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Iran: The Modern Pharaoh
The Haggadah warns: “In every generation, they rise up against us to destroy us.” Jews have said these words for 3,000 years. Today, the Islamic Republic of Iran is doing its best to prove them right.
In 2015, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei publicly declared that Israel would cease to exist within 25 years. Iranian state messaging routinely targets the U.S. and Israel as existential enemies – backed not just by words, but by weapons: missiles, attack drones, proxy armies and strikes on a host of Middle East nations and American military bases in the region.
Iran’s campaign of terror and hostage-taking is not new. In 1979, the Islamic regime took power and immediately seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, holding 66 Americans captive for 444 days. The world called it a crisis. Iran called it a revolution. Nearly half a century later, the same regime is still holding the world hostage – through its proxies, its nuclear ambitions and its relentless targeting of Jewish and American lives.
The Islamic Republic funds, arms and commands Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza and the Houthis in Yemen. Together, these proxy forces have targeted Israeli civilians, killed American service members and blockaded global shipping lanes. This is not a regional conflict – it is a global threat with Iran at the center.
Inside Iran, the regime has murdered and imprisoned tens of thousands of its own people for daring to demand basic rights. Young women have been killed for removing their hijabs. Students have been shot in the streets. The regime that calls Israel a ‘genocidal occupier’ is imprisoning, torturing and executing its own citizens. That is the enemy Israel – and the free world – now faces.
During this Passover, the conflict continues. Missiles and drones fired by Iran and its proxies have killed more than 20 civilians and continue to force Israelis into bomb shelters. Terrorists continue directly targeting Jewish life worldwide – including the attempted targeting of young children at a Michigan synagogue, the burning of ambulances outside a London synagogue and other attacks against Jews around the world. The perpetrator in MI recorded a video before the attack: “I have booby-trapped the car. I will forcefully enter and start shooting them. God willing, I will kill as many of them as I possibly can.”
Ahead of Passover, a Dept. of Homeland Security official issued a warning: Jewish communities should be on heightened alert – forcing Jews around the world to wonder: “Is anywhere safe?”
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