On Friday, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), and the MEK held its annual “Free Iran” gathering. This year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, “Free Iran Global Summit” was held online, connecting over 30,000 locations from above 100 countries around the globe. Nearly 1,000 renowned politicians participated in this conference reiterating their support of the Iranian people and their organized resistance movement.  

Local gatherings were held in compliance with public health protocols in each of 102 countries, and many of these featured speeches not only from Iranian dissidents but also from political supporters representing a wide range of political parties and professional backgrounds. 

In New York, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani spoke in support of the NCRI, as former Senators Joseph Lieberman and Robert Torricelli, as well as former Attorney General Michael Mukasey. Even on their own, these four men represent the ideological diversity of the Americans who have come to view the NCRI as a viable alternative for the existing regime. But they are only four out of dozens of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents who attended NCRI’s Free Iran Global Summit. 

As the Iranian regime grapples with a domestic and international crisis, the Iranian Resistance and its goal of regime change in Iran have been receiving international support. The crisis-ridden regime has been desperately pursuing a demonization campaign of the Iranian Resistance to discredit its viable alternative.  

The regime’s commitment to this disinformation scheme, as well as its various attacks and attempted attacks on NCRI assets throughout the world, confirms that the Resistance poses an existential threat to Iran’s theocratic dictatorship. In a tweet confirming his participation in Friday’s summit, Rudy Giuliani highlighted this perception by saying, “There are real possibilities for a free and non-nuclear Iran.” 

The prospect of freedom for the Iranian people should be a prominent motivator for all politicians and all governments that truly value democracy and human rights. But of course, concerns over Iran’s potential nuclear capability have dominated headlines to a much greater extent in recent years. This is especially true in light of last month’s statement by the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors, which demanded that Iran return to full compliance with restrictions imposed on its nuclear activities in 2016. 

The future of the underlying nuclear agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, is very much up in the air. But ever since it was signed, the NCRI has maintained the position that no such agreement could be expected to truly prevent the mullahs’ regime from continuing its pursuit of a nuclear bomb. The past several year’s summer gatherings have made it clear that the solution to this problem, like the solution to most of Iran’s domestic problems, can only be found in the wake of regime change. 

However, the western governments have prioritized their short-time economic interests over once and for all end the Iranian regime’s threats by recognizing the Iranian people’s right to resistance and overthrow of this regime. The Free Iran Global Summit on Friday confirmed that the regime has only grown more belligerent since the conclusion of the nuclear deal, and especially in recent months. Its systematic and complete violations of the imposed restrictions are definitive proof of its unshakeable commitment to the nuclear project. 

If “maximum pressure” over this issue was not enough to force reconsideration, the additional challenges of the coronavirus pandemic should have been. But even now that the outbreak has reportedly claimed over 70,000 Iranian lives, Tehran remains unwilling to redirect money away from confrontational projects and toward the vital needs of the domestic population. In other words, the regime prioritizes its illicit activities over the Iranian people’s lives.  

The western governments should end the appeasement policy to end the Iranian regime’s ongoing malign activities. Meanwhile, the Iranian Resistance has been insisting on a non-nuclear and a secular government in Iran. In 2018, NCRI President-elect, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi told lawmakers in Washington, “We want a non-nuclear Iran, free of weapons of mass destruction.” And in fact, this is one item on Mrs. Rajavi’s longstanding “10-point plan” for Iran’s future in the wake of the mullahs’ overthrow. 

The rest of that plan includes all of the principles, such as free elections and separation of religion from the state, that make up the unifying character of modern democracies. Americans and Europeans should have no difficulty supporting such a cause, especially if its advocates are genuinely capable of leading the ouster of the current establishment and erecting a new government in its place. The Free Iran Global Summit demonstrated that capability, in part by highlighting the protests that have challenged the clerical regime in the name of the democratic Resistance. 

Since the end of 2017, Iran has undergone three nationwide uprisings. As a result, leading Iranian regime’s officials have begun speaking out over the threat posed by the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), whose social influence they had simply denied for the preceding 30 years. If the Iranian people’s right to resistance be recognized by Western policymakers, those officials’ statements could lead to the next great leap forward in international awareness of the “real possibilities” for an Iranian government that not only eschews weapons of mass destruction but also affords its own people the freedoms they have been denied throughout the nation’s modern history. 

Too many past opportunities were squandered amidst the appeasement policy toward the Iranian regime. The Iranian regime is riddled with crisis, the Iranian people have shown their willingness to overthrow this regime. The Free Iran Global Summit showed there is a viable alternative to the Iranian regime.  

Now is the time to ramp up that pressure on the regime even further. And there is no better first step toward maximum pressure than formal recognition of the Iranian people’s right to fight back against the tyranny of the mullahs’ regime. 

Source: https://www.ncr-iran.org/en/news/iran-resistance/iran-growing-support-for-the-mek-and-ncri-poses-an-existential-threat-to-the-clerical-regime/

The post As Israelis give up on peace deal, Democrats’ ‘solution’ would destroy Jewish state first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

As Israelis increasingly write off the chances of a peace deal with Palestinian Arabs any time in the foreseeable future, the US Democratic Party is increasingly in thrall to a fantasy “solution” that would destroy the Jewish state.

Top Democratic Mideast-policy people like Obama-era National Security Council officials Ben Rhodes and Robert Malley — the folks likely to set the agenda for a Joe Biden administration — actually praised writer Peter Beinart’s outrageous call last week to strip Israel of its status as a Jewish nation in order to (theoretically, at least) make it a “home” for Palestinians and Jews alike, as Jonathan Tobin noted in these pages.

It’s certainly true that Palestinian leaders have turned down countless proposals for a “two-state solution,” but that hardly justifies any hope that they’d live peacefully with Israelis in a unified state — not after decades of propaganda about the inherent evil of the Jews.

Israelis have grown deeply skeptical (and weary) of efforts to find a viable peace deal. That’s a key reason why the Labor party has collapsed. Indeed, the fact that voters last March overwhelmingly backed coalitions headed by a security hawk, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and a centrist, Benny Gantz, shows that voters there have little hope that any genuine agreement is possible for now.

Yet for Jews all over, it’s hard to imagine a greater blow than what would be, in effect, the destruction of modern-day Israel, a nation set up to protect them after the Holocaust and after centuries of anti-Semitic persecution across the world.il

With no military force of their own under a “one-state solution,” and birth rates that would soon make Arabs the clear majority, Jews would be back to their pre-Nazi days, politically.

That fits fine with the dreams of a rising Democratic faction of young Israel-haters and anti-Semites, like Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY) is also part of the group. She and a dozen fellow Dems last month called for restrictions on US military aid to Israel if it annexes areas of the West Bank. Folks can disagree about such plans, but restricting aid should be a bipartisan nonstarter, given the threats Israel faces and its importance as a US ally.

New York Democratic voters ousted staunch Israel-backer Rep. Eliot Engel last month in favor of AOC-backed Jamaal Bowman, whose pro-Israel bona fides are dubious, at best.

Hostility toward Israel isn’t new among Democrats. At their 2012 convention, the floor booed the idea of recognizing the reality that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. In 2016, they fought over Palestinian rights, with Sen. Bernie Sanders leading the anti-Israel charge.

But the hostility has grown, as top presidential contenders boycotted the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference and threatened to use aid to pressure Israel.

Biden, meanwhile, was part of the team that forged an Iran nuclear deal that put Israel’s very existence at risk. If he wins in November, he’ll likely undo all President Trump’s pro-Israel steps.

What’s most notable, though, is that US Democrats aren’t just parting with US Republicans — but with the people of Israel.

Source: https://nypost.com/2020/07/18/as-israelis-write-off-peace-deal-democrats-plan-may-destroy-jewish-state/

The post As Israelis give up on peace deal, Democrats’ ‘solution’ would destroy Jewish state first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY., left, testifies before the House Oversight Committee hearing on family separation and detention centers, Friday, July 12, 2019, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Four progressive House Democrats have written to the secretary of state calling on the United States to cut assistance to Israel should it proceed to annex parts of the West Bank.

In response, the AIPAC lobby has launched a campaign against the letter initiated by Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Pramila Jayapal of Washington, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, and Betty McCollum of Minnesota.

The letter, AIPAC said Monday on Twitter, “explicitly threatens the U.S.-Israel relationship in ways that would damage American interests, risk the security of Israel & make a two-state solution less likely.”

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An action alert urged activists from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee to contact their representatives to oppose the letter.

The letter to Mike Pompeo is circulating among Democrats in a bid to add signatures.

“Should the Israeli government move forward with the planned annexation with this administration’s acquiescence, we will work to ensure non-recognition as well as pursue conditions on the $3.8 billion in U.S. military funding to Israel, including human rights conditions and withholding funds for the off-shore procurement of Israeli weapons equal to or exceeding the amount the Israeli government spends annually to fund settlements, as well as the policies and practices that sustain and enable them,” it says, according to a copy obtained by Jewish Insider.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he plans to launch the process to annex parts of the West Bank by July 1. His coalition partner, the Blue and White Party, is resisting pressure to move so soon.

Last week, 191 of 233 Democrats in the House signed a letter warning Israel that annexation would endanger peace. AIPAC also opposed that letter, which expressed a commitment to the US-Israel relationship and did not include any threats to aid. The lobby, however, was unable to stop some of the House’s most stalwart pro-Israel Democrats from signing.

The post Ocasio-Cortez and Tlaib among 4 Dems calling to cut aid if annexation goes ahead first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.