RABBI SHMULEY: Boeing Disgraces Itself with Iran Deal

As an American who travels around the world, I’m always proud of Boeing. Let the critics say that America is no longer a manufacturing country. Every airport you travel to around the world, you see Boeing aircraft dominating the tarmac.

That’s why I was so sorely disappointed to see Boeing selling its soul for $17 billion for 80 jets to Iran. This is blood money, and Boeing knows it.

Iran is the world’s foremost state sponsor of terror. It meddles and murders around the world. The Mullahs run a vile government that is an affront to human rights and decency itself. They murder American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they blow up Jewish community centers in Latin America. In war, they send children to clear minefields, and they oversee a country that hangs gays from cranes in town squares and stones women to death. In short, the government of Iran is an abomination.

As for the seemingly innocuous issue of selling Iran airliners, there are now credible reports that Iran’s commercial aircraft play a leading role in supporting terror. According to the Washington Free Beacon, “Senators, led by Sen. David Perdue (R., Ga.), have been pushing Obama administration officials to explain why they are helping airline manufacturers Boeing and AirBus sell planes to Iran, despite clear evidence that Tehran is using its commercial airline as cover for its continued terrorist operations across the region.”

Think about this for a moment. Hezbollah is one of the most bloodthirsty terror organizations on earth. They are Iran’s proxy army on Israel’s northern border. Hezbollah has been instrumental in keeping Bashar Assad in power so he can continue murdering hundreds of thousands of innocent Arabs, including thousands of children with poison gas.

And how is Hezbollah getting its rockets, which is fires on Israelis civilians, its bullets, which it uses to murder Syrian Arabs, and its bombs, which is plants to blow up children?

Commercial airlines, like Mahan air, are serving that purpose, as Senator Perdue wrote to the Obama Administration. “The issue surrounding commercial aircraft usage for illicit purposes by the Iranian regime has now expanded, given new intelligence information alleging that Iran has indeed been using Mahan Air — a commercial airline that is currently subject to U.S. and UN sanctions — to smuggle weapons and ammunition to Hezbollah in Lebanon.”

My son’s IDF unit is in the Golan Heights, facing the monsters of Hezbollah, so this is an issue very close to my heart.

Is Boeing a moral company? Would they really sell their principles and allow their planes to be used for terrorism?

I’m all for American jobs and I want to see the good people of Seattle enhance their economy. But the patriotic Americans who work at Boeing’s factories need to know that the planes they’re going to be building could be ferrying murderous equipment for terrorists to kill men, women, and children.

Nothing good will come of this blood money. And all people of good will should be calling upon President-elect Trump to immediately kill this deal as soon as he’s in office.

Trump has already said that the Iran deal is a catastrophe. But his administration picks have been sending mixed signals as to what should be done about it. General James “Mad Dog” Mattis distinguished himself as the leader of CENTCOM when he repeatedly identified Iran as the mad dog of the Middle East. He was essentially removed from command early by the Obama administration because of his opposition to Iran.

But later he said that we’re better off keeping the deal and making sure it’s enforced.

Surely by that he means that it’s nearly impossible to reintroduce international sanctions against Iran now that the Europeans especially have prostituted themselves with increasing eagerness to lay their hands on Iranian cash.

I disagree.

America remains the world’s most important trading partner, and we can easily reintroduce sanctions against companies doing deals with Iran. Already there was a move to do just that by the Republican-led Senate as punitive action against Iranian terror, even after Obama’s nuclear deal.

President-elect Trump can distinguish himself straight out of the gate as a man who takes terrorism incredibly seriously by killing the Boeing deal with Iran and demonstrating to the world that chants of “Death to America,” continuous genocidal threats against Israel, and enabling genocide in Syria will not be rewarded with plush, leather seats cruising at 35,000 feet.

Shmuley Boteach, “America’s Rabbi,” whom the Washington Post calls “the most famous Rabbi in America,” has just published The Israel Warrior: Standing Up for the Jewish State from Campus to Street Corner. Follow him on Twitter @RabbiShmuley.