Never Again

President Obama seems to be in a coma concerning the acquisition of nuclear weapons by Iran. He just seems not to be engaged at all. He can get in a big huff about a low-level announcement by an Israeli functionary of the construction of 1600 more apartments in Jerusalem three years from now, but the prospect of an anti-Semitic regime having the bomb in less than a year seems not to fizz him.

The world ignored a ranting lunatic who threatened the Jews once before until it was too late. It must not happen again.

At the Holocaust Memorial Day in Israel today the country's leaders spoke of the danger:

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres used the platform at yesterday's Holocaust Remembrance Day memorial ceremony at Yad Vashem to urge countries around the world to work unwaveringly to stop Iran's nuclear program.

At yesterday's main Holocaust Day ceremony, Netanyahu warned against a rising tide of anti-Semitism "kindled by radical Islamist organizations and regimes, led by Iran and its satellites." "I call on the enlightened nations of the world to loudly condemn Iran's destructive intentions, and to act resolutely to stop it from arming itself with nuclear weapons," he said before hundreds of Holocaust survivors and their families, political leaders, diplomats and others.

The world has so far failed to adequately denounce Tehran, Netanyahu said.

"Iran's leaders are barreling toward developing a nuclear weapon, and openly declaring their desire to destroy Israel. In the face of these repeated pledges to remove the Jewish state from the earth, we encounter in the best case a limp reaction, and even that is fading," he said. "We do not hear the necessary rejection, no harsh denunciation, no outcry. The world is carrying on as usual, and there are those who direct their fire at us, at Israel."

The theme of this year's ceremony was "voices of the survivors," paying tribute to those working to preserve the memories of the 6 million victims of the Holocaust.

"If we have learned anything from the Holocaust," Netanyahu said, "it is that we must not be silent or be deterred in the face of evil."

Air raid sirens are set to wail across the country at 10 A.M. today to mark two minutes of silence.

Peres recalled visiting the village in Poland where he was born, where of all the Jewish homes and synagogues, he said, not a single beam remains.

Turning to the present, he said, "Weapons of mass destruction in the hands of those capable of mass destruction, with voices encouraging that destruction - that is the most perilous combination to world peace.

"Israel will never forget two imperatives the Holocaust taught us," said Peres. "One is the need for an independent Jewish state with its security in its own hands and peace in its heart. The second is to take a serious view toward warnings of annihilation, Holocaust denial and acts of terrorism.

"It is our right and duty to insist that the nations of the world not return to showing the indifference that cost the lives of millions of victims, including their own. The United Nations must be attentive to the threats of destruction sounded by one country, a UN member state, against another, lest the UN Charter be contravened."

Read the rest here.