Iran ‘needs to be stopped’

Molly Ball

Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2006 | 8 a.m.

* B'nai B'rith International Executive Vice President Daniel Mariaschin will give a presentation entitled "From Buenos Aires to Tehran: Reviewing the Jewish Agenda for 2006" at 7 p.m. today at UNLV Hillel, 4765 Brussels Road.

* Mariaschin will speak at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Temple Midbar Kodesh, 1940 Paseo Verde Parkway, Henderson.

* Both speeches are free and open to the public.

The Iranian government's recent activities parallel the German regime's actions in the 1930s and must be stopped to avoid a tragedy on the scale on the Holocaust, an international Jewish leader visiting Las Vegas said Monday.

"The Iranians have played a cat-and-mouse game with the world community," Daniel S. Mariaschin, executive vice president of B'nai B'rith International, said in an interview.

"One day they're engaging in negotiations; the next day they're shutting them down. One day they're promising not to enrich uranium; the next day they're taking the seals off" a nuclear facility.

"This slow progression is exactly what we saw in the 1930s leading up to World War II," Mariaschin said. "It was said very clearly what the Nazis intended to do, and the world didn't take them seriously until it was too late."

Mariaschin is visiting Las Vegas to give speeches to local Jewish groups and help inject new life into B'nai B'rith's local chapter, which is trying to re-establish itself after a period of neglect.

In speeches tonight and Wednesday, Mariaschin will address the topic "From Buenos Aires to Tehran: Reviewing the Jewish Agenda for 2006." Recent developments in Iran, he said, will be a major part of the presentation.

In recent weeks, Iran has defied international inspectors by announcing that it will resume uranium enrichment -- a necessary step in the construction of nuclear weapons -- after a two-year hiatus. That move came on the heels of a controversial speech by the country's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in which he called for Israel to be "wiped off the map" and referred to the Holocaust as a "myth."

Mariaschin, the Jewish group's top executive officer and head of its Center for Human Rights and Public Policy, said other nations must not take such remarks lightly.

"This is an issue that affects all Western democracies," Mariaschin said. "It's important for us to begin talking about this as a global issue, not just one that affects Israel."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday called for the Iranian nuclear issue to be taken up by the U.N. Security Council, and some American lawmakers have called for an embargo of the oil-rich Muslim country.

Iran is also thought to be a major sponsor of international terrorism, Mariaschin said, including assisting anti-U.S. forces in Iraq and attempts to disrupt the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

With Israel at a crossroads, the coming months will be crucial, Mariaschin said. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been in a coma since suffering a stroke earlier this month, and Israel is to have its own elections in late March.

Meanwhile, Palestinian elections are scheduled for Wednesday. Mariaschin warned that the militant group Hamas must not be allowed to gain power.

"An international terror organization dedicated to the destruction of Israel is participating in elections that will give them a major say, maybe even a majority, in the Palestinian Authority," he said. "That will leave Israel with essentially no negotiating partner.

"Western democracies should have laid down some red lines to say that these elections can only be respected if organizations like Hamas are disarmed and renounce violence."

Mariaschin's visit to Las Vegas was motivated partly by the fact that the area is thought to have the nation's fastest-growing Jewish community, estimated at about 100,000.

A decade ago, the Las Vegas Valley had a thriving chapter of B'nai B'rith, which conducts humanitarian relief efforts in addition to advocating for Jewish interests in 50 countries around the world. But it foundered and became inactive, said Carol S. Hecht, the local chapter's new community director.

Hecht was hired for her position six months ago to revive the local branch, she said.

"It's in B'nai B'rith's interest, and we believe it's in the community's interest, to build our organization here, as we have in so many other communities around the world," Mariaschin said.

Molly Ball can be reached at 259-8814 or at molly@lasvegassun.com.