The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has supported former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee remarking on the disastrous Iranian nuclear deal with Iran, that it would “take the Israelis and march them to the door of the oven” (Peter Baker, ‘Obama Criticizes Huckabee, Trump, Cruz and Other Republicans,’ New York Times, July 27, 2015).
The ZOA agrees with Governor Huckabee that this Iran deal could lead to a Holocaust-like massacre of the Jews. In such circumstances, when the Jewish state is threatened with nuclear annihilation, a Holocaust analogy such as Governor Huckabee used is acceptable and not out of place.
Indeed, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu observed earlier this year during an address at Yad Vashem that, “Democracies cannot turn their eyes away from the dictatorships of the world that seek to spread their influence… ahead of World War II, the world attempted to appease the Nazis. They wanted quiet at any price, and the terrible price did come… Just as the Nazis aspired to crush civilization and to establish a ‘master race’ as ruler of the world while annihilating the Jewish people, so too does Iran strive to gain control over the region and then spread further, with the explicit intent of obliterating the Jewish state.”
As a leading authority on radical Islamic movements, Steve Emerson, said at last week’s New York City rally against this nuclear deal, “If we don’t take out Iran, they will take out us … if you don’t your children will never forgive you –– never forgive you for not protecting this country from a holocaust. For not protecting the state of Israel from a holocaust that will occur assuredly just as it did 70 years ago.”
This is also why the cry of ‘Never again’ and the buttons of ‘Never again is now’ have featured prominently in rallies opposed to the this nuclear deal. Clearly, there is broad appreciation of the fact that this Iran nuclear agreement can facilitate a Holocaust against the Jewish state.
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “The ZOA has generally criticized Holocaust analogies, because they usually bear no relation to unique horrors of the Nazi era –– the era in which European Jews were rendered defenseless and unaided prior to their slaughter in millions by the Nazis and their cohorts.
“Tragically, empowering with an eventual nuclear weapons capacity –– as this deal does, and as President Barack Obama himself has admitted –– an Iranian regime that has repeatedly spoken of wiping out the Jewish state of Israel does bear some relationship to the Nazi era and Governor Huckabeetherefore did not speak out of place.
“Four days after this deal was signed, the Iranian leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei addressed a rally, at which people chanted ‘Death to America’ and ‘Death to Israel,’ and said, ‘You heard “Death to Israel”, “Death to the US” … The whole of the nation, you could hear, that was covered by this great movement. So we ask Almighty God to accept these prayers by the people of Iran.’
“It was of course also Khamenei who said just as plainly last year: ‘This barbaric, wolflike & infanticidal regime of Israel which spares no crime has no cure but to be annihilated.’ He also said that Israel is ‘doomed to extinction’ and that it is a ‘bastard, illegitimate regime.’
“The Iranian president, Hasan Rouhani, has said, ‘The Zionist regime is an enemy nation and I pledge we will find a way to achieve Ayatollah Khomeini’s long-term goal to ensure that Israel ceases to exist.’
“In July, former Iranian president Hashemi Rafsanjani said, “The presence of the Israeli regime is temporary … [it will be] will be wiped off the map.’
“Only in April, General Mohammad Reza Naghdi, the head of the Basij paramilitary forces, said said, ‘The destruction of Israel is non-negotiable.’
“The Khameni-related Iranian website Alef has published a Shia Islamic doctrinal statement, written by Khamenei’s strategy specialist, Alireza Forqani, which claims ‘jurisprudential justification’ to kill all Jews and annihilate Israel. Forqani has also written in detail about destroying Israel’s major population centers with missiles ‘until the final annihilation of the people of Israel.’
“The Iranian Chief of Staff, Major-General Hassan Firouzabadi, has said that ‘the Iranian nation is standing for its cause, which is the full annihilation of Israel.’
“An Iranian regime that believes in, works for, prioritizes –– and, indeed, goes further than the Nazis in trumpeting publicly –– its genocidal intentions will be tempted to act on them if it acquires nuclear weapons.
“This is, after all, a radical Shia regime which believes in the return of the Mahdi, the hidden Imam after a cataclysmic war. The Tehran regime has built highways to welcome the returning Mahdi. Iran holds massive war drills entitled, ‘Towards Jerusalem.’ The preamble to the Iranian Constitution, the constitutive document of his radical Shia regime, declares the hope that Iran witness the establishment of universal ‘holy’ government and the downfall of all others.
“It is only to be expected that President Obama and his minions will try and put the sunniest construction on the deal they have signed with the radical, terror-sponsoring Islamic Republic of Iran and try and shoot the messenger whenever someone points out publicly just how infamously bad this deal actually is, given how terrible this regime actually is.
“Yet there is no evading the fact that, at best, Iran will become a nuclear power in a little over a decade. Of course, if it cheats on this agreement –– as is likely, given the history of its nuclear weapons program and given also the absence of disincentives, such as fictitious ‘snap-back’ sanctions –– Iran could become a nuclear power even sooner.
“There is a bipartisan Israeli consensus on this. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Labor Opposition Leader Isaac Herzog, former left-wing Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, left-wing Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid have all spoken clearly in opposition to this deal, and with good reason: the deal makes all but certain a radical Islamic Iran, armed with the nuclear weapons, which has placed the destruction of Israel as one of its top priorities.
“Governor Huckabee is therefore speaking the truth, as have others who have described the danger for Israel as being existential. “
“When Hitler spoke in January 1939 of ‘the end of the Jews’ of Europe, few believed that genocidal intentions lay behind these words. We see similar disbelief now, even though Iranian leaders are saying this explicitly –– not once, but all the time.
“As a child of Holocaust survivors, born in a DP camp in Germany after the War, recent developments are the most chilling I have witnessed in my lifetime.
“Six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis during the Shoah. Six million Jews of Israel could be endangered in the near future by Iranian nuclear-tipped missiles. If Iran drops nuclear bombs on Israel, that will be another Shoah, G-d forbid.
“There is a sovereign Israel today and Israel can, and might be compelled to, act. But the danger it will be reacting to is existential.
“We wish it were true that Governor Huckabee is exaggerating the risk to Israel and the Jewish people. Unfortunately, he is not.”