Hillel Neuer appeared on Merit TV with Fanchon Stinger to discuss the danger of the Iranian regime, the threat it poses to the United States, and the need to put political differences aside during this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to dismantle Iran’s nuclear program.
Fanchon Stinger, Merit TV: Let’s bring in Hillel Neuer. He’s the executive director of UN Watch. UN Watch is a leader at the UN in the struggle against antisemitism and campaigns at world bodies against all forms of racism and discrimination. Hillel, first of all, thank you for joining us this morning. I want to get your assessment on where we stand in this very delicate conflict.
Hillel Neuer: Well, we’ve reached an important stage. Iran’s primary nuclear weapons facilities have been destroyed. The project that the Iranian radical regime has been spending about a trillion dollars of the Iranian taxpayers’ money on for the past decades has turned to dust. They are humiliated before the world and before their own people.
They openly stated every single day that their program is “Death to America, Death to Israel.” They used their people’s money to build these vast underground nuclear facilities—something out of a James Bond villain kind of scene—and they’ve been destroyed. So they’re humiliated before their people.
Today, the Israel Defense Forces also blew up headquarters for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Basij. These are the key repressive police and security headquarters. They also blew the doors off Iran’s most notorious prison, which is used to detain, torture, and interrogate women’s rights activists and human rights defenders—many of whom we’ve hosted here at the United Nations.
So we’re at a turning point. This regime is at its weakest point ever.
Fanchon Stinger, Merit TV: You know, this regime has been a terror threat, specifically to the United States, since 1979. We are getting some of those initial assessments coming in this morning. There is some talk that Iran may have had the opportunity to move some of that uranium out of those sites before the U.S. was able to move in and carry out Operation Midnight Hammer like we did. What is your assessment of their capability to be able to do that? Do you think they were able to move some of that before we got in there to hit?
Hillel Neuer: Well, we don’t know for certain at this point, but the intelligence services will be able to track it. And because the nuclear facilities were destroyed, their ability to weaponize that and bring it to the level that it can be used for a nuclear bomb has been severely curtailed for several years. So that’s the good news. But obviously, this is something the intelligence services will have to keep a close eye on.
Fanchon Stinger, Merit TV: Yeah, we’ll be waiting for those assessments to come out. I want to talk a little bit about what most people in America are waking up thinking this morning: “What does this mean for me? What does this mean for my family?” That’s what most Americans are feeling.
I want to go back to when Dr. Phil took us to a lot of these college campuses right after October 7th, and we heard the chants, the antisemitism. We saw that playing out. At that point, Iran came out and very publicly said that they have cells in the United States, and if they ever want to hit us, they can do it from within.
How real and how serious is that threat right now? Because we saw over the weekend, Tom Homan came out and said there are over 2 million known “got-aways” in the United States that are linked to terrorist organizations—and we have no idea where they are. So how seriously do we need to be taking this right now? We also have the warning coming out this morning instructing all Americans to be on alert.
Hillel Neuer: Well, I think the U.S. intelligence services—the FBI and so forth—are taking this seriously. We know that the radical Iranian regime has attempted to assassinate U.S. officials: John Bolton and others. Reportedly, President Trump was also targeted by the Iranian regime. They put out openly videos showing them targeting President Trump.
We know that the Islamic regime of Iran sent assassins to New York City to try to kill the most famous women’s rights activist, Masih Alinejad, who lives in Brooklyn. They sent assassins to go kill her. They were arrested. I was at the trial in New York several months ago. They were convicted.
So we know the Iranian regime has a modus operandi where they hire criminal gangs from different countries and send them into the United States, into Europe. I’m speaking to you from Geneva, where we just hosted a Dutch Member of Parliament who’s an expert on Iran’s use of death squads within Europe.
So I think it is a very real threat. The Swedish government recently released information about what Iran does in Sweden—again, hiring criminal gangs to assassinate their opponents. So it’s a real threat, and I trust that the FBI and other U.S. security agencies will be on it.
Fanchon Stinger, Merit TV: You just gave us some real and raw context there for people to consider. Tom Homan also came out this weekend and said yes, we do have these known terrorists, known “got-aways”—that’s a serious issue. But he also pointed to another enemy faction working from within, and that is those within our own government.
There are some in the Democratic Party who are coming out against the United States taking out this nuclear capability. What do you make of what’s happening within our own country? You’d think that we’d be able to come together around a terrorist threat like this, but we have people within our own government—both sides, but particularly there’s support on the Democratic side—for a lot of what we’re seeing play out.
Hillel Neuer: Look, I’m not going to put them in the same category, of course—whether it’s those in the Democratic Party, either the mainstream or the radicals—as terrorists. But I think it is very disappointing. There is a time when you come together.
You know, Israel is an example of an extremely polarized society—extremely fractious. I wouldn’t say they came to civil war, but they came close. The left in Israel hates Netanyahu. They’ve been obsessed, you could say, or devoted to unseating him in a very extreme way. And yet, the leader of the opposition, Yair Lapid, and other key opposition figures said: “When we’re in a war with the radical murderous regime of Iran, we’re going to put aside all of our opposition to Netanyahu, and we’re going to stand with the government in their war against this radical regime.”
The same is what should be happening in the United States. We know that people hate President Trump. We know there are natural political divisions. But now is the time. This is a regime that all presidents—President Clinton, President Obama, President Biden—have all recognized that Iran is a radical regime. They have been trying to build a nuclear weapon. They’ve all said they’re against it.
Now is the time. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Israel destroyed Iran’s air defenses. This was the safest time for U.S. pilots to fly in with the B-2 bombers and take out these Death Stars—whether it was Fordow or Natanz—that would have threatened the world.
So this is a time where the Democratic Party—and I appeal to my colleagues, like Hakeem Jeffries, someone I worked with at a law firm in New York—I appeal to Hakeem, who is the leader of the Democrats in Congress, and to others: now is the time to come together. Put aside political differences. Support your government in a just war against a radical regime that threatens all of our civilization.
Fanchon Stinger, Merit TV: Well, we all are going to be praying. We know the American people watching this are praying that, yes, we can all come together—and that the safety of America and American families and peace will be put at the forefront. We can put all that aside.
And I’m just going to note, as we say goodbye, that it’s interesting to see some of the Middle East leaders who are not coming out in support of Iran. That is something to take note of as well. There are a lot of Middle East leaders who are not saying “Yay, Iran.” So it’s very interesting to see those connections—who’s saying what and who’s not saying anything in terms of Iran.
Hillel Neuer, so good to see you. Thank you for that incredible insight and depth. We appreciate your time.
