It seems that Iranian dissidents need our help. The anti-Ahmedinejad protesters are begging for technological assistance to restore their communications. They call us their brothers and sisters, and ask us to remember o
There might not be the slightest change in Iran's rabid hatred of Jews and Israel.
ur debt to Cyrus, the Persian king who sent the exiled Jews back to Israel to rebuild the Temple. The question is: Should we help them? Jews as a people, and Israel as a state, have a long history of being hated and abused by those we help. Why do it again?

That is a political argument that is difficult to win. No one can be sure of the future actions of anyone; betrayal is a risk in any political alliance. So the correct choice must be made on other criteria.

Jews have a mission. In the Bible, G-d has called us his "firstborn child", and constituted us as a nation to be unlike all the others. Our job is to be an example, to show the other nations how to create a society that will bring out the best in people. That is why Jews have carried around the world the concepts of universal literacy, equality of justice, and human dignity for all, regardless of sex or social standing. We civilized the barbarians; and even though some societies are sliding backwards, our responsibility to be an example is unchanged.

We have tried very hard to be liked. We make painful concessions again and again in order to please the nations, and we see no benefit. The media report our every fault, and if there are none, they print slanders and blood-libels. The nations don't respect our self-sacrifice; they don't even acknowledge our right to defend ourselves. So, especially now, when it is apparent that our actions have no effect on how the nations view us, we ought to discount the politics of the situation and simply do what is right.

When people are being killed in the streets by thugs, there is an obligation on bystanders to give assistance. Even when the local law is on the side of the thugs - as was the case in Sodom - there is a higher justice that must prevail. Assuredly, we are a bystander nation in this new Iranian Revolution; even so, we must do what we can to support the protesters in their fight for freedom.

If we can help out with their jammed communications, then that is what we must
There is a higher justice that must prevail.
do. If we can publicize their plight, and the inhumanity of the Iranian regime, then we must do so. If we can influence other nations to lend support also, that is great. None of these, however, contribute to a strategic goal. It is true that we might benefit from the emergence of a less repressive regime, one that will free Iranian women from their current subjugation and allow them some economic and political potency, and that will concentrate its purchasing power on civil needs rather than fomenting revolution and war among its neighbors. It is also true that there might not be the slightest change in Iran's rabid hatred of Jews and Israel.

How then, will we explain our involvement in an internal Iranian problem? It is simple: it is required of us to stand for justice and mercy in this world, and to accept the debt of gratitude owed to Persia for its kindness to us thousands of years ago. It is living up to our responsibility before the eyes of all the nations and, therefore, it is a "glorification of G-d's Name". That is the strategic goal that matters. It will be a great accomplishment that cannot be obliterated, even by a mushroom cloud.