Iranian Speaker on Israel, America and Antisemitism

If you think America is the problem, you have no idea what the world looks like without America.

And if you think Israel is the problem, you have no idea what the Middle East looks like without Israel.

Israel is not just the Jewish state. Israel is the front line.

And every Iranian knows the chant that I too was made to chant when I was growing up in Iran, "Death to Israel. Death to America."

Not one or the other, both. Israel is the small Satan.

America is the great Satan. Why? Because the enemies of Israel understand something that too many Americans do not.

Israel and America are connected. They are connected by the belief that the individual matters more than the state, that women are not property, that minorities have rights, that you can question your leaders, that you can change your government,

that you can worship freely, speak freely, that your life belongs to you, that God is God, and no government or school or ideology will take the place of God.

That is what they hate, and that is why the hatred starts with the Jews but never ends with the Jews.

The Jews are the warning sign. Israel is the warning sign.

When a movement becomes obsessed with destroying the Jewish state, pay attention.

When people begin excusing violence against Jews because they believe Jews are too powerful, too privileged, too white, too successful, pay attention.

When college students start deciding that some victims deserve sympathy and Jewish victims deserve an asterisk, pay attention.

When they tell you every problem in your life is not your fault but someone else's, and that you don't have free will, pay attention.

I am telling you, I have seen this movie before.

My family fled the first version, and I refuse to let my children live through the sequel.