Iran is as belligerent as ever, by Joseph I. Lieberman

Joseph I. Lieberman is a former U.S. senator from Connecticut and serves as chairman of United Against Nuclear Iran. Giulio Terzi di Sant'Agata is the former foreign minister of Italy and is a member of United Against Nuclear Iran's Advisory Board.

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=16561

On Friday, July 1, thousands of Iranians will gather in the streets for Quds Day, whose main purpose is to call for "Death to Israel." Israeli, and probably American, flags will be burned, along with the likenesses of the leaders of both countries. These annual regime-organized rallies are in their fourth decade.

But now, the belligerence embodied in Quds Day stretches far beyond the borders of Iran, with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei providing funding to enable the participation of anti-Israel extremists in cities around the world.

At the same time, some global leaders and corporate executives are too anxious to believe that Iran has changed in the wake of the conclusion of the nuclear deal. They are eager to find signs of reform from Tehran to justify business pursuits and to open lines of trade. But there is no greater proof, no more revealing time, for the world to understand the true nature of the Iranian regime than on Quds Day.

While some want us to see peace, moderation, and even friendship with Iran, the objective truth continues to be Iranian extremism, hostility, and violence. While some want to see lucrative business opportunities, the reality is that there are severe business risks in Iran that are too great to be ignored for the sake of short-term economic benefit. Just last week, the Financial Action Task Force announced that it would keep Iran on its blacklist because it remains "concerned with the terrorist financing risk emanating from Iran and the threat this poses to the international financial system."

The U.S. State Department recently declared again that Iran remains the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism, supporting groups like Hezbollah and Hamas, whose attacks on Israelis, Syrians, Palestinians, Lebanese, and Americans brought death and destruction. Iran also commits gross human rights violations against its own people, and sets up front companies owned by the sanctioned Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, funneling the revenue directly into the hands of the ayatollah for nefarious purposes at home and abroad. The regime still kidnaps and holds hostage people from countries which are at the same time pursuing business opportunities with Iran. The most important point for business executives to understand is that businesses doing business in Iran are still subject to severe economic sanctions due to the country's non-nuclear related behavior.

Rouhani himself is a walking contradiction. Last year, he spoke hopefully of ongoing talks between Iran and U.S. diplomats while marching in Quds Day demonstrations alongside signs declaring "Death to Zionism" and "Death to America." Days later, Iran finalized the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with the "Great Satan," America.

Fortunately, nearly one year after the nuclear agreement was signed, there remains considerable wariness and aversion from countries, businesses and financial institutions to broker deals with Tehran. Why? Because, they are not blind to the authoritarian and extremist essence of the ayatollah and his regime. They cannot ignore his bellicose statements, and his regime's vociferous support for such appalling activities as the Holocaust cartoon contest, which his office deemed "excellent" and "appreciated" just weeks ago. And they should not conclude that there is no more risk to doing business in Iran.

Younger Iranians may dream of reform, but the power remains in the hands of an extremist clerical establishment with hegemonic ambitions in the Middle East. Consider that in 2009 the new chairman of Iran's Assembly of Experts, the body tasked with selecting the next supreme leader, called for the assassination of then-Israeli foreign minister, Tzipi Livni.

Quds Day began in 1979. It is clear 37 years later that Iran has not changed. The global community would be wise to keep its distance from this radical government until such time that it does truly change.

Joseph I. Lieberman is a former U.S. senator from Connecticut and serves as chairman of United Against Nuclear Iran. Giulio Terzi di Sant'Agata is the former foreign minister of Italy and is a member of United Against Nuclear Iran's Advisory Board.

‘The Haggada’s Politics’ – A Conversation between Rabbi Sacks and Sen. Joseph Lieberman

On Sunday, March 22, 2015, Yeshiva University presented a conversation with former Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks and former Senator Joseph Lieberman on “The Haggada’s Politics: From 2,000 Years Ago to Today.”

The conversation, hosted by Yeshiva University’s Center for the Jewish Future and the Abraham Arbesfeld Kollel Yom Rishon and Mille Arbesfeld Midreshet Yom Rishon, was held at YU’s Wilf Campus, New York City. Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik, director of YU’s Zahava and Moshael Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought, moderated the discussion.

Rabbi Sacks is a global religious leader, philosopher, author and educator. He is currently the Kressel and Ephrat Family University Professor of Jewish Thought at Yeshiva University and Ingeborg and Ira Rennert Global Distinguished Professor of Judaic Thought at New York University.

Joseph Lieberman represented Connecticut in the U.S. Senate from 1989 to 2013 after serving in the Connecticut State Senate for 10 years and as attorney general of Connecticut for six years. He was appointed the inaugural Joseph Lieberman Chair in Public Policy and Public Service at YU in July 2014.

Joe Lieberman: The Story of His Religious Journey

T.G.I. Shabbat

Senator Lieberman's Farewell Speech

Senator McCain's Remarks on Lieberman's Retirement

The Last Days of Joementum Joe Lieberman on Endorsements and Senate Road Trips

You haven’t made an endorsement in the presidential race. Are you inclined to do that now? 
The answer is no.

Has it been solicited? 
I was actually asked to speak at both party conventions. I explained that I was taking a sabbatical from elective partisan politics. And it might be a sabbatical that will go on for the rest of my life.

You, of course, have been through this before, 12 years ago. Given your subsequent move away from the Democratic Party, isn’t it for the best that you and Al Gore didn’t win in 2000? 
Oh, no. I have many feelings about 2000 but two prominent ones. One is a really tremendous sense of gratitude to Al Gore. And the second is — how to put it? — disappointment, anger and frustration over how it ended.

On the subject of running mates, apparently the words “Paul Ryan” and “shirtless” have been Googled nine times more often than “Paul Ryan” and “budget.” Are you puzzled that more attention was not paid to your physique? 
I am. Because beneath this shirt, there is really a lot to behold that would give voters a sense of confidence about my capacity for balanced leadership.

Could it have turned a few hundred votes in Florida? 
Yeah. That and a clearer ballot.

You’re retiring after serving 24 years in the Senate. What lobbying firm are you going to join now? 
I’m not going to lobby. For sure.

Chris Dodd said the same thing two years ago. 
Yeah, I know. Watch me.

After you leave the Senate, will you still have floor privileges? Will you still get to use the gym? 
I’m not sure. But I have never used the gym. I went once, before I was sworn in. Lo and behold, there was somebody getting a massage. As I went by, whoever was showing me around said, “This is a new senator, Senator Lieberman.” And rising from the table was none other than Lloyd Bentsen.

Dressed?
Let’s say he was covered in part.

If you could take a cross-country trip with any three of your Senate colleagues, who would they be? 
If I don’t mention John McCain and Lindsey Graham, it would be like there was trouble in Mayberry Village.

O.K., so McCain and Graham, and who else? 
Well, a really close friend of mine is Susan Collins. One time, on a long trip on a military plane, we were talking about how our parents induced guilt. She was raised in a traditional Roman Catholic family in Caribou, Maine. Susan concluded, “Your people invented guilt, but my people perfected it.”

I’m told you recently enjoyed a Shabbat dinner with Senator McCain in Israel. 
He said that traveling with me compelled him to put up with all this Shabbat stuff — well, he actually used another term, but it’s not appropriate. The first time he got into a Shabbat elevator with me in Jerusalem, he pressed Button 9, and it went to Floor 2. He pressed it again and it went to Floor 3. These Shabbat elevators, they’re preset because you can’t use them on Shabbat. McCain has many virtues, but one is not patience. He said, “What the hell is going on with this elevator?”

Is there anything that I did not ask you that you’d want to touch on? 
There are many things you did ask me that I shouldn’t have touched on. Here is a parting gift. There’s an older guy on the park bench, crying — tell me if you’ve heard this one. Finally a jogger stops, sees the guy sobbing. ‘‘What’s wrong?’’ ‘‘My wife of 48 years died, and I was very lonely. I went on JDate and met a younger Russian woman. We liked each other. So she’s moved in with me, and she’s wonderful. She’s attractive, she cooks well, she takes care of me and almost every night we have fabulous sex.’’ So the jogger says: ‘‘Well that’s a wonderful story. Why are you crying?’’ The old guy says, ‘‘I’m crying because I can’t remember where I live.’’

That’s funny. 
It will get funnier as you get older.

Lieberman: Obama's Fear of Offending Muslims Paralyzes Policy

Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman blasted President Barack Obama’s counterterrorism policies in a speech Thursday, charging that he’s so worried about offending Muslims it is hurting the U.S. war on terror.

Speaking at a National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism conference at the National Press Club, Lieberman said the strategy to stop terror that the president unveiled in June “was ultimately a big disappointment.”

Lieberman said Obama’s plan successfully diagnosed the gravity of domestic radicalization, but failed to lay out a cohesive plan to counter it.

One of Lieberman’s biggest criticisms, according to a report in TheHill.com, was that the administration clings to the term “violent extremism” to define the threat to America, rather than identifying it as “violent Islamist extremism.”

“The administration still refuses to call our enemy in this war by its proper name: violent Islamist extremism,” said Lieberman, an independent who caucuses with Democrats. “To call our enemy ‘violent extremism’ is so general and vague that it ultimately has no meaning.”

Lieberman, the chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, announced in January that he would retire, and will not be seeking another term in Congress.

Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman has issued the following statement in response to President Obama's Middle East address yesterday

“President Obama delivered an eloquent and important speech yesterday that rightly aligned the United States with the winds of democratic change that are blowing across the Middle East. In his unequivocal support for the right of people everywhere to choose their leaders for themselves, President Obama evoked the best bipartisan, values-based foreign policy tradition that unites great Democratic presidents like Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, and Bill Clinton, with Republican counterparts like Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. I also strongly support the economic measures the President announced to support the democratic transitions in Egypt and Tunisia, including the establishment of enterprise funds and the extension of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to the Middle East and North Africa.
“I am also grateful that the President at last spoke out about the campaign of murder and repression by Bashar al Assad in Syria. This was the first time the President personally addressed the deteriorating human rights situation in Syria since the uprising there began nearly two months ago. I hope the President in the days ahead continues to speak out about Syria and makes clear that it is time for Assad to go. I regret that he did not seize the opportunity to do so yesterday. 
“Unfortunately, President Obama's important and constructive speech embracing and supporting the peaceful, democratic revolutions in the Arab world was also undermined by an unhelpful and surprising set of remarks about Israel and the Palestinians that will not advance the peace process and in fact is likely to set it back.

“While the President made some strong statements about the "unshakeable" support for Israel's security and rightly criticized the Palestinian pursuit of a symbolic statehood declaration at the UN in September, his unilateral call for negotiations on  the basis of the 1967 lines with mutually agreed land swaps -- the first time any president has adopted this position -- was profoundly ill-advised. As in the case of the President's counterproductive demand for a settlement freeze two years ago, unilateral statements of this sort do nothing to bring the two parties back to the negotiating table and in fact make it harder for them to do so. They also damage the relationship of trust that is critical to peacemaking.
“In particular, the President's remarks have revived and exacerbated fears in Israel about the commitment and understanding of this Administration with regard to their unique security situation. The fact is, while the exciting and hopeful new reality in the Arab world is the Arab spring, the newest reality in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute is not hopeful. It is the threatening new unity government between the leadership of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, a group which the U.S. government has long designated as terrorist because it is committed to violence and the destruction of Israel.
“In the days ahead, I hope President Obama will make clear Israel cannot be expected to negotiate with a Fatah-Hamas unity government until Hamas accepts the Quartet conditions. I also hope that the President will make clear that his Administration recognizes the 1967 borders themselves are no longer an acceptable endpoint for negotiations because they do not allow Israel to defend itself, and that any peace agreement must reflect new realities on the ground, including the major new Israeli communities that have grown up since 1967, and the need for an extended presence by the IDF in the Jordan River Valley.
“In the past few months, the forces of freedom and self-determination have begun to move inexorably through the region. It is in that movement where we can find the greatest hope for peace between neighbors in the region, including Israelis and Palestinians.”

Lieberman: U.S. Should Not Outsource Stopping Iran

ABC News' Tahman Bradley reports: The single most important test of American power in the Middle East is whether the U.S. is successful in stopping Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons capability, Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., told the Council on Foreign Relations today in Washington, DC.  Senator Lieberman said military force is not the ideal way to handle Iran's nuclear ambitions, but it should remain on the table.  

Prosecute Ahmadinejad:

Senator Joseph Lieberman, Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, Pastor John Hagee, Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz and Malcolm Hoenlien of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations come together to urge people to sign the Christians United for Israel petition calling for Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to be prosecuted for the crime of incitement to genocide. http://cufi.org/Petition