S. Africa Chief Rabbi to Netanyahu: Don’t rely on the US to save Israel from Iran

If Israel does not destroy Iran’s production of nuclear weapons - no one else will, South Africa Chief Rabbi Dr Warren Goldstein warned in the wake of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address to US Congress, and following the recent horrific missile attack by Hezbollah that killed 12 children playing soccer.

“Iran is the malign force behind this, the October 7 attacks and the multi-front proxy armies that have assailed Israel in recent times,” Goldstein said in the latest YouTube address. “This latest attack is a stark reminder that a nuclear Iran – with its violent Jihadi worldview – poses an existential threat to Israel.”

Noting recent reports that Iran is just weeks away from nuclear capability, the chief rabbi said “the time for talk is over”, and amidst the political instability and deep polarization in America, urged Israel to “act now” to defuse the threat.

>> Watch additional episodes by Rabbi Warren Goldstein, Chief Rabbi of South Africa: https://www.youtube.com/@chiefrabbigoldstein

“The unprecedented fourth speech by an Israeli Prime Minister to the United States Congress amidst innumerable standing ovations should not lull Israel into thinking that it can rely on a polarized America to save it from the existential threat that a nuclear Iran poses,” warned Goldstein.

“For years, Netanyahu has given many speeches in the UN and the US Congress warning about this," he added. "Act now. Save Israel. And prepare to be condemned for doing it.” 

The chief rabbi cited clear historical precedent for taking unilateral action: the  decision by then-Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to destroy Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981.

Under Saddam Hussein, Iraq was less than a month away from full nuclear capability, and had issued genocidal threats against Israel similar to those made by Iran.

“While knowing he would face a barrage of criticism, Menachem Begin ordered a daring Israel Air Force operation to destroy the nuclear facility situated in Osirak, in the heart of Baghdad,” said Goldstein. “The question Prime Minister Netanyahu should ask himself is the one that moved Begin to act. ‘What would become of our children if I did nothing?’” 

Goldstein was adamant the US and the West could not be relied upon to protect Israel from Iran's nuclear weapons. 

“History has shown that no other nation will come to our rescue. We learned this from bitter experience when boats of German Jewish refugees were turned back by America and Britain, and when the Allied forces refused to bomb the railroads to Auschwitz.” 

Goldstein graphically spelt out the threat a nuclear Iran poses - a prospect “so horrifying it is almost impossible to say out loud.” 

“A nuclear Iran places the seven million Jews of Israel in mortal danger. If there's one thing that October 7 has taught us, it’s that the implacable hatred of the proponents of violent Jihad knows no bounds. For them, no evil is too horrific to perpetrate. October 7 was an inkling of what Iran would do from the moment it possesses nuclear weapons.” 

And while the prospect of mutually assured destruction acted as a nuclear deterrent during the Cold War, Goldstein believes no such deterrence exists in the case of Iran.

“As the great political analyst Charles Krauthammer once observed, mutually assured destruction for Jihadists who glorify death and martyrdom is an incentive, not a deterrent.” 

Compounding the threat, he also cited New York Times bestselling author Annie Jacobsen’s argument in her new book, “Nuclear War”, that missile defense systems – even extremely advanced and sophisticated ones like Israel’s Iron Dome – have limited capacity to repel a nuclear attack.

>> Watch additional episodes by Rabbi Warren Goldstein, Chief Rabbi of South Africa: https://www.youtube.com/@chiefrabbigoldstein

Goldstein went on to reference the Torah portion read in synagogues throughout the world on the Shabbat before Netanyahu’s address, in which the non-Jewish prophet Bilam describes the Jewish people as “a nation that dwells alone”. 

“To ‘dwell alone’ means to do the right thing even if you are alone against a world of opposition,” Goldstein explained. “Abraham, our founding father, was the first person to be called a ‘Hebrew’ - an Ivri, which the sages of the Talmud say has a root meaning of standing alone, and refers to how Abraham stood on one side and the rest of the world stood on the other. Abraham stood alone with his message of faith in one God, with the Divine values of compassion and kindness, against a brutal pagan world.”

According to Goldstein, almost 4000 years later, Abraham’s descendants and spiritual heirs in Israel must do the same thing.

“Israel must stand alone and do the right thing," he said. "Nuclear weapons in the hands of a violent, oppressive Jihadi regime like Iran, the greatest state sponsor of global terrorism, is a danger not only to Israel but to the freedom and dignity of every decent human being  - in Iran itself, the Middle East and the world. The “nation that dwells alone” must act now to save itself, and the world.”

In closing, Goldstein emphasized that while Israel is alone - and must act alone - the country is not helpless. 

“Three-quarters of a century ago, God blessed the Jewish people with an independent state – and now those who are in charge of its military forces need to act, placing their faith not in America, but in God, and use the full might of the sovereign Jewish state that He has granted our generation to protect and defend the people of Israel, and the cause of freedom and justice for all,” he said.

>> Watch additional episodes by Rabbi Warren Goldstein, Chief Rabbi of South Africa: https://www.youtube.com/@chiefrabbigoldstein

This article was written in cooperation with Chief Rabbi Goldstein's office.