Elie Wiesel Castigates Iran in Full Page NYT Ad

Nobel Peace Prize winner and renowned author Elie Wiesel said Wednesday that under no circumstances could Iran be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons. In a full page ad in the New York Times, Wiesel said that there could be no doubt as to Iran's true ambitions. “The words and actions of the leadership of Iran leave no doubt as to their intentions,” he wrote, and warned that the U.S. and Western countries must not be fooled into believing otherwise.

The ad was paid for by Amercan millionaire Michael Steinhardt, one of the founders of the Taglit (Birthright Israel) program. The ad demanded that Congress halt all talks with Iran until Tehran agrees to dismantle its nuclear program and stop its threats against Israel.

“I appeal to President Obama and Congress to demand, as a condition of continued talks, the total dismantling of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and the regime’s public and complete repudiation of all genocidal intent against Israel,” Wiesel wrote. “And I appeal to the leaders of the United States Senate to go forward with their vote to strengthen sanctions against Iran until these conditions have been met.”

The United States, Wiesel wrote, has no business being involved with “a regime whose parliament last month erupted in 'Death to America' chants.

Wiesel is the author of 57 books, mostly about the Holocaust, many of which described his experiences as a youth in Romania and Hungary before and during the Nazi occupation. He was imprisoned in three concentration and death camps - Auschwitz, Buna, and Buchenwald – and in 1986 was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the “powerful message of peace, atonement and human dignity” that he brought to all people through his writing and his "practical work in the cause of peace.”