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

