With great hesitation we are again holding our breath to see what will transpire at the upcoming Geneva Iran Interim Negotiations meeting with the P5 + 1 on November 24. Stopping Iran from having nuclear capacity is one of the major goals of Federation’s Community Relations Committee (CRC) and we have been working on this issue for many years – effectively advocating for international, nations and local economic sanctions.

To this end, the CRC issued a statement on Monday November 14 in support of Senator Menendez and Senator Kirk’s statement on Iran Negotiations. We believe that the Senators did an excellent job spelling out what a successful negotiation would look like. We wanted to make a statement to our community to remind them of our position and to help them to discern what a success final agreement could look like before all the media spin happened.  We also strongly believe that economic sanctions brought Iran to the table and are the main incentive to moving them toward a cease and desist.

Last week at the JFNA General Assembly, Vice President Senator Biden received a standing ovation when he stated that the “U.S. will not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons.” He also made a point of sharing his concern related to tensions boiling over to incitement and violence on the streets of Jerusalem.  He urged everyone to find a better path to peace and he was committed to find it.

While I write this blog from Israel, unfortunately these words ring true!  We can no longer tolerate a world where people are brutally murdered during prayer; where people are beheaded in the name of Allah; where media is used to foment violence in the name of Freedom.

We can no longer tolerate a world where Iran could even remotely have access to nuclear weapons. Iran is a funder of terrorism throughout the Middle East; the 5000 rockets that flew into Israel this summer were funded by Iran. Iran continues to be a major violator of human rights with one of the highest numbers of people murdered in a country this year.  And, Iran is calling for incitement, just last week the Ayatollah called for the annihilation of Israel.

Peace and coexistence can only be found through true negotiations between all parties based on an investment in peace. The Iran negotiations are coming at a crucial time and we need to ensure that the most effective economic sanctions ever do not result in unintended consequences, empowering Iran to become a nuclear State.