Wednesday, Dec. 3, 7:30 pm
The second expert in the 2014-15 Israel Today series, Mark Dubowitz will speak about a nuclear Iran at the Sandler Family Campus next month. The event is hosted by United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s Community Relations Council and community partners.
The executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Dubowitz will be in Tidewater just after the extension for negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 are set to expire. He will offer an insiders’ look at the talks, the outcome and the global implications of a nuclear Iran.
What’s so bad about a nuclear Iran?
A nuclear Iran would be a major threat to American security interests, regional stability and world peace. Since 1979 the Iranian regime has demonstrated increasingly threatening behavior and rhetoric toward the U.S. and the West. Iran continues to defy the International Atomic Energy Agency and the United Nations in their attempts to monitor its nuclear activities. A number of Arab states have warned that Iran’s development of nuclear weapons poses a threat to Middle East stability and could provoke a regional nuclear arms race. With a nuclear weapon, Iran would be able to project its power throughout the region, threaten key U.S. allies and American troops, and share the technology or the weapons with terrorist groups that target the United States.
How does Israel’s leadership feel about the threat of a nuclear Iran?
“We are standing before the danger of an agreement [between the world powers and Iran] that will leave Iran as a nuclear threshold state, with thousands of centrifuges through which Iran can manufacture the material for a nuclear bomb within a short period of time,” Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said on Oct. 19. “This is a threat to the entire world, first and foremost to Israel, and it is much worse than the threat of Islamic State.”
What makes people think Iran cares about Israel?
These statements were published by Senior Analyst IDF Lt. Col. (ret.) Michael Segall at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs this year.
• “According to the Supreme Leader’s statement marking Nowruz, if Israel acts foolishly, Tel Aviv and Haifa will be annihilated…. The armed forces are prepared with all their power to execute the orders of the Supreme Leader in minimum time.” Gen. Mohammad Hejazi, Deputy Chief of Staff
• “The enemies are talking about the options [they have] on the table. They should know that the first option on our table is the annihilation of Israel.” Ayatollah Hossein Nouri Hamedani, lecturer at religious seminary in Qom
• “The destruction of Israel is the idea of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and is one of the pillars of the Iranian Islamic regime. We cannot claim that we have no intention of going to war with Israel!” Ahmad Alamolhoda, member of the Assembly of Experts
About Mark Dubowitz
Mark Dubowitz is the director of the Iran Energy Project which provides leading research and analysis in support of strong, broad-based energy sanctions—including gasoline, natural gas and oil sanctions —as part of a comprehensive strategy to end the Iranian regime’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, support for terrorism and human rights abuses. It also focuses on the risks to foreign companies in doing business with the U.S. government-blacklisted Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a dominant force in the Iranian energy sector.
Dubowitz also directs the FDD’s project on terrorist media focused on the use of satellite television and the Internet as operational weapons by terrorist organizations.
For his policy-related work in the U.S. and Europe, Dubowitz was awarded a fellowship from the German Bertelsmann Stiftung, the private foundation owned by one of Europe’s largest media companies.
A regular contributor to Forbes’ Energy Source, Dubowitz writes frequently on Iran energy sanctions issues. He is the co-author of Iran’s Energy Partners: Companies Requiring Investigation Under U.S. Sanctions Law. His work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Foreign Policy, The Washington Post, New York Times, Slate, Politico, The Hill, National Review Online, Washington Times, New York Post, the New York Sun, the National Post, Financial Times –Germany, and Frankfurter Allgemeine. He has also appeared on CNN, Fox News, National Public Radio, Voice of America, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and on syndicated radio shows from coast to coast.
He has testified before Congress on Iran sanctions issues and briefed the U.S. military, U.S., European and Canadian government officials, members of Congress and counterterrorism officials on a range of national security and terrorism-related concerns.
Dubowitz previously worked in the venture capital industry focused on fundraising for early-stage technology companies. He also worked in software management as director of International Business Development at Doubleclick (purchased by Google).
He has lived in the Middle East, Europe and Africa and speaks three languages. Dubowitz earned a master’s degree in International Public Policy from Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies and has JD and MBA degrees from the University of Toronto. He has studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Ecole Supèrieure de Commerce de Paris and McGill University. Born in South Africa and immigrated to Canada when he was eight, Dubowitz holds a green card and is a self-professed die-hard Washington Capitals hockey fan—unless Canada is playing.
RSVP to CRC@ujft.org or 965-6107 by Dec. 1.
For more information on this event or the CRC and community partners’ 2014-2015 Israel Today series, visit www.JewishVa.org/CRCIsraelToday.