Placing trust in Iran to abide by the nuclear deal being negotiated would be “short-sighted and wrong,” Josh Block, the president and CEO of The Israel Project writes in an op-ed that was published yesterday in The New Jersey Star Ledger. The Israel Project published The Tower.
Citing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s recent cries of “Death to America,” the Iranian navy’s recent destruction of a replica of an American aircraft carrier as well as its support of terror and abysmal human writes record, Block writes:
In President Obama’s haste to claim a nuclear agreement with Iran as a legacy of his foreign policy accomplishments, it seems that he is attempting to diminish the credibility of anyone who stands in his way. But he is aiming at the wrong target.
The time has come for President Obama to set aside any personal issues he has with Prime Minister Netanyahu and remember that Israel has earned the trust of the United States, and remember that Iran has not. Tehran seems perfectly happy to ride this wave of unearned trust all the way to nuclear weapons. We must not allow this to happen.
No deal with Iran is better than a bad deal with this untrustworthy regime known for stonewalling inspections of its nuclear facilities and hiding clandestine underground nuclear plants. Iran could change; the regime could abandon its pursuit of nuclear weapons and stop funding terrorism throughout the world. But until the unelected mullahs decide to change, there is no reason to give up on sanctions.
In contrast to the contempt that Iran has shown the United States, Israel, has helped with “intelligence-sharing, technological innovation and cutting-edge counter-terrorism strategies have helped advance our mutual interests.” Israel too has benefited from America’s help surviving “in such a dangerous neighborhood.” Furthermore, in contrast to the mutually beneficial American-Israeli relationship “one nation has spent decades creating new threats and pursuing interests counter to our own. That nation, the Islamic Republic of Iran, has long been viewed as an adversary.”
Block concludes with a call for the United States to trust its friends not its foes.
When negotiating America’s national security interests, we should stand with our allies like Israel, not our adversaries, like one of the world’s leading human rights abusers in Iran.
In an op-ed earlier this month, Block pointed out that without pressure Iran could not be counted on to keep its nuclear commitments.