ZIONIST ORGANIZATION OF AMERICA

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ZOA Criticizes Sen. Sanders, John Brennan, J Street, Ben Rhodes for Condemning the Killing of Iran’s Nuclear Terrorist Fakhrizadeh

Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) President Morton A. Klein and ZOA Chair Mark Levenson, Esq. released the following statement:

Those who condemned the targeted killing of IRGC nuclear terrorist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh last week, have, as former British army commander, Colonel Richard Kemp explained: “exhibited shocking disregard for the death, destruction and suffering likely to be inflicted by the totalitarian Iranian regime utilizing the pernicious expertise of Mr. Fakhrizadeh.” (“The Killing of a Nuclear Scientist May Save Countless Lives,” by Richard Kemp, Gatestone Institute, Nov. 30, 2020.)

Condemnations of Fakhrizadeh’s killing came from Israel-bashers socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, J Street; radical Islamist-sympathizer and former CIA Director John Brennan; former top Obama advisor Ben Rhodes; European Union spokesman Peter Sano; and the National Iranian American Council (NIAC). NIAC is allegedly the Iranian regime’s U.S. lobbyist. NIAC worked together with extremist J Street to end U.S. sanctions on Iran and promote the catastrophic Iran deal; NIAC board member Genevieve Lynch contributed funds to J Street. These groups and individuals have once again taken the side of the genocidal anti-American, anti-Israel Iranian terrorist regime over the lives and safety of Americans, Israelis, and our Middle Eastern and other allies.

Nuclear terrorist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh spent his life directing Iran’s illicit, continuing nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs to wipe the Jewish state’s 8 million innocent men, women, children and babies off the face of the earth in an instantaneous nuclear Holocaust, and to rain death and destruction on America and the rest of the Middle East. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that Fakhrizadeh led Iran’s “Project Amad” to illegally develop nuclear weapons until 2003, and refused to make himself available to answer the IAEA’s questions regarding military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear program. As Al Arabiya noted, Fakhrizadeh “has the rare distinction of being the only Iranian scientist named in the International Atomic Energy Agency's 2015 "final assessment" of open questions about Iran's nuclear program and whether it was aimed at developing a bomb,” and traveled abroad under three passports to allegedly obtain nuclear information on the black market. The extensive Iranian nuclear documents seized by Israel in 2018 confirmed that Fakhrizadeh headed Project Amad’s illegal replacement, the so-called Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND) from 2003 onwards, until his death.

Moreover, Fakhrizadeh was not only a genocidal nuclear scientist; he was also an international terrorist, as a top commander (Brigadier General) of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – a U.S.-designated terrorist foreign organization. The Iranian Islamic regime’s constitution specifically founded the IRGC to “strike terror” into the “enemies of Allah” (meaning Israel, the U.S., and other Middle East nations) and to obtain worldwide Iranian hegemony. The IRGC and its terror proxies have perpetrated numerous terror attacks (including planning, training pilots for, and facilitating 9-11; murdering hundreds of Americans in Lebanon and Iraq; bombing the Argentinian Jewish center; etc., etc.) and proxy wars against the U.S., Israel, and our allies in wide-ranging non-stop war for decades.

Killing such a terror leader was legally justified and necessary to help deter Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb that would wreak massive destruction and loss of innocent lives.

Notably, Sen. Sanders, J Street’s, NIAC’s, Brennan’s, Rhodes’, and EU spokesman Sano’s statements each used similar absurd phrases to condemn the killing of nuclear terrorist leader Fakhrizadeh. NIAC and J Street and Sanders claimed that the killing was “reckless” and an effort to “sabotage” diplomacy and the re-entry of the JCPOA (the Iran deal). Ben Rhodes said it would “ undermine diplomacy”; Sanders called it “reckless” and “illegal”; Brennan similarly called it a “criminal act and highly reckless.” Sano also similarly called killing the dangerous nuclear terrorist “a criminal act and runs counter to the principle of respect for human rights.”

The condemners failed to mention the human rights of all of those murdered by the IRGC that Fakhrizadeh helped lead, or the human rights of the millions of innocent people who would be obliterated by a nuclear bomb produced under Fakhrizadeh’s direction and with his expertise.

Extremist anti-Israel J Street also called killing the nuclear terrorist a “provocation.” The real provocation is Iran’s and Fakhrizadeh’s decades-long war to annihilate Israel and the west, using all available means.

Yet, as Colonel Richard Kemp explained, “Iran will never abandon what it considers its absolute right to become a nuclear-armed state. . . . The nuclear archive [which Colonel Kemp examined] proves that while the regime has consistently denied its weapons programme, it has forged ahead with it, in breach of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that it signed in 1970, and despite its obligations under the JCPOA, and has put in place measures to continue to do so. It has lied to the IAEA and the archive even sets out in detail the ways in which it has deceived the inspectors. Despite claims to the contrary, the JCPOA was never going to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran and was not designed to do so. . .”

We agree and again criticize Sanders, J Street, Brennan, Rhodes, and NIAC for their anti-American anti-Israel stance of condemning the elimination of a hateful monster terrorist who was working to destroy America and Israel.

This article can be viewed on our website here.

Founded in 1897, ZOA played a key role in the Jewish State's re-establishment. Today, ZOA is the leading major American Jewish organization courageously defending Israel and the Jewish people; fighting against all forms of antisemitism, including anti-Jewish boycotts; and promoting the Jewish people's lawful right to live in and settle historic Jewish lands. ZOA exposes that a Palestinian state would endanger Israel's existence; presents the facts about the Arab/Islamic war against Israel; and combats the anti-Israel lie that Israel is an "occupier" of her own land. ZOA spearheaded long battles to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, and apply civil rights protections to Jewish students. ZOA provides free legal assistance and programs to pro-Israel students at numerous college campuses. ZOA's bold, unapologetic voice has a significant impact on public discourse and policy.

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