Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the American Jewish community in a live webcast Tuesday, making the case for why the nuclear accord between the Iranian regime and world powers is a deal that dangers Israel’s existence as a sovereign state.
The webcast was hosted by the Jewish Federations of North America and the member organizations of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, which comprises over 50 Jewish bipartisan, Pro Israel organizations.
“I want to talk with you about three fatal flaws in the nuclear deal with Iran,” Netanyahu said in his opening remarks.
“The nuclear deal with Iran does not block Iran’s path to the bomb, it paves Iran’s path to the bomb.”
After the deal expires, “Iran’s breakout time will be practically zero,” he added. “By keeping the deal, Iran will become a threshold nuclear-weapons power.”
The deal does make it “harder for Iran to produce one or two nuclear weapons in the short term, but it does so at a terrible price.” In fact, “the deal makes it far easier for Iran to build dozens, even hundreds of nuclear weapons in a little over a decade,” the Israeli Prime Minister stated.
“Ten to fifteen years pass in no time… its a blink of an eye,” Netanyahu said in rallying against the deal.
And even if Iran decides to make the push for the bomb earlier, in violation of the nuclear agreement, the deal does not allow for inspections to check Iran cheating on the deal, Netanyahu argued.
The Israeli Prime Minister warned of the coming Middle East arms race that will result from the nuclear accord: “The countries in the region threatened by Iran have already made clear that they will work to develop atomic bombs of their own. The deal that was supposed to end nuclear proliferation will actually trigger nuclear proliferation.”
The deal “will trigger a nuclear arms race in the Middle East – the most volatile part of the planet. That’s a real nightmare,” he stated.
The Iran deal threatens the West as a whole, as it gives Iran a “massive infusion of cash,” Netanyahu said. “Iran will use this cash to fund its aggression in the region, and its terrorism around the world. As a result of this deal, there will be more terrorism, more attacks, and more people will die.”
Netanyahu said that the cash windfall (estimated at hundreds of billions of dollars) that Iran is set to receive in the next decade will turn any terrorist group it supports into a “terrorist superpower.”
“This is a very dangerous deal, and it threatens all of us,” he concluded.
“The days when the Jewish people could not, or would not, speak up for themselves– those days are over. Today, we can speak out. Today, we must speak out, and we must do so together,” he added, explaining that even his political opponents are united in opposition to the deal. “This is simply not a partisan issue in Israel,” Netanyahu explained, citing his opponent in Israel’s recent elections, Labor leader Isaac Herzog, and his strong opposition to the Iran deal.
“This isn’t about me. It isn’t about President Obama. It’s about the deal,” he explained. “I’m asking you to rise above partisan politics, as we in Israel have risen above it.”
“Judge the deal on its substance, and its substance alone,” he urged viewers.
The most “outrageous claim” made by supporters of the deal, Netanyahu said, “is that those who oppose this deal want war.”
“That’s utterly false,” he responded. “We in Israel don’t want war. We want peace.”
“We face Iran’s terror on three borders [Assad regime in Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas in Gaza],” Netanyahu explained. “We face tens-of thousands of Iranian rockets aimed at all of our cities.” The Iranian regime “repeatedly calls for the destruction of Israel,” and their “terrorist proxies” continue to try to “kill Jews everyday,” he said.
Not only is Iran “the world’s leading state-sponsor of terrorism, it’s also the leading state-sponsor of anti-Semitism,” the prime minister of the Jewish state said.
“I don’t oppose this deal because I want war. I oppose this deal because I want to prevent war, and this deal will bring war,” Netanyahu stated. “It will spark a nuclear arms race in the region and it will feed Iran’s aggression – that will make war, perhaps the most horrific war of all.”
“Don’t let the deal supporters quash a real debate,” he urged. “The issue here is too important. Don’t let them take your voice away at this critical moment in history. What we do now will affect our lives, and the lives of our children and grandchildren in Israel, in America, everywhere. This is the time to stand up and be counted. Oppose this dangerous deal,” the Prime Minister of Israel concluded.
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