Jewish leadership lauds US, cautiously welcome ceasefire

Australia’s Jewish leaders have lauded the US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites, amid a guarded response to the June 24 ceasefire announcement.

“For decades, the Iranian regime has pressed on with its uranium enrichment program, far beyond anything it needs for peaceful purposes,” said Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) president Daniel Aghion, noting Iran’s ability to retaliate over last weekend’s US air strikes was significantly diminished after the IDF “effectively dismantled Iran’s regional proxies and greatly weakened Iran itself”.

Describing the bunker-buster mission as “necessary and courageous”, Zionist Federation of Australia (ZFA) president Jeremy Leibler said Iran “has for years pursued nuclear weapons while sponsoring terrorism that has killed thousands of Israelis, Americans and others across the world”.

Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council executive director Colin Rubenstein said the world was “better and safer” after the US military action and that the strikes indicated that the US is continuing its commitment to be “a key guarantor of international peace and security”.

“Israel began a dangerous job that no one else wanted to do by taking on Iran after all diplomatic efforts had failed and showed that it was possible to defang Iran, a regime committed to dominating and destabilising its neighbours, to international terrorism and to destroying Israel and that was illegally building nuclear weapons to facilitate all three objectives.