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Elie Wiesel and Michael Steinhardt Call for Tough Sanctions on Iran in Full Page Ad

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Author and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel writes open letter to Obama in newspaper ad.
Author and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel writes open letter to Obama in newspaper ad.
Nobel Peace Prize winner and renowned author Elie Wiesel said Wednesday, December 18 that under no circumstances could Iran be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons. In a full page ad in the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, Wiesel said that there is no doubt to Iran’s true ambitions. “The words and actions of the leadership of Iran leave no doubt as to their intentions,” he wrote, and warned that the U.S. and Western countries must not be fooled into believing otherwise.

American millionaire Michael Steinhardt, one of the founders of the Taglit (Birthright Israel) program, paid for the advertisement. The ad demanded Congress to cease all talks with Iran until it agrees to dismantle its nuclear program and stop its threats against Israel, according to The Times of Israel.

The United States, Wiesel wrote in the ad, has no business being involved with “a regime whose parliament last month erupted in ‘Death to America’ chants.

According to Algemeiner, Rabbi Boteach spoke about his decision to cosponsor the ad, saying, “Elie Wiesel is the greatest Jewish personality alive and my personal hero. He is a man of incomparable humanity and he is calling the world’s attention to the unmitigated catastrophe of a nuclear-armed Iran. I salute his courage in speaking out against the human rights outrages of the Mullahs of Iran who slaughter their own people with impunity and who have repeatedly threatened Israel with extinction.”

The full text of the ad is posted below:

“Iran Must Not Be Allowed to Remain Nuclear

If there is one lesson I hope the world has learned from the past it is that regimes rooted in brutality must never be trusted. And the words and actions of the leadership of Iran leave no doubt as to their intentions.

Should the civilized nations of the world trust a regime whose supreme leader said yet again last month that Israel is “doomed to annihilation,” and referred to my fellow Jewish Zionists as “rabid dogs?”

Should we who believe in human rights, trust a regime which in the 21st century stones women and hangs homosexuals?

Should we who believe in freedom trust a regime which murdered its own citizens in the streets of Tehran when the people protested a stolen election in the Green Revolution of Summer, 2009?

Should we who believe in the United States trust a regime whose parliament last month erupted in “Death to America” chants as they commemorated the 34th anniversary of the storming of our Embassy in Tehran?

Should we who believe in life trust a regime whom our own State Department lists as one of the world’s foremost sponsors of terrorism?

America, too, defines itself by its words and actions. America adopted me, as it did so many others, and gave me a home after my people were exterminated in the camps of Europe. And from the time of the founding fathers America has always stood up to tyrants. Our nation is morally compromised when it contemplates allowing a country calling for the destruction of the State of Israel to remain within reach of nuclear weapons.

Sanctions have come at a terrible economic cost for the people of Iran. But, unfortunately, sanctions are what have brought the Iranian regime to the negotiating table.

I appeal to President Obama and Congress to demand, as a condition of continued talks, the total dismantling of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and the regime’s public and complete repudiation of all genocidal intent against Israel. And I appeal to the leaders of the United States Senate to go forward with their vote to strengthen sanctions against Iran until these conditions have been met.

I once wrote that history has taught us to trust the threats of our enemies more than the promises of our friends. Our enemies are making serious threats. It is time to take them seriously. It is time for our friends to keep their promises.

Elie Wiesel

Nobel Peace Laureate

This Ad was produced by This World: The Values Network (LOGO)

Executive Director, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

And Sponsored by Michael Steinhardt, Board of Governors, This World: The Values Network; co-founder Birthright Israel”

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