Moishe Alexander has given a donation to the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews and wishes to share Rabbi Eckstein’s message with readers of the Charity Blog. Rabbi Eckstein wrote: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. No one expected anything but bellicose, anti-Israel, anti-Western rhetoric from Ahmadinejad, and his speech Wednesday provided no exceptions.

Ahmadinejad’s appearance comes as the world continues its debate over how to confront Iran’s pursuit of nuclear technology, a problem of deepest concern not just to Israel and the West, but to Arab leaders who know that a nuclear Iran will become the region’s undisputed strongman. Iran continues to publicly insist that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only, but the mullahs in power have little credibility to make such a claim. While some world leaders continue to accept Iranian assurances, others will publicly confirm what’s held privately by many: Just last week, French President Nicolas Sarkozy told a reporter that it is “a certainty to all of our secret services” that Iran is working on a nuclear weapons program.

Now, an important new book, The Rise of Nuclear Iran: How Tehran Defies the West, by Dore Gold, an American-born former Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations, makes the case that world leaders are failing their citizens by not halting Iran’s acquisition of this powerful—and deadly—technology. This failure, he argues, stems from Western leaders’ inability to understand the depth of Iranian enmity toward the West, and to recognize the deception routinely practiced by Iranian diplomats and other government officials.

That deception, according to Gold, is even admitted to by members of the Iranian government. In 2008, Iranian official Abdollah Ramezanzadeh stated in a public debate with advisers to the Iranian president that “[Iran] had an overt policy, which was one of negotiation and confidence building, and a covert policy, which was a continuation of the [nuclear development] activities.” Gold also quotes a speech, delivered by Iran’s former chief nuclear negotiator Hassan Rowhani, in which Rowhani states, “When we were negotiating with the Europeans in Tehran, we were installing equipment in parts of the [nuclear] facility in Isfahan.” These tactics have been all too effective, allowing Iran to proceed with its nuclear pursuits, in defiance of the world’s attempts to thwart them.

Meanwhile, the world’s leaders continue using the same approach—and somehow expecting a change in results. And all the while, Iran edges closer to possessing nuclear weapons.

Coincidentally, Ahmadinejad’s New York appearance bumps up against the anniversary of an event in world history that has become a symbol for short-sightedness and a refusal to address ugly realities: On September 30, 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain returned from a meeting in Munich with German leader Adolph Hitler. During their meeting, Chamberlain bowed to Hitler’s demand that Czechoslovakia surrender the Sudetenland, a region in western Czechoslovakia, to Germany. Convinced that this would pacify Hitler’s territorial ambitions, Chamberlain told the British people, “My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honor. I believe it is peace for our time. Go home and get a nice, quiet sleep.”

Peace for our time.

Chamberlain’s promised peace, of course, was a phantom: There would be few opportunities for a “nice, quiet sleep” in Europe during the next seven years. Eleven months later, Hitler invaded Poland, and, two days after that, England declared war on Germany. Thus began one of the bloodiest and farthest-reaching wars the world has ever known. Chamberlain allowed his well-intentioned, earnest desire for peace to dominate his thinking to the extent that he turned a blind eye to Hitler’s true ambitions.

This, perhaps, is the overarching message of Gold’s The Rise of Nuclear Iran: If the free world truly wants to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons, it first needs to evaluate Iran’s true ambitions with clarity—and to see through the obvious smoke screens thrown up by the Islamic Republic. To do this, world leaders must not allow their own wishes and hopes for peace without confrontation to overwhelm their clarity of thought and perception. Only then will we be able to confront this threat. By providing us with the historical context we need to evaluate Iran’s current activities, The Rise of a Nuclear Iran does a great service to all who truly seek real and lasting peace.

It is a natural human impulse to turn away from things we don’t want to see, but it is rarely productive in the long-term. We live in an unredeemed world full of moral unclarity, but we know that Truth illuminates—it is, after all, one of God’s names. While we must “seek peace and pursue it” (Psalm 34:14), we must simultaneously remain clear-eyed and watchful. We trust in the Eternal and beg Him: “Do not withhold Your mercy from Me, O Lord. May Your love and Your truth always protect me.” (Psalm 40:11)

With prayers for shalom, peace,

Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein
President