Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, looking and sounding like a strong, firm leader of a nation, delivered a strong warning to members of Congress concerning negotiations with Iran over nuclear weapons.
“We have been told that no deal is better than a bad deal. Well this is a bad deal. It is a very bad deal. We are better off without it,” Netanyahu said. “We are being told that the only alternative to this bad deal is war. That is just not true. The alternative to this bad deal is a much better deal.”
Over 50 Democratic Party lawmakers, including Vice President Biden, boycotted the speech.
The speech drew multiple standing ovations from the combined houses of Congress and many of the legislators could be seen shaking heads in agreement with virtually all of the Prime Minister’s speech.
“The greatest danger facing our world is the marriage of militant Islam with nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said.
“That is exactly what could happen if the deal being negotiated is accepted by Iran. That deal would not prevent Iran developing nuclear weapons. It would all but guarantee that Iran gets those weapons, lots of them.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a very hard warning Monday to the members of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
The nuclear deal the United States is planning with Iran could threaten the very existence of the nation of Israel.
“As prime minister of Israel, I have a moral obligation to speak up in the face of these dangers while there’s still time to avert them,” Netanyahu told a cheering audience.
Netanyahu downplayed conflicts between the White House and Israel.
“My speech (to Congress) is not intended to show disrespect for President Obama and the office that he holds,” Netanyahu said. “I deeply appreciate all that President Obama has done for Israel.”
The White House tried to sound a conciliatory tone after Netanyahu’s speech, saying the U.S. and Israel are united in the goal of a non-nuclear Iran.
Pastor Saeed Abedini, wrongfully imprisoned in Iran for over 2 years and in one of Iran’s most brutal prisons, has released a letter through his lawyers thanking President Obama for meeting with his wife.
“I was personally encouraged that you were in my hometown of Boise, Idaho and made time to visit my wife and children,” Abedini wrote.
“They have had a heavy burden to carry in my absence, and your presence helped to relieve some of that burden. . . Thank you again for standing up for my family and I and for thousands of Christians across the world who are persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ. President Obama, you have my prayers from inside of these walls. I pray for God’s guidance, wisdom and blessing for you as you lead this great nation.”
President Obama met with Naghmeh Abedini and the couple’s two children in an office at Boise State University before a speech promoting State of the Union address ideas. The President promised the children he would do all he could to bring their father home.
Pastor Abedini said that Christians are encouraged because of the meeting.
“Nothing is more valuable to the body of Christ than to see how the Lord is in control and moves ahead of countries and leadership through united prayer,” the pastor continued.
“Thank you again for standing up for my family and I and for thousands of Christians across the world who are persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ. President Obama, you have my prayers from inside of these walls. I pray for God’s guidance, wisdom and blessing for you as you lead this great nation.”
President Obama surprised many observers during a visit to Boise State University Wednesday by holding a private meeting with Naghmeh Abedini, the wife of an Iranian-American pastor jailed in Iran for being a Christian.
The President has been under fire from religious freedom groups for doing very little to obtain the release of Saeed Abedini.
Naghmeh had requested the meeting with the President in an attempt to seek help for her husband after discovering Obama was going to be conducting a rally at BSU for his State of the Union address ideas.
“I got to meet with President Obama today! The kids and I were in a small office room with him and he was gracious with his time (we met for over 10 minutes),” she wrote on Facebook. “I told him that I had refrained from food for three days and prayed and fasted, and God had ordained this meeting.”
“He said that getting Saeed out is a top priority and he is working very hard to get Saeed home back to our family,” Abedini added.
Naghmeh’s children were with her and her son challenged the President.
“Jacob then asked him, ‘Mr. President, can you please bring my daddy home for my birthday?’” Abedini recalled. “President Obama asked Jacob when his birthday was, and Jacob said March 17. President Obama said, ‘I am going to try very hard to make that happen, Jacob. I am going to try very hard…’ Praise God!”
Saeed Abedini is in his second year of incarceration at Iran’s brutal Rajai Shahr Prison.
Iran threatened Israel on Monday after an Israeli unit killed six Iranian agents during a raid on a Hezbollah terrorist cell.
Iran promised a “crushing response” against the Jewish nation.
“The experience of the past shows that the resistance current will give a crushing response to the Zionist regime’s terrorist moves with revolutionary determination and in due time and place,” Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), told reporters.
The incident comes a week after Iranian officials said they were operating missile sites in Syria and possibly control a nuclear facility.
“If the highest level of Hezbollah commanders were in the Golan Heights and the high level of Iranians, it means that their idea, [what] they’re planning could be a kind of operation, an act against Israel on a high level,” Major General Eyal Ben Reuven of the IDF said during a conference call Monday organized by the Israel Project (TIP). “It’s significant, the high level of this meeting, of this reconnaissance of the Iranians and Hezbollah.”
“It says something about what they plan, what kind of operation they planned,” he added. “If Israel has intelligence that says there is a kind of operation on the way to act against Israel, I think Israel would have a legitimate [reason] to do all we can to prevent it.”
Hezbollah has said they are preparing for war in northern Israel.
Three Iranian pastors who were facing six years in prison for committing “action against national security” by sharing Christ have been acquitted of their crimes.
Behman Irani, the leader of the 300 member Church of Iran, had been facing 18 new charges along with two other pastors in the church, Abdolreza Ali-Haghnejad and Reza Rabbani.
The charges included “spreading corruption on Earth” which carries a death penalty.
An appeals court overturned the convictions of the three men on December 9th. Irani is still being held in prison because of a conviction on another charge that has him in jail for another two years.
“It is encouraging to see the Iranian judicial system rule on the merits of the case, rather than simply exploiting the system as a means of persecuting religious minorities, as is regularly the case,” International Christian Concern Regional Manager Todd Daniels remarked in a statement. “It is a fundamental aspect of religious freedom to be able to meet together with others who share your beliefs. For too long, the Iranian regime has treated such meetings as a threat to national security.”
American pastor Saeed Abedini has released a letter from behind bars according to his wife and his legal team.
The American Center for Law and Justice says that the letter was given to a relative who visited Abedini last week. The pastor was in great pain from internal injuries that the Iranian government continues to forbid Saeed medical treatment.
“Saeed continues to have severe pain and would appreciate your prayers,” his wife Naghmeh told reporters.
“These days are very cold here. My small space beside the window is without glass making most nights unbearable to sleep,” Abedini wrote. “The treatment by fellow prisoners is also quite cold and at times hostile. Some of my fellow prisoners don’t like me because I am a convert and a pastor. They look at me with shame as someone who has betrayed his former religion.”
“Brothers and sisters, the fact of the gospel is that it is not only the story of Jesus, but it is the key of how we are to live and serve like Jesus,” the letter continues. “Today, we like Him should come out of our safe comfort zone in order to proclaim the word of life and salvation though faith in Jesus Christ and the penalty of sin that He paid on the cross and to proclaim His resurrection. We should be able to tolerate the cold, the difficulties and the shame in order to serve God. We should be able to enter into the pain of the cold dark world.”
Abedini’s wife says that he treasures the prayers of those around the world and says that he can feel the comfort that comes from them.
A campaign is being waged to get President Obama to finally take firm action on the pastor of an American pastor who is wrongfully imprisoned in Iran.
A series of prepared postcards has a message telling the President that the American people want to see him demand the release of Saeed Abedini as part of the nuclear negotiations with Iran.
“A man in your position has been given great power and responsibility to represent every American, whether on domestic or foreign soil. Please hold to your own words, that no one is left behind. We, the American people, ask you to do everything within your power to bring U.S. citizen, pastor, husband & father, Saeed Abedini, home to his family from his time of incarceration in Iran,” the card reads.
The American Center for Law and Justice, who is representing Pastor Abedini and his family, says that the President and his administration ignored the opportunity to work for Abedini’s release in previous negotiations.
At least 80,000 postcards have already been requested by those who will send them to the White House.
The Supreme Leader of Iran has published a document that outlines a 9-step plan to eliminate Israel.
The 9 steps were also posted to the Twitter account of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“The only means of bringing Israeli crimes to an end is the elimination of this regime,” Khamenei wrote. “And of course the elimination of Israel does not mean the massacre of the Jewish people in the region. The Islamic Republic has proposed a practical and logical mechanism for this to international communities.”
The statements come as Iran is negotiating with western countries regarding their nuclear program.
“Up until the day when this homicidal and infanticidal [sic] regime is eliminated through a referendum, powerful confrontation and resolute and armed resistance is the cure of this ruinous regime,” the supreme leader writes. “The only means of confronting a regime which commits crimes beyond one’s thought and imagination is a resolute and armed confrontation.”
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu called on the western countries negotiating with Iran to step back and realize this is the goal of Iran and that under no circumstances can that nation be allowed to continue on any path that would allow them to create an atomic bomb.
The mother of an American pastor imprisoned in Iran because he’s a Christian has fled for the United States because of threats to her life.
“Facing threats in Iran, Saeed’s mom is now safely out of the country,” Naghmeh Abedini, the pastor’s wife, told FoxNews.com. “We look forward to seeing her soon here in the United States. It has been a difficult time for all of us — including Saeed’s mom. She did not want to leave Iran. She did not want to say goodbye to her son.”
Abedini’s mother has not been released because of security reasons. She is still in the nation and is in an unnamed country awaiting her travel to the continental U.S. She revealed that Iranian officials have banned her from visiting her son at Rajai Shahr prison.
The ACLJ says that Saeed is continuing to be beaten for his faith and is in need of medical attention.
“We remain concerned about the health and safety of pastor Saeed, who continues to be held in an Iranian prison because of his faith,” said Jordan Sekulow, executive director of the ACLJ. “We know that he needs medical care for injuries received during his captivity. It is an increasingly frustrating time for pastor Saeed and his family, both in this country and in Iran.”
