Dear John,
Israel is getting ready to face a multifront war.
On Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian toured Lebanon’s southern border with Israel and said “The Zionist collapse is near.”
Within the last two months, tectonic shifts have taken place underneath the soil of the Middle East, and Israel is feeling increasingly more and more isolated.
The euphoric feeling I had, while sitting on the White Huse Lawn on September 15, 2020, when the Abraham Accords were signed, has by now, totally eviscerated, and has been replaced with an almost palpable fear.
This fear is unfortunately well-grounded. With over 60 kilograms of highly enriched uranium at the 60 percent level and particles found by the IAEA at the 90 percent level, Iran has been galloping toward a nuclear bomb.
This, while the United States has invested nearly two years in negotiating with the Islamic Republic of Iran—totally ignoring the humanitarian cries of the dissidents on the streets who would like to overthrow their suffocating theocracy.
Many Americans are unaware that 20,000 Iranian dissidents have been arrested, 500 killed on the streets and at least 4 hung from cranes in the town’s square. The cries of these courageous freedom fighters have been summarily ignored.
And we have been negotiating without a credible “plan B”.
As Neville Chamberlain taught us in the last century, diplomacy without the credible threat of military force when dealing with authoritarian regimes, is nothing short of meaningless.
Many in the Middle East have witnessed our feckless withdrawal from Afghanistan, our serious reduction of troops in Syria, and our lack of response to the Iranian-backed attacks on ships in international waters and on the Saudi oil fields, and have been left doubting American commitment and loyalty to its allies.
As the United States has turned its attention away from the Middle East, Beijing has rushed in to fill the diplomatic vacuum and has brokered an agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia. And now former rivals, such as Riyadh are running to Tehran; Sunni Arab nations who had cut off relations with Damascus because of their brutality in their 12 years of civil war, are rushing to embrace it, once again.
Our Sunni Arab friends are also fearing for their very lives against an emerging Iranian nuclear bomb and have felt a need to “diversity their portfolios.” Unfortunately, they are now respecting the brute force of Iran, and its alliances with Beijing and Moscow
Iran has surrounded Israel with a pincer-like grasp on all of its borders. Esmail Qaani, the head of the Al Quds of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps was recently in Beirut meeting with Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, and Hezbollah leader, Hasan Nasrallah, saying “Now is precisely the time to attack Israel.”
Right now, there are 150,000 Hezbollah missiles staring down at Israel from its northern borders with Syrian and Lebanon—some of which have been converted into precision-guided missiles, which can attack Israel’s nuclear reactor in the south, its major army bases, its hospitals, its water system, and its entire civilian infrastructure.
On April 8th, in the midst of Passover, Hezbollah attempted to assault Israel with 34 rockets from Lebanon and one Iranian drone out of Syria. People in the north of Israel were rushing into their shelters and their sealed rooms.
Last week, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said any attack on Iran, “will destroy Tel Aviv and Haifa.” Israel should not have to feel abandoned and alone in its struggle to survive and thrive.
That is why EMET exists.
I am grateful that I was in Israel during the war in May of 2021 when over 4,000 missiles rained down onto Israel from Hamas-controlled Gaza. I am grateful that I got to experience what it is like to have 60 seconds to run into a sealed room, together with my children and grandchildren.
I am grateful that I get to tell this story or stories like it, almost every single day on Capitol Hill—to be able to move the needle a little bit toward empathy of what the people of Israel must go through, in order to survive.
From what we are hearing on Capitol Hill lately if EMET did not exist, there would be no one to tell Israel’s proud story.
EMET needs your support. We are asking that you please support EMET to the greatest extent possible.
Israel is getting ready to face a multifront war. And they should not feel abandoned by the community of nations.
Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
Sarah Stern
Founder and President
EMET
