Munich 1938 – Vienna 2022
Written by Eli Vered Hazan, International Ambassador of Likud and Vice Chairman of IDU
The reports from Vienna regarding a deal with Iran arouse great concern. Although Putin, Macron, Schulz, Xi, Biden, and their friends are celebrating, the more they celebrate the more the rest of the world worries.
What’s clear is that this is a bad agreement. It will allow the leaders of Iran not only to fulfill their promises to potentially destroy Israel with the nuclear weapons they develop but will also allow them to potentially destroy cities like Berlin and Athens, and eventually San Francisco and Melbourne. The agreement will allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons, will over time turn them into an economic power, and will reduce the West’s ability to restrain them. Not only that, the agreement is liable to set off a nuclear arms race throughout the Middle East. Saudi Arabia is already in advanced talks with Pakistan to acquire nuclear capabilities, and they won’t be the last.
In fact, Vienna in 2022 is exactly like Munich in 1938. Then too, did the leaders of the world’s powerful nations refuse to understand what few understood. Then too, they promised peace for generations. Then too, opponents to the treaty were accused of opposing peace, and then too, those who worked against the deal were dismissed and demonized. History is repeating itself today but Vienna in 2022 is much worse than Munich in 1938, because the leaders of our generation are much worse. Not only do they refuse to understand the intentions of the Iranian government to destroy a sovereign nation, and not only do they deny the existence of Iran’s nuclear weapon development in violation of the previous agreement, but they ignore the historical example of an agreement leading to a bloody world war.
Let us assume that Munich is a distant memory, and that circumstances have changed. Iran signed the first agreement in 2015 and violated it over and over. In 2018 Israel revealed Iran’s nuclear weapon program to the world, which led to the Americans leaving the deal, though the Europeans refused to understand the ramifications and the Russians and Chinese reacted gently, relying as they do on Iranian resources to power their economies
However, Iran is not the only test case in our times. The case of North Korea proves that world leaders act in a reckless manner which will lead to destruction on a level not seen in generations.
In the 1960s North Korea began its nuclear weapon development progress. In 1994, the US signed an agreement with North Korea in which the totalitarian state pledged to stop developing dangerous nuclear weapons and in return received billions of dollars from the Americans. However, in 2006, North Korea conducted its first nuclear test and since then it has only been focusing more and more on developing destructive weapons. One thing became clear: Agreements with non-democratic countries are not worth the paper they are signed on. The leaders of today’s powers are not able to understand that, and the ones who will pay for it are the next generation.
On November 1st, 2022, general elections will be held again in Israel. Benjamin Netanyahu’s victory is not only critical for Israelis but for the entire world. Let us not forget: Netanyahu was the only one who fought against Iran’s nuclearization. As early as 1993, he served as a lone voice of protest, like Churchill prior to World War II, and warned against the Iranian regime. In 2015, he did what no leader of a country, certainly not a small country, dared to do and went all the way to Congress to warn against the nuclear deal. This was one of the main reasons why the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed a peace agreement with Israel, and it is why Saudi Arabia dramatically lowered its longstanding opposition to the world’s only Jewish state. But since Netanyahu left office, Israel has had a weak and lax government that has given up on the nuclear fight. This government’s incompetence affects the leaders of the West and therefore the future of the entire world.
Netanyahu’s return to the premiership of Israel is of worldwide interest. It is not for nothing that many residents of the Middle East hope that Netanyahu will win the elections and return. They know exactly why: he is the only one who can save the entire region from destruction and therefore prevent a global catastrophe.
Eli Vered Hazan is he International Ambassador of Likud and Vice Chairman of IDU, and former Spokesperson of Likud and PM Netanyahu.