurate to within meters.” Hezbollah “is getting a lot of accurate weapons from Iran. It is in a very different place compared to the Second Lebanon War in 2006,” he warned.
Now comes word from The Times of London that Tehran is developing a new front against Israel as its allies in Syria are crushing anti-Assad rebel groups in the Golan Heights.
Israel could soon be confronted directly by Iranian troops on their border Iranian short-range missiles targeting Israeli communities.
Tehran is once again aiding Gaza-based Hamas that has been the recipient of tens of millions of dollars, logistical, and military support from the Iranians.
Many, perhaps President Obama among them, would argue, that such an array of existential and strategic challenges against Israel should push Prime Minister Netanyahu to make a quick deal with Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority (PA).
However, the PA has proven to be part of the problem, not the solution. It has lost support of the West Bank Palestinian street through its serial corruption and failure to call elections. It has been said that diplomats sign treaties but only people make peace. If so, the Palestinian Authority itself has been signaling their Israeli neighbors that they are preparing their kids for war, not peace. The important NGO, Palestinian Media Watch continuously documents how PA uses education and culture to promote haters and terrorist murderers of Jews.
Now PA President Abbas has exercise his so-called nuclear option by joining the International Criminal Court in Geneva enroute to bring war criminal charges against the very leaders he supposedly is committed to negotiate with.
This Passover Israelis and Jews the world over are incensed and worried by the thundering silence of the United States, the European Union in face of the increasingly brazen Iran-led threats to the Jewish State, the blatant Jew-hatred promoted by Palestinian leaders and the spiking anti-Semitism on both sides of the Atlantic.
This isn’t about a personality or policy clash with Bibi Netanyahu; it is about the safety of 8 million Israeli citizens and endangered Jewish communities in Europe. The threat of the US abandoning Israel to the wolves at the UN Security Council won’t bring peace, but only further chaos and violence to the imploding region. If world leaders are truly committed to a safe and secure Jewish state and to combat anti-Semitism, they need to address these real-world concerns with deeds—not empty Holocaust Memorial Day Never Again slogans.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper is associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center
