Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting in Tehran, Iran, May 20, 2025. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday that abandoning uranium enrichment was “100 percent” against the country’s interests, rejecting a central US demand in talks to resolve a decades-long dispute over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

The US proposal for a new nuclear deal was presented to Iran on Saturday by Oman, which has mediated talks between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff.

After five rounds of talks, several hard-to-bridge issues remain, including Iran’s insistence on maintaining uranium enrichment on its soil and Tehran’s refusal to ship abroad its entire existing stockpile of highly enriched uranium – possible raw material for nuclear bombs.

Khamenei, who has the final say on all matters of state, said nothing about halting the talks, but said the US proposal “contradicts our nation’s belief in self-reliance and the principle of ‘We Can.’”

“Uranium enrichment is the key to our nuclear program and the enemies have focused on the enrichment,” Khamenei said during a televised speech marking the anniversary of the death of the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

“The proposal that the Americans have presented is 100 percent against our interests … The rude and arrogant leaders of America repeatedly demand that we should not have a nuclear program. Who are you to decide whether Iran should have enrichment?” he added.

Tehran says it wants to master nuclear technology for peaceful purposes and has long denied accusations by Western powers that it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

‘MAXIMUM PRESSURE’

Reuters reported on Monday that Tehran was poised to reject the US proposal as a “non-starter” that failed to soften Washington’s stance on uranium enrichment or to address Tehran’s interests.

Trump has revived his “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran since his return to the White House in January, which included tightening sanctions and threatening to bomb Iran if the negotiations yield no deal.

Trump wants to curtail Tehran’s potential to produce a nuclear weapon that could trigger a regional nuclear arms race and threaten Israel. Iran’s clerical establishment, for its part, wants to be rid of devastating sanctions.

During his first term, Trump ditched Tehran’s 2015 nuclear pact with six powers and reimposed sanctions that have crippled Iran’s economy. Iran responded by escalating enrichment far beyond the pact’s limits.

Iran’s clerical establishment is grappling with multiple crises — energy and water shortages, a plunging currency, losses among regional militia proxies in conflicts with Israel, and rising fears of an Israeli strike on its nuclear sites — all intensified by Trump’s hardline stance.

Iran’s arch-foe Israel, which sees Tehran’s nuclear program as an existential threat, has repeatedly threatened to bomb the Islamic Republic’s nuclear facilities to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Tehran has vowed a harsh response.

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Israeli model May Tager, holding an Israeli flag, poses with Dubai-resident model Anastasia Bandarenka, holding an Emirati flag, during a photo shoot for FIX’s Princess Collection, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Sept. 8, 2020. Photo: Reuters / Christopher Pike.

Baruch Hashem, Arabs are not our enemies. Forget the headlines, look in the Torah. And the Torah, our eternal blueprint for life, compels us to see beyond the politics of fear and into the eyes of Divine image-bearers. In fact, the Talmud (Sotah 10a) teaches that the very first Jews — Sarah and Abraham — chose to leave behind comfort and status not to isolate themselves from the world, but to embrace it.They pitched their tents at the crossroads of the desert, not to avoid Arabs, but to welcome them. Day after day, they prepared meals, washed the feet of dusty travelers, and shared their spiritual table with people of all backgrounds, including the Arab tribes that roamed the region. These were not theoretical gestures — they were daily acts of hospitality and human connection.

The midrash (Bereishis Rabbah 49:4) paints a vivid picture: when guests would eat in Abraham’s tent and begin to thank him, he would gently stop them and say, “Don’t thank me — bless the Creator of the world.” Thus, Arabs and others joined Abraham in not just eating bread but elevating it — blessing G-d together with him. This is not just a charming anecdote from ancient times. It is a blueprint for our time. As Dr. King taught us, our ultimate measure is not where we stand in moments of comfort and convenience, but where we stand at times of challenge and controversy.

Our sages teach us that all human beings are created b’tzelem Elokim — in the image of G-d (Bereishis 1:27). This Divine imprint doesn’t discriminate based on ethnicity, nationality, or religion. It’s universal. So much so that when the Torah was given at Sinai, G-d also reaffirmed His covenant with all of humanity through the Sheva Mitzvot Bnei Noach — the Seven Noahide Laws — laws of basic morality, justice, and recognition of a Higher Power that were given not just to Jews but to the entire human collective (Sanhedrin 56a).

This means that even though Jews and Arabs may differ in covenantal obligations, our destinies are intertwined. We share the mission of revealing G-dliness in the world. Our unity is not uniformity. It is based on our shared capacity to bring light into dark places, to elevate the mundane, and to serve as ambassadors of Heaven on Earth.

But today, many struggle to see this vision. The brutality of terrorism, the images of war, the pain of loss — these are very real, and we must never minimize the suffering. We are commanded to defend ourselves (Haba l’hargecha hashkem l’hargo – Sanhedrin 72a), and those who commit acts of evil must be brought to justice. But we must also remember this: terrorists are not synonymous with Arabs. Just as extremists who twist our own religion do not represent Torah, terrorists do not represent the totality of our Arab friends and brethren.

We must not let the terrorists win by poisoning our hearts against each other. They win when we begin to view entire groups as subhuman. They win when we let fear erase faith. They win when we forget, as my mother taught me, that seeing the good is seeing the G-d in our fellow human being. As George Deek, a proud Arab who is Israel’s ambassador to Azerbaijan, once told me, “A Middle East that has no room for a Jewish state has no room for humanity.”

The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, once told the Sadigura Rebbe, Rabbi Avraham Yaakov Freidman, that our Arab brethren should be blessed — to be fruitful and multiply, and to join with the Jewish people in building a better world. This is a Torah vision — a redemptive one. Not based on naive utopianism, but on the prophetic promise of true peace. The prophet Isaiah (2:2–4) speaks of a time when “nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” This isn’t just messianic poetry. It’s a mandate. The Torah demands we yearn for that day, work toward that day, and speak as if it can come today. As Maimonides taught us, we are obligated to await the Messiah’s coming “every day.”

Too often, we speak only of our enemies. But our sages teach, Aizehu gibor? Hakovesh et yitzro — Who is mighty? One who conquers their own negative inclinations (Pirkei Avot 4:1). Today, that yetzer hara is the voice that whispers, “They are all evil. Give up on hope.” But hope is a mitzvah. Faith in humanity is part of being a chiluk Elokai mimaal — a portion of G-d above. Let us distinguish, as Beruriah taught her husband Rabbi Meir, between evil actions and people, especially entire nations of people. Let us affirm the holiness of life while condemning those who seek to destroy it. And let us dare to dream, as Avraham once did, of a tent large enough to welcome all the children of G-d.

I pray for peace — not just the silence of gunshots and violence, but the song of genuine sisterhood and brotherhood. I pray that my Arab friends and brethren be blessed with prosperity, health, happiness, and holiness. And I pray that we, the Jewish people, never forget who we are: a nation charged with bringing blessing to kol mishpachot ha’adamah — all the families of the Earth (Bereishis 12:3) so we can “serve Him with one accord” (Zephaniah 3:9) in the Holy Temple which is the “…house of prayer for all peoples (Isaiah 56:7).”

And, to that, I say Amen.

Levi Y. Welton is a rabbi, stand-up comedian, and Lubavitcher Chossid. He can be reached at rabbiwelton@gmail.com

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People protest outside Berlin’s Humboldt University in support of Israel and against antisemitism, in Berlin, Germany, Oct. 5, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Mang

The number of antisemitic incidents in Germany almost doubled last year, at a time of continued war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, the semi-official German body that tracks antisemitism reported on Wednesday.

The Federal Research and Information Point for Antisemitism (RIAS) said it had registered 8,627 incidents of violence, vandalism, and threats against Jews in Germany last year, almost twice the 4,886 recorded in 2023, and far ahead of 2020’s 1,957.

“Objectively, the risk of being persecuted as a Jew in Germany has increased since Oct. 7, 2023,” Benjamin Steinitz, head of RIAS, told a news briefing on the report, referring to the start of the Gaza war.

“But debates about what counts as an expression of antisemitism seem to take up more space than empathy for the victims.”

The largest category of incidents reported by RIAS – about 25 percent of the total – fell within the category of “anti-Israeli antisemitism.”

In a report published last month, Jewish activist group Diaspora Alliance questioned what it said was RIAS methodology equating opposition to Israel with antisemitism.

Alliance activist Jossi Bartal said RIAS’ approach “delegitimizes criticism of the Israeli state, marking every expression of Palestinian identity as suspect,” alluding to Israeli policy toward Palestinians.

Steinitz told the briefing in response to questions that the Diaspora Alliance report distorted RIAS’ work. “I think the aim of publishing the report now was to present our work as somehow controversial and discredit the experiences of victims.”

Antisemitic violence, vandalism and threats have surged in recent years, with far-right Germans responsible for around three times as many incidents as Islamists, RIAS reported.

For Germany, tracking such incidents and countering antisemitism is central to its post-war project of atoning for the Nazi-era Holocaust of Europe’s Jews.

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