Date: Tuesday, October 1, 2019
To: Friends & Supporters
From: Gary L. Bauer, Director

What Israel Is Facing

The media and many critics of the Jewish state often portray Israel as an overbearing aggressor oppressing a minority population. Israel's critics often ignore the acts of terrorism that prompt Israeli action, the repeated calls to incitement that come from many corners of Palestinian society or the threats leveled against Israel's very existence.

For example, Gen. Hossein Salami, commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, said this yesterday during a speech to other Iranian commanders:

"This sinister regime [Israel] must be wiped off the map and this is no longer . . . a dream (but) it is an achievable goal. . . we have managed to obtain the capacity to destroy the imposter Zionist regime."

Of course, this is nothing new for the Iranian regime. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, frequently threatens to annihilate the Jewish state. But how many times must Iran's leaders express their desire for a second Holocaust before the West takes them seriously?

Why are so many European companies eager to do business with Iran? Why are so many politicians willing to trust this regime?

Why are activists so upset about Israeli construction in the West Bank so silent about Iran's construction of ballistic missiles and secret nuclear weapons facilities?

Incitement against Israel is not limited to Iran and its terrorist proxies Hamas and Hezbollah. It comes from the Palestinian Authority, which subsidizes terrorism against Israel and which teaches its children to hate Israeli Jews.

It also comes from many mosques which are preaching intolerance. For example, during a recent sermon in Jerusalem's Al-Asqa mosque, Sheikh Abu Mahdi Baydoun blasted Arab leaders who negotiate with Israel and called for a "Caliphate that will mobilize its army to liberate the blessed land of Palestine."

If Israel stopped all construction in Judea and Samaria, does anyone think that the incitement in the mosques would end? Of course not.

Israel is not threatening to wipe Iran off the map. Nor is it threatening to annihilate the Palestinian territories. Yet individual Israelis and the Jewish state itself face threats of terrorism and destruction on a daily basis from enemies consumed with hate.