Media Releases

“AIJAC views the Israeli military actions launched against Iran’s nuclear program this morning as thoroughly justified by both the IAEA finding of Iranian breaches of its Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty obligations this week, and Iran’s blatant aggression against Israel over recent years. The latter includes not only longstanding calls to destroy Israel, but the creation of a ‘Ring of Fire’ strategy, incorporating Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Syria, and Iraqi groups violently targeting the Jewish state, and the two large-scale attacks Iran launched directly against Israel last year, employing hundreds of missiles and drones. We note that the Arab states which have also been targeted by Iranian aggression are also likely hoping for the Israeli military efforts to succeed.

“As Foreign Minister Senator Penny Wong noted in her media conference this morning, Iran’s nuclear and missile program has become an enormous ‘threat to international peace and security.’ Like Senator Wong, we had also hoped ‘dialogue and diplomacy’ accompanied by economic and political pressure, could resolve this problem without the need for military action.

“However, it has recently become very clear that diplomacy was never going to succeed before it was too late, and the irredentist and theocratic rogue regime in Teheran became a nuclear power. The US Trump Administration tried dialogue with Teheran, and Iran’s fundamentalist regime completely rejected the only possible basis for a diplomatic deal given the advanced stage of Iran’s nuclear capabilities as confirmed by the IAEA – an end to uranium enrichment in Iran.

“Our thoughts are now with the people of Israel as they huddle again in bomb shelters in this sadly unavoidable conflict created by Iranian aggression and defiance of international norms. We pray it ends quickly, with minimal loss of innocent life, and the Iranian threat to international peace and security dismantled, or at least significantly eroded.”

Dr Colin Rubenstein, Executive Director, AIJAC