Former Iranian President Mohammed Khatami and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are two faces of the Iranian regime.


Khatami was at the recent sixth Eurasion media forum in Kazakhstan. There, he preached his usual message of moderation and repeated his calls for dialogue. At the conference, he stated that the 'crisis' can be solved by, "Dialogue, dialogue, dialogue." When one looks at him, his mild persona, his carefully crafted words and phrases, the unassuming can be captivated and lulled into a sense of reassurance about Iran's intentions.


However, he too has his moments of candor, as noted by reporters from Israel's Channel

Khatami is a front man on a charm offensive.

10 news, when they approached him at the conference and were told by the Iranian leader to "go to Hell." He also reportedly refused to sit on a discussion panel on nuclear arms because an Israeli representative was also scheduled to appear.


Khatami is no enigma. Neither is he an aberration to the regime he represents. He is a front man on a charm offensive. He does not openly call for Israel's destruction, as other Iranian leaders; neither does he deny the Holocaust. His agenda as representative of a regime that suppresses dissent and is a foremost supporter of terror organizations, is to soften the West and its view of Iran.


His soothing words of conciliation, coupled with those of support for Hizbullah, to the polite and naive audiences from Harvard to the University of Virginia, and in many cities in between, have been received. There was some protest at some of his speaking events, and there were elected officials who denounced the speaking engagements, but the events went off with only those few hitches. In the meantime, the clock ticks toward the acquisition of a "radical Islamic bomb."


Iranian president Ahmadinejad, on the other hand, tests the world's resolve with his open defiance, his persistence in maintaining Iran's nuclear program. He openly calls for the destruction of another United Nations member-nation and there is limited response; just a few condemnations not unlike those of Hitler in the early 1930s, when he was leading the Nazi charge against German Jewry.


There must not be any misconceptions in the West about either leader. Khatami is not a moderate and Ahmadinejad's rants must be taken seriously.


Will American Jewry awaken?


In January 1933, when Hitler came to power as Reich Chancellor, and German Jewry's situation became even more intolerable, the German Jewish Central Association, the Verein, reassuringly stated, "We do not believe our German fellow citizens will let

Efforts to stop Iran must intensify.

themselves be carried away into committing excesses against the Jews." The understandably fearful Verein advised Jewish groups around the world not to take public action against Nazi Germany. However, their confidence in Germany was, of course, folly. Just a few weeks later, the Nazi journal Der Sturmer became the official paper of the party in power, and by March of that year, the concentration camp Dachau was established.


Could American Jewry have done more to galvanize efforts to stop Hitler in his early days of rule? As there are questions regarding American Jewry's reactions during the Holocaust, those questions too can be asked regarding American Jewry's reaction to the rise of Nazism in the early 1930s.


There were major Jewish organizations that took a public stand. Some of those were the Jewish War Veterans, B'nai Brith and the American Jewish Congress. In March 27, 1933, these groups held a massive rally to stop Hitler, which filled Madison Square Garden. They also called for an economic boycott of Nazi Germany. However, the response could have been even greater.


The current situation is not the same as Germany 1933, but there are distinct similarities

Will American Jews step up and sound the alarm?

and serious challenges here too that must be met. Will American Jews step up and sound the alarm before the problem worsens?


Just a few weeks ago, the organization Amcha took an active stand. Over seventy-five members, mostly rabbis and rabbinical students, attempted to block an entrance to the United Nations. The group was protesting Iranian President Ahmadinejad's repeated calls to destroy Israel, his support for global terror and his efforts to obtain nuclear weapons. Twenty-two individuals, twenty-one of whom were rabbis, were arrested. Rabbi Avi Weiss of Amcha stated that the protest was "the moral outcry to the world that business can't be as usual."


Indeed. There have been other protests, but now is the time to step it up. The question beckons: Who will join the protestors the next time they head out into the streets?


As the clock ticks, efforts to stop Iran must intensify. Jews must not remain silent in the face of a threat of danger.