Senator Joseph Lieberman, speaking Monday to the annual AIPAC Policy Conference:
I do not need to tell you about the regime in Iran — about its determination to acquire nuclear weapons, about its sponsorship of terrorism, about its repression of its own citizens.
I do not need to tell you about Al Qaeda and Hezbollah and Hamas — about their addiction to violence, about their pathological hatred of America and Israel, about their ambitions for conquest.
And I do not need to tell you about the fanatical ideology that links these different groups — the ideology of Islamist extremism, a totalitarian ideology as violent and vicious as the fascism and communism we Americans and our allies fought and defeated in the last century. . . .
Unfortunately, many in our country today do not seem to share that critical understanding of the threats we face. . . .
There is something profoundly wrong when opposition to the war in Iraq seems to inspire greater passion than opposition to Islamist extremism. . . . And there is something profoundly wrong when, in the face of attacks by radical Islam, we think we can find safety and stability by pulling back . . . .
It’s time to step back and see that America’s interests lie with the interests of free people everywhere, and that the response to radical Islam is not to abandon them but to stand with them — whether they are in Baghdad or Teheran or Jerusalem. . . .
The esteemed historian of the Middle East, Bernard Lewis, was in Washington this past week. He said that, when he looks at the world today and the threats we face, it reminds him of the 1930s — and that he hears far more voices that sound like Chamberlain than like Churchill.
And so I challenge each of you to find the voice of Churchill inside yourself, and let it be heard this week on Capitol Hill and throughout the nation in the days and years ahead. . . . Stand up for America. Stand up for Israel. Stand up for freedom. And have confidence that in the end, our cause will, with God’s help, prevail.