10 | MARCH 24 • 2022
opinion
Biden Prepares to Sign a
Terrible Deal with a Terror Regime
I
’ve long felt that Joe Biden
passed the “kishkes” test
when it came to his sup-
port for Israel. Since meeting
Golda Meir as
a junior senator
in 1973, the
man has met
every Israeli
prime minister.
Like many oth-
ers in our com-
munity, I took
for granted that he’d always
have Israel’s back, in a world
obsessed with maligning the
world’s only Jewish state.
I wish I still felt that way.
Whether Biden realizes
it or not, the terrible deal
he’s about to make with the
terror regime in Iran endan-
gers Israel and the rest of the
region.
It’s widely accepted by now
that in his zeal to get Iran
to sign a nuclear deal — any
nuclear deal, apparently
— Biden has squandered
America’s enormous leverage
and caved to virtually every
Iranian demand.
AN EVEN WORSE DEAL?
I’ve read countless anal-
yses from experts across
the political spectrum, and
they’re pretty consistent
with this conclusion from
a former intelligence offi-
cer specializing on Iranian
terrorism, Michael Pregent,
writing in Newsweek: “If the
Biden administration jumps
back into the Iran nuclear
deal without addressing
undeclared sites, sunset
clauses, ballistic missiles,
regional behavior, terrorism
and human rights, then it
will have entered a worse
deal than even the one in
2015.”
Anti-Defamation League
head Jonathan Greenblatt,
who can hardly be called an
extremist, also cautioned
that Biden’s deal is “far from
adequate to confront the full
range of threats generated by
this regime.”
What kind of regime?
Greenblatt spells it out:
“The largest state sponsor
of antisemitism on the plan-
et, constantly churning out
genocidal memes and dis-
seminating hostile propagan-
da against Jews,” one whose
“stated desire to annihilate
the Jewish state must be
taken seriously.”
Beyond this genocidal
threat to Israel, Greenblatt
adds the broader “danger
that Iran poses to the region
David Suissa
The Jewish
Journal
PURELY COMMENTARY
student’s corner
Setting Goals for Effective Change
I
recently read an article on
Aish.com about specific
behaviors that make New
Year’s resolu-
tions effective.
It said that we
should set con-
crete goals rath-
er than general,
overly ambi-
tious goals. We
should expect
challenges along the way,
and we should realize that
the motivation we may feel
today might not be as strong
tomorrow.
As I read this, I felt like I
was finally able to describe
an element of my high school
experience. As the academic
year’s end approaches, I look
back and remember how anx-
ious I sometimes used to feel
while thinking about academ-
ics, athletics, extracurriculars
and social life, in addition to
the many other elements of
being a high schooler.
When I felt overwhelmed
in high school, it was almost
always when I unknowing-
ly was acting opposite this
article’s recommendations. I
had goals that were so broad
and ambitious that achieving
them was almost guaranteed
to not happen and, as a result,
knowing how and where to
take action was nearly impos-
sible as well.
But, campaigning to be a
part of student government,
for example, seemed inter-
esting to me, and so I did
that. Both of my brothers ran
on the cross-country team,
so I also ran throughout
high school. My relationship
with JARC began in seventh
grade, so I always managed to
find time to volunteer every
month.
While none of these specif-
ic examples are anything par-
ticularly special on their own,
the important point is that
when I had reasonable goals
with clear courses of action,
the feelings of being over-
whelmed lessened greatly, and
I was able to accomplish more
than I thought I could.
I believe that whether inten-
tional or not, this article made
an important point about
making effective change.
Whether it’s in your own life,
your local community or even
globally, if you want to fix
everything all at once with no
clear path to do so, it’s a recipe
for failure and burnout. To
make any sustainable change,
you need to create a plan and
take actions at an appropriate
pace.
During the past four years,
my responsibilities did not
increase linearly, and if they
did, it would not have been
fair to myself. While it may
sound cliche, I think that high
school allowed me to experi-
ence this lesson firsthand, and
reading this article allowed me
to better articulate the idea
that I was feeling.
This idea is very similar to
the Talmudic phrase, “Tafasta
Merube, Lo Tafasta,” which
directly translates to, “If you
Andy Tukel