Back in March, Athens Now readers were warned by Laurie Cardoza Moore, co-founder of Proclaiming Justice to the Nations, that according to former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton, this Administration was on a diplomatic course of destruction in regard to nuclear negotiations with Tehran. Mr. Bolton, at the National Religious Broadcasters’ Convention held in Nashville, said the following:
“We are down to two options: Iran gets nuclear weapons, far and away the most likely outcome, and/or Israel decides, as it has twice in its history, to take matters into its own hands, and destroy a nuclear weapons program in the hands of a hostile state.” He added, “It is a legitimate exercise of Israel’s right to self defense.”
This week, Mr. Bolton’s grim prediction virtually came true, and the response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was both sobering and stern:
“This deal as far as we can see comes on almost daily concessions from the P5+1 to growing Iranian demands. Every day more concessions are made, and every day the deal becomes worse and worse,” Netanyahu said Monday. “This deal will pave Iran’s path to a nuclear arsenal.”
It is like watching old newsreels from the ‘30s when Adolph Hitler was allowed to romp unchecked across Europe, and is indeed alarming. However, there was a piece of truly heartwarming news that also came out this week, and that has to do with the commitment of a 95 year old Austro-Britain man who is airlifting Christians out of Syria so that they can be rescued from ISIS.
His name is Lord Weidenfeld, and he himself was rescued by Christians in 1938. Lord Weidenfeld says he has “a debt to repay” to Christians fleeing Isis because the Plymouth Brethren and the Quakers gave him food, clothing, and helped him get to Britain in 1938.
He arrived as a nearly destitute refugee, and went on to co-found the successful Weidenfeld and Nicolson Publishing Company only 10 years later.
The publisher has organized the Weidenfeld Safe Havens Fund, which last week paid for the flight of 150 Syrian Christians to Poland on a privately chartered plane. This allowed them to successfully seek refuge, and they are the first beneficiaries of Lord Weidenfeld’s airlift.
He has come under fire because he has specifically targeted Christians to be the recipients of his endeavors, but he has chosen to do so, to “pay it forward” in a manner of speaking, out of personal conviction. “I had a debt to repay,” he said.
Who would have thought it would come to this? We have appeared to have tossed reason aside when it comes to capitulating to the demands of a nation that will surely attack Israel, and yet, there is a Jewish man, nearly a century old, who is doing all he can to rescue Christians. May God bless him, and may God rescue us from our own folly.
“If we don’t defend our friends, if we don’t defend our values and our interests, nobody else is going to do it. It all rests on us.”
By: Ali Elizabeth Turner
