"If they [Jews] all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide."
- Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary General, Hezbollah, October 2002
Today, in a video entitled "What not to say if you're running for president: Mike Huckabee on the Iran deal," The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza pokes fun at Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee for declaring:
"This president’s foreign policy is the most feckless in American history. It is so naive that he would trust the Iranians. By doing so, he will take the Israelis and march them to the door of the oven."
Sorry, Chris, but I agree with Mike Huckabee.
Chris, are you even aware that Iran has supplied Hezbollah in Lebanon with 130,000 missiles, all pointed at Israel, which is approximately the size of New Jersey? Sure, they are not nuclear-tipped, but over the past several years, Iran was forced to cut back on aid to Hezbollah owing to budgetary constraints stemming from international sanctions. Thanks to Obama, those sanctions will now be removed, and as even acknowledged by Susan Rice, significant funds for arms will once again be flowing to Hezbollah when Iran receives more than $120 billion for signing Obama's nuclear deal. Those Hezbollah missiles will not be used against Israel? Nasrallah will launch them in a blink of an eye if he receives instructions to do so from Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei.
Hezbollah, i.e. "The Party of God"? That's the same organization used by Iran to bomb a Jewish community center in Argentina, killing 87 people and wounding more than 100.
And what about Iran itself, which is being given the right to acquire or manufacture a nuclear arsenal within 15 years pursuant to Obama's nuclear deal - if the mullahs don't cheat before that time, which they will?
Sadly, Chris's video fails to relate to weekly threats from Iran to eradicate Israel. Relevant to the issue of a second Holocaust? You bet!
Also not a word from Chris about Iran's annual International Holocaust Cartoon Contest, which awards prizes for the "best" cartoons denying that the Holocaust ever occurred.
Nor does Chris's video mention that Iran hangs gay men, stones to death women accused of adultery, savagely persecute Baha'is, Christians, Kurds and Sunnis, jails and brutalizes journalists and political opponents, backs Shiite militias in Iraq that are engaged in ethnic cleansing, and executes poets for "waging war on God." Or stated otherwise, Iran is crazy enough to use atomic weapons.
Mutually assured destruction will prevent Iran from launching a nuclear-tipped missile against Israel? I don't think so. None other than Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the fourth president of Iran, declared: "Israel is much smaller than Iran in landmass and therefore far more vulnerable to nuclear attack." As reported earlier this month in a Times of Israel article entitled "Ex-Iran president: Israel a fake, temporary regime" by Tamar Pileggi:
"Former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani told a Hezbollah-affiliated outlet that he was confident that the 'forged and temporary Israeli entity' would be wiped off the map, the state-run IRNA news agency reported. According to the report, Rafsanjani, often described by Western media as a moderate in Iranian politics, said that Israel was an alien existence forged into the body of a nation which would eventually be destroyed."
No mention of Rafsanjani by Chris.
By the way, Chris, did you happen to notice that US Secretary of State John Kerry is avoiding a stopover in Israel next week, when he visits Egypt and Qatar? That's because of overwhelming disapproval of the nuclear deal among Israelis and the likelihood that he would be met in Israel with massive protest demonstrations. As recently reported by The Jerusalem Post, 78 percent of Israelis believe the nuclear deal will "endanger Israel;" 71 percent think the deal will "bring Iran closer to a military nuclear capability;" and 47 percent "support an Israeli military strike on Iran if it would be necessary to prevent the Islamic state from getting nuclear weapons." You see, Israelis know more than a little about what's good or bad for them, particularly when it involves their continued existence on this planet.
In short, before shooting off his mouth at Mike Huckabee, Cillizza would have done well to learn some basic facts.
