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now
it will come to know as no surprise to anyone that I
I wanna spend most my time tonight talking about Iran,
but I think it's also fitting that I should begin
by speaking about Nelson Mandela
and the meaning of his legacy
for us as Americans, for us as Jews
in the nineteen eighties there was a sharp debate
in this country about how
United States or best deal with the apartheid regime
in South Africa and on one side
there were those who argue this was
the Reagan administration that the best way
dealing with the apartheid regime was through process
i thinkI critical engagement but engage
and the argument that the administration made
was that sanctions would only for
ordinary people above all ordinary
black people in South Africa and furthermore
South Africa for all this obvious moral failings was nonetheless
critical strategic partner for the united states
so that the interest beyond morality
that they were interests re all the tea in maintaining
an alliance sports with that machine
now on the other side of the argument
there was a bipartisan coalition that ranged
from Bob Dole to Lowell Weicker to Ted Kennedy
who thought that the best approach
to the apartheid regime was also the most moral
that is a punitive regime that economic and diplomatic sanctions
it would show South Africa's white rulers
that they would not be allowed to profit from their rules
and that the only road to retention was to eliminate
their oppressive system and let the people
all of the people rule now
as a columnist for The Wall Street Journal
Sam second to none in my admiration
for ronald reagan but I don't think there's any doubt
as to who had the better side that particular
art in 1986 Congress passed
sweeping sanctions legislation against South Africa
and radiant veto the legislation and then something remarkable happened
congress overrode the veto
it was the first time in congress is history they did
overrated it presidential veto on a foreign policy
ish few days ago
really obituaries for mandela I came across something that was said
by a fellow named Brian Dooley who was a
democrat was a top aide to Ted Kennedy helped draft
the legislation on South African sessions
this is what he said he said forget the morality
and look at just the national interest the self-interest
staying with the bad guys not only looks Pat
is that and eventually they fall
and eventually there is *** resentment
well brian Joo Lee
former rate at Kennedy wherever you are
you were right sanctions brought an end to apartheid regime
in South Africa sanctions
open the gates Robin I'm sanctions
forced the apartheid regime to eliminate a legal architectural
racial discrimination and by the way
sanctions also persuaded the South African regime
to dismantle their nuclear program including the atomic bombs
they had already built now
to any see where I'm going with this we should think about this
we should fail right now
we should have a national the bay about whether the best way to get
the Islamic Republic of Iran to change its behavior
is by decided by freezing the reagan strategy
be engaged ace on a former real home T
or the bipartisan strategy
have intensified sanctions and told the machine
begins to understand that there is no wiggle room
that they will not be allowed to sweet-talk
their way into keeping their nuclear capabilities intact
while having economics economic pressure
listed that the world will hold them accountable
for the way the regime treats Iranian women
and Iranian political dissenters and Iranian gay people
an Iranian religious minorities and we will not be one not blindly
your we will not blindly
nor comments by the supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei
who the other day at the height the negotiations
in geneva blurted out that Israel
is his words equal ratted doll
and we also all of us in the west all of us in the United States
will not simply forget the memories netanyahu assault on
and the hundreds & Young the Rangers died alongside her
fighting for democracy and we will be faithful to her memory
and not per se for the sake just getting any
faced seeing deal with a rare
inviolate
we should remember that when we see Iran's
swap foreign minister shaking hands with our secretary of state
in G or its pleasant seen president
Hassan Raja Rani giving speeches
and smiling it yet UN we should not forget
that when it was left to die in the streets of Tehran
those guys still on the side the regime
that chilled if we in the United States
could muster the moral Claire
to stand on the right side of history when it came to any the apartheid regime
in South Africa
despite all arguments put forward for engaging your day
can't we stand on the right side of history right now
to show Iran the consequences for violating
multiple UN resolutions and threatening Israel
with annihilation and repeatedly line to the International Atomic Energy Agency
about its nuclear programs and supporting hezbollah
in lebanon and Hamas InGaAs
and the side in Syria and the Taliban in Afghanistan
will not be the result that those actions will not be
the lifting of economic sanctions and the preservation
assurances about their nuclear program
personal view in this room Hui a
The Wall Street Journal and I will be selling subscriptions right outside
later this evening some you who read the editorial pages
the Wall Street Journal knows how I feel
about nuclear interim nuclear deal was struck last month
enginee in a column the other week
I called a worse in Munich that's because I was being card
kidnaped will chamberlain
the benefit of the doubt understand the position he wasn't
when he struck that deal in September 1938
to allow hitler to seize the city the Royal
Air Force did not have a single swallowed
but its firefighters fighters
when on where the battle Britain in 1940
Britain had so thoroughly disarmed itself after the First World War
declaring war on Germany might have amounted
to enact national suicide on Britain's
part and at the same time winston churchill was just a lone voice
in the wall in wilderness warning against Hitler
and the consequences the peace by contrast today
the administration has effectively taken the military option off the table
and yet we're the ones were coming to negotiations with Iran
on where they once were tactics is the weird ones were acting in our
negotiations with Iran
as it we are the week part as it
we or the subjects and today there is broad and bipartisan support
for tightening sanctions on Iran not listening
mark my words all Americans
all Americans will come to rue the day
when we tried to solve the Iranian nuclear crisis
by allowing a red to get within weeks
being able to build a nuclear bomb just this week it was reported that Iran is
continuing to design
and manufacture advanced centrifuges
that will allow them to enrich uranium three to five times
their current rates up of rich is this supposed to be
goodwill gesture that is going to build confidence
toward a final agreement or is it the case that the Iranians are pressing
their advantage
and against administration's red lines on Iran's nuclear station
seem to be seem to be as per mu
as the red lines on the use of chemical weapons
by the Assad appreciate
there's one skill
that every dictatorial regime every tyrant
needs in order to survive in power as long
as the Islamic Republic and the ayatollah khamenei
have survived and that's the ability
to sense weakness others to take advantage
that is exactly how Iran
is behaving towards us today
so now we have this in turn nuclear
green and the pressure is going to be powerful
almost overwhelming to make go
a final but any fine agreement
I don't think there is much that I can do
that will change administration's
views but let's at least be smart
about all we in this room can do
for starters we can support
Mark Kirk and senator Menendez
impression in question
increase sanctions now you need me to send a signal
Syrian regime here simply for but i wanna bring another idea to this room
and tell me what you make it in September
the president decided the issue military strikes on Syria
required congressional approval now I'm not sure
that was really true let's concede that
point for now if the president
thought congress' approval was necessary back there
she congress also demanded that
any deal the administration reach with the rand
require the approval love this set
just as all international treaties Constitution for
3 for now is the time
to tell senator Boxer and feinstein in california
and Senator Schumer and children in New York
that they should demand and up-or-down vote
on any agreement the administration regions with a red
we know the Senators a pro-israel and pro or air sanctions
when they're giving speeches a Tax Policy Conference
before or before audiences like this well
let's make them go on the record
are they prepare are they serious
prepared to go to stand up stand up against the bad
here deal with the red to stand with us
even if it means crossing the administration
let's see all those friends speeches
or anything more in simple donor me
its so let's see how this plays out because part of the problem that Israel
faces
in the world today isn't just that is surrounded by enemies
were sworn to its destruction a large part the prong perhaps the equal part
the prom
is that Israel suffers from asserted
of only friends whose idea a friendship is to profess
to profess that friendship right up until the point
when it actually counts and it ships her down
now I don't mean to say but this that a true friend official
can also be said that a and loving
critic Israel and wanna be ugliest
dumbest accusations launched against organizations like staying with us
oregon's columnists like me is that our notion of being a friend Israel
is demanding 100 percent agreement with everything Israel does
for stands for or ask for but how about
at a minimum sixty percent agree how
even 51 percent 51 percent every day
how about agreement on some the basics
like cheating Hamas as the terrorist organization that is
are showing some understanding white Israel might
just a tiny bit frustrated with the way Mahmoud Abbas
has approached peace negotiations 51 per cent agreement
that maybe the Palestinians should make some real concessions on their own
for the Independence Day they claim to see
by conceding the point Israel is and will forever remain
a Jewish state
how well not simply demand a it israelis
or choose apologize for amy is really missed a
real or imagined and start demanding that the Palestinians
apologized for some their misstates
and outrage beginning with Milo and how agreeing that the US should not be
advocating the nuclear deal with iran
it does not insists in demand and require
that the regime absolutely abandon its enrichment capability
absolutely abandoned execute only ingredient facility
does not exist I supported terrorist organizations around the world
and his sister starts stops calling for Israel's destruction
can we at least degree in this room on back
because we can agree on that
I don't think if you can agree on that I don't think a
you really a friend of Israel yes let's welcome
as many people as we can into the circle the Big Ten
israel's friends but let's not pretend that you could
honestly call yourself predator Israel just because you don't
actually profess or or advocate a its destruction
or accusing up being a criminal stay friendship
is not free but friendship
as the saying goes also has its benefits
we lived in a world where the question where you stand on Israel
is v defining moral question
a hard day just as the question of where you stood on apartheid
was the defining moral question up his own did
to stand with Israel is to stay
for the right small countries tulip
in freedom and peace I guess they're much larger
and more aggressive and its to stand with Israel
is to take a stand for liberal democracy under siege
from fanatical religious dictators to stand with Israel has to stand for the
values but you may need civilization to find my freedom
intolerance and pluralism inequality
the sexes and freedom intellectual imported
and have signs against the threat
21st century barbarous to stand with Israel is also to stand for american
interests
a bowl of are interested in preventing terror sponsored machines
from gaining weapons mass destruction above all
above the law to stand with Israel is to stand for the idea
true the inviolability true
in the face a blizzard applies
that are told about all civilization all civilization
ultimately rests on the belief that the truth
remains what it is however unpopular
or inconvenient or unfashionable
it may be any given time and if
anyone in this audience together many people in this audience come from
college campuses
you know personally just how unpopular
and inconvenient on uncomfortable unfashionable
it can sometimes be to stand with his
well don't let that get you down
the margin between reason
on res between the rule of law
in the women's the mom between civilization and barbarism
has always been maintained by the person
the country and the state's
who was prepared to be unpopular
and annoying unfashionable
for the say up standing up for the truth
today in this room
that person is you today
in this world that country is Israel and let's hold
and let's see for the state said in this country
war already walls and or israel's equals
I have to say something fred
I have never been more freight
in my life for Israel's future then I am today
I arrived in israel is the editor of The Jerusalem Post
at the Hyatt the Second Intifada up when they were suicide bombings
in my neighborhood down the street from me nearly
every single day for going on three years
at the time I wasn't afraid for the country
because I began to understand just how strong
and resolute and resourceful what's I was in Israel
in 2006 for the war against hezbollah
when after a general call over reserves
more than a hundred percent up those called up answered the call
people beyond the age service answer
the call to stand up and fight for their country
and I wasn't afraid for Israel now was initial
with the war for the war with Hamas in 2000
and 9 and once again I did fear for the future
the country that's not the case today
america is not a declining country
but we are in a decline is mood and we are in strategic retreat
across the global above all in the Middle East
this is exposing vulnerable allies
and it is giving opportunities too adventurous
enemies anyways the world has not seen
since the 1930s and the challenge
overran scary no matter how you look at it
but it's curious most of all for the position
up this that finds itself isolated
diplomatically and may soon find itself isolated
Notre I do not Andy Benjamin Netanyahu
this job again by talking about mandela
me also approach my conclusion by
holding and I'll once once was asked about the meaning of courage
he said want to find a courageous man wasn't the absence of fear
fear is reality whether you are courageous were no
what makes a person a courageous his ability to overcome
his fears and that's an example worth following
a legacy which shared whether you're Johannes for
for jerusalem or Los Angeles
the same one final day i think is important
earlier this evening one of the speakers talked about all the great thing is that
Israel does in science and technology
and the artist rule of law
what it does for the environment so very very long
an extraordinary list for a country barely seven million people not quite
the size
%uh New York City all of us
are proud Israel because it's good
but the recent we support Israel is not because it's good
Israel is good and will always be but that's not why we support is
and I think this is the last the last word I want to leave you with
tonight you don't support a country based on its performance because
sometimes that performance
of a day israel's the country consists of human beings
the reason we support Israel is because
it is hours in a state of Israel
did not come into existence to showcase
jewish vulnerability in jewish
victimhood the State of Israel
Steve Israel this is the last thing into the city tonight
stated Israel exists today and
jewish vulnerability Jewish victims thank you very
do
and