By Jonathan A. Greenblatt
Here is a crucial issue in the presidential race: How will the candidates deal with the growing danger posed by the Islamic Republic of Iran?
It is no news that the Iranian regime is a global threat to the Jewish people. It’s been like this for decades. But it is the fact that Tehran is vastly expanding its campaign against the United States as it races to build a nuclear weapon.
For more than 40 years, the Iranian regime has been the largest state sponsor of anti-Semitism in the world. That was part fundamental of Khomeini’s worldview. His toxic anti-Zionism was already evident in his writings long before the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
For decades, Tehran has cultivated a network of terror agents across the Middle East with a shared ideology of anti-Jewish fanaticism. It rests on a few fundamental pillars: dehumanizing Israelis, rationalizing anti-Semitism, and actively working to destroy the Jewish state.
The result is a bloody trail of deadly acts and foiled plots against Israeli interests and Jewish sites around the world. The list is long: Argentina, Bulgaria, Colombia, Cyprus, India, Kenya, Sweden, Thailand, Türkiye and more. Now we can also add to France and Germany to this list.
And of course the Iranian regime directly helped Hamas for years and contributed directly to the horrific brutality, mass kidnapping and genocidal violence of October 7. Among the victims were more than 100 Americans. Others remain in captivity.
Meanwhile, Tehran has expanded its ambitions. It increasingly seeks to undermine not only the moral legitimacy and territorial sovereignty of Israel, but also the social cohesion and political fabric of the United States. In other words, the Iranian regime is actively waging war against the United States.
Attacking Americans and their sovereignty is not new for the Islamic Republic. There are countless examples: hostage crisis of 1979, the Khobar Towers attack In 1996, numerous arrests of American citizens in Iran for false chargesthe training of foreign militias to attack American soldiers, etc. It happened again earlier this year, when Iranian-backed militias They attacked American troops in Iraq, Syria and Jordan. What is new is carrying out large operations on American soil.
Earlier this year, the ADL saw signs of the Iranian regime’s influence on the anti-Israel and pro-Hamas movement on university campuses. Some mocked when we warned them about it. However, this summer, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence confirmed that Tehran is “trying to encourage protests and even providing financial support to protesters.”
The Islamic Republic has long hired hitmen to do its dirty work abroad. They have attacked those they consider their opponents around the world. This includes critics of the regime here in the United States—such as Ambassador John Bolton— and Iranian dissidents like Masih Alinejad.
Now the regime is targeting American presidential candidates, the same people we voted to lead our country. In August, Asif Merchant, a Pakistani citizen with ties to Iran, was accused in connection with a foiled plot to assassinate a US politician or government officials.
And arguably the situation is getting worse. In recent days, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency released an exceptional joint declaration in which they expose the way in which Tehran tries to “stoke discord and undermine confidence in our democratic institutions.”
But there is even more. Google discovered recently that Iranian hackers attempted to penetrate the campaigns of former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden. Axios reported that “Iran, not Russia, is proving to be the biggest nation-state threat to the US presidential election.”
In short, the Islamic Republic of Iran is aggressively militating against the United States: trying to assassinate our political leaders; actively interfering in our internal affairs; manipulating our political system; trying to kill our soldiers.
But we shouldn’t be surprised. It is a ruthless regime that murderess to its own citizens and defends the idea of genocide against the Jewish State. For all these reasons, is it time for a new approach to the Iranian regime? before it’s too late.
The United States has tried to negotiate, get closer and make proposals. Tehran has responded with belligerence, threats and violence. Meanwhile, it has accelerated their progress towards nuclear weapons.
All parties must recognize the reality: the Islamic Republic has rejected calls for detente and peace. Instead, the regime and its so-called Axis of Resistance constitute a direct threat to the United States, our allies, and our interests.
A reasoned, non-partisan, fact-based debate on how to confront and stop this rogue state before it obtains nuclear weapons and continues to expand its militarism is long overdue.
Despite what some may claim, this is not empty alarmism. It is not warmongering. It is stating the obvious.
