By DOVID BEN-MEIR
I can tell you I'm happy, but I'm not dancing in the streets right now.I will be dancing in the streets on this coming Sunday, the 28th of the Jewish month of Iyar, the 51st anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem under Jewish sovereignty, after 19 years of illegal Jordanian occupation, 30 years of British occupation, 400 years of Turkish occupation, 300 years of Ayubic and then Mameluke occupation, following a few decades of Crusader (Europeans) occupation after a few centuries of early Muslim dynasties' occupation that replaced the Byzantine formerly Roman occupation, the European invaders who originally invaded, destroyed and exiled us from our own capital city almost 1,900 years ago.In 1967, the Jordanians attacked Israel by land and by air, shelling the Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem with 6,000 shells that damaged almost a thousand civilian buildings, wounding hundreds and killing many civilians. Israel was forced to defend itself against the aggression and the then-Arab dream of destroying Israel. In a miraculous six days, the Jewish nation returned the heartland of its homeland to its sovereignty, and most important of all – Jerusalem.With the miraculous salvation of the Jewish people from threatened annihilation and the return to Jerusalem, there's a good reason to rejoice and dance. Although we still have a long way to go towards fulfilling our destiny, still, there are points along the long path where we can and should stop, reflect and rejoice over what has already been achieved, even to the degree of dancing in the streets of Jerusalem.On the other hand there are challenges along our path that call upon us not to dance but to work harder. One of those challenges is the current fanatic and despotic regime that has hijacked the ancient peoples of Iran. This extremist Islamic group that seized power in Iran – that may have initially been joyously received as a rescue from the autocratic regime of the shah but has since proved itself even much worse and repressive – it has for decades declared against the United States, the "Great Satan", and against Israel, the "Little Satan". The fanatic and corrupt regime regularly calls for the annihilation of the Jewish state of Israel – despite the fact that Israel has no common border with Iran and has never sought to harm it in any way.Remember the old song "Who's Next" about the countries seeking atomic weapons? Well there was a line about "Egypt wants to get one too, just to use on you know who!" Thankfully we have a peace treaty with our neighbor, Egypt, which has been stably kept for over thirty years. But today everyone knows that Iran is the country that wants one to use on you know who.The atomic agreement with Iran is a bad deal, made with a regime that disregards the desires and interests of its people and lies to the world and can't be trusted in the long run. Just see how Iran has used the money it received in order to expand in the Middle East and support terror, mayhem, and the murderous regime in Syria. Iran has continued developing missiles – another hole in the bad agreement. It also held on to its atomic-bomb plans and archive… until recently…So I'm happy that the U.S. will pull out of the bad agreement and hope for a better agreement. Yet last night, after listening to President Trump's speech, I also heard how the IDF has called on the communities in the Golan to open and prepare the bomb-shelters. I texted my daughter, a sergeant in the Israeli army, who replied that an Iron Dome battery was deployed near her base and reservists have been called up. Threats still exist, challenges abound, so it's not yet time to dance.There is still much work to be done to stop proliferation of atomic weapons in the Middle East. I hope that the U.S. will negotiate a better deal. I hope that a new regime will rise in Iran, renouncing the dream to destroy Israel, instead working for its people. I hope that the people in Jerusalem and the people in Tehran will be free to dance in joy, freedom and mutual respect.(Written last week)