Bret Stephens' speech on Obama's "Worse than Munich" deal allowing Iran the ability to to build a nuclear bomb within weeks

"In 1938, Chamberlain bought time to rearm. In 2013, Obama gives Iran time to go nuclear. To adapt Churchill : Never in the field of global diplomacy has so much been given away by so many for so little." -Bret Stephens "Worse than Munich" column in the Wall St. Journal

In addressing a Zionist banquet by StandWithUs in Los Angeles on Sunday, 8 December, Mr. Stephens augmented this theory, echoed by other experts.  Listen to the speech audio here: "Now, it will come as no surprise to anyone that I want to spend most of my time tonight talking about Iran, but I think that it is also fitting feel that I should begin by speaking about Nelson Mandela and the meaning of his legacy and its meaning for us as Americans- for us as Jews."
 
Click the CC button on the lower right of the frame to display sub-titles. To read the edited transcript of the first half of this speech, see companion article on DemocracyBroadcasting.TV.  The second half of the transcript appears below. 

      

Bret Stephens: (transcript by Nurit Greenger): "There is one skill that every dictatorial regime, every tyrant needs in order to survive in power as long as the Islamic Republic and the Ayatollah Khamenei has survived. And that is the ability to sense the weakness of others and to take advantage of that. That is exactly how Iran is behaving towards us today. So now we have this interim agreement and the pressure is going to be powerful, almost overwhelming to make a go of the final, any final, agreement.

I do not think that there is much that I can do that will change the administration's views. But let at least be smart about what we, in this room, can do. For starters, we can support Mark Kirk and Senator Menendez, in pushing to increase sanctions, now, immediately to send a signal to the Iranian regime that we are not simply folding. But I want to bring another idea to this room. In September the president decided that the issue of military strike on Syria required congressional approval. I am not sure that this was really true, but let us concede that point for now. If the president thought congress's approval was necessary back then, should congress also demand that any deal the administration reach with Iran require the approval of the senate, just as all international treaties constitutionally require the agreement of two thirds of the United State senate. Now is the time to tell Senator Boxer and Feinstein from California, and Senator Schumer and Gillibrand in New York that they should demand an up and down vote on any agreement the administration reaches with Iran. We know these senators are pro-Israel and pro-Iran sanctions when they are giving speeches at AIPAC policy conference or before audiences like this one. We, let us make them go on the record. Are they seriously prepared to stand up against the bad nuclear deal with Iran, to stand with us, even if it means crossing the administration? Let us see if all of those friendly speeches are anything more than simple donor's maintenance. 

How South Africans (Jews and Christians) took risks to enlist to defend the nascent Israel against annihilation by Muslim armies

Volunteers from Abroad enlistees defended
Israel in War of Independence 1948-49

The War of Independence, in which Israel was attacked by six invading Arab Armies, was undoubtedly Israel’s most fateful war, as Israel’s very survival was at stake.”

The word “MACHAL” is an acronym for the Hebrew words “Mitnadvei Chutz L’Aretz”, meaning “Volunteers from Abroad”, and the word “MACHALNIKS” means the members of Machal. Approximately 4,700 Machalniks from 56 countries – men and women, Jews and non-Jews, volunteered to help Israel in its “War of Survival.”

804 South Africans enlisted to defend Israel against Arab invasion against her independence in May, 1948. They left their studies, their families and homes to fight for a cause they felt passionate about.  

In 2012, in connection the premiere of the documentary "804" with the Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival, an event was held in Los Angeles  with some South African Machalniks to recognize their contributions.



Israel's independence was defended by 804 South Africans of 3,500 total diaspora volunteers in 1948.  Mrs. Sharit Shapiro Krengel discusses the history of the documentary "804" she co-produced.

 

 S. African Jewish volunteer in Israel's defense against Arab attackers, , Hyman Kurgan, reveals why he fought.





Los Angeleno, Lee, discusses with 804's French director, Stephanie Ronnet, why and how he  volunteered to emigrate Holocaust "displaced persons" from Europe to Israel

  

Testimonials from Norma Todes, wife of Israel volunteer defender, Helman Todes, and their cousin, Myra Monk, who emigrated to California.



119 South African volunteers (both Christians and Jewish) were killed while defending Israel from Arab onslaught.

Machalniks also resettled Holocaust refugees from Europe into Israel during and after the War.
 

To learn more history, please point your browser to https://www.machal.org.il/

Mandela-era parliamentarians, African Christian Democrat Party Meshoe-family denounce hijacking of "apartheid" as inaccurate to describe Israel

"Palestinians have used the falsehood that Israel is an apartheid state to gain sympathy for their cause, By doing so, they and their allies in the churches and elsewhere , purported concerned with "Palestinian suffering," are their own worst enemies. By maintaining the animosity against Israel, perhaps they are deliberately trying to prevent a peaceful process of negotiation to end the conflict," writes Michael Curtis, distinguished Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Rutgers University and author of Should Israel Exist? A Sovereign Nation under attack by the International Community.  In his article, Evangelicals: Righteous Gentiles for Israel  (May 31, 2012 Gatestone Institute) he declares:

The existence of Israel as a legitimate state is now being challenged in a number of ways and by a variety of media: by a Palestinian-initiated offensive to portray Palestinians as suffering from human rights abuses and colonial crimes committed by Israel; by the Electronic Intifada, an online Internet news website; by the United Methodist Kairos Response; by individuals and groups, such as the writers and academics Grace Halsell, Timothy Weber, Tony Campolo, and Gary Burge, (Wheaton College), as well as attendees, especially Stephen Sizer, the anti-Zionist Church of England priest, at the Christ at the Checkpoint Conferences organized by the Bethlehem Bible College.

An exceptional individual who has been an important counterweight to the disparagers of Israel is Dr. Kenneth Meshoe, a member of the South African Parliament, president of the African Christian Democratic Party, and pastor of a South African Church. What is particularly significant about pastor Meshoe is that he, as a black South African, on a number

of occasions, has put paid to the lie spread by the Palestinian narrative, that Israel is an apartheid state. At the international conference of legislators from around the world held in Budapest on October 31, 2011, Pastor Meshoe replied to the kind of fulminations published by the Electronic Intifada that Israeli actions are "the epitome of apartheid" and aim at the systematic destruction of Palestinian society. He describes those who promulgate the lie of Israel-as-apartheid as ignorant individuals who are not aware of, or who deliberately disregard, the true nature of the negative impact of apartheid on black South Africans -- an experience quite different from that of Palestinians in nature and intensity. South African blacks were treated as second-class citizens and were denied basic human rights. By contrast, he points out that in Israel there are no laws discriminating against people on the basis of their color or on the basis of their religion. Palestinians have not suffered the pain of apartheid experienced by black South Africans.

Pastor Meshoe amplifies his general remarks by specific examples. He calls attention to the fact that in South Africa there were separate modes of transport for blacks and whites; there were coaches in trains only for black people, and others only for whites. Segregation was present in schools, hospitals, public places, city parks, benches, chairs, beaches. No such segregation exists in Israel.

Esther Meshoe, daughter of conservative South African parliamentarian, Dr. Kenneth Meshoe, refutes false allegations of apartheidism on the part of Israel.  

Mrs. Lydia Meshoe, wife of 19-year South African Parliamentarian Dr. Kenneth Meshoe, relates that reality of Muslim treatment by Israel nowhere approaches the false allegations of apartheid by South African politicians, seeking to curry favor with Muslim interests. She feels compelled, as a Christian, to stand up against this treachery against G-d's home and guardians.

 

Dr. Kenneth Meshoe, 19-year member of South African Parliament, says that Islamist propagandas exploiting 'apartheidist' to mis-characterize Israel's treatment of Arabs- actually harms humanitarian growth in Africa by inhibiting African access to Israeli innovation in health, biology, environment, and energy.
   

Cameroonian journalist, Stephen Mugwa Tebid, explains how overcoming negative beliefs about Israel could be more beneficial to Africa than solutions from the West.


Mr. Tebid spoke at the Celebrate Israel Parade on June 2, 2013. He is presently in Israel to enhance relations with Africa.

The Meshoe Family, Dr. Kenneth, wife, Lydia, and daughter Esther fleshed-out the situation in South Africa, their attitudes towards the lies of apartheid, and the burden they assume because of their commitment to defending Israel. They addressed an audience in Los Angeles on 11 Aug 2013, organized by Lily Steiner and Pastor Kevin Diekelman of One-Heart for Jerusalem.