On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, Israeli ambassador to new Gulf ally discusses threat of 'Second Holocaust' with Evangelical delegation

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates—On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel and a sense that Iran is racing toward a nuclear bomb and a “Second Holocaust,” the Jewish state is working hard to reinforce its ties with allies in the region united against Tehran. 

Israeli Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates Amir Hayek said his office is hosting a webinar on how to use technology to educate regarding the Holocaust. This is part of an effort to use the medium to reach young people and ensure that the next generation will remember the Holocaust long after the remaining survivors pass away.

Hayek said this in a largely 'on-the-record' briefing with a delegation of Evangelical business and media leaders led by Joel Rosenberg to Bahrain, the UAE and Israel. Hayek hosted the group in the Emirati capital on Tuesday night. 

The Abraham Accords have forged an alliance between nations that view Iran as a danger to regional stability. With Israel under existential threat from Tehran, Bahrain and the UAE also feel the regime’s menacing actions.

While Hayek did not directly address the Iranian issue, he praised the new relations and said they have created a strategic union that has taken off in terms of business relations, and even more crucial – people to people. 

“In six months, we will be stable,” Hayek said of his relatively new appointment. “We started running fast and we are only going to run faster. I didn’t come here to waste my time.”

Over the past week, several Bahraini and Emirati officials spoke of the burgeoning business-to-business and people-to-people relations, but many also warned of the Iranian threat bearing down on the region, a concern that links them with the Jewish state. 

ALL ISRAEL NEWS reported the results of a recent poll which reveals deep anxiety among Americans that Iranian leaders are actively plotting a “Second Holocaust” to annihilate the Jewish people in Israel if Tehran can build, buy or steal nuclear weapons.

Only 31.3% of Americans believe that a new nuclear deal “will make the world safer by truly preventing Iran from building nuclear weapons” while 47.4% believe that a new nuclear deal “will make the world more dangerous by lifting economic sanctions, giving Iran’s government enormous new oil revenues, and making it easier for Iran to fund – and hide – its efforts to build nuclear weapons.”

More than two thirds of Americans – 67.6% – believe “the Iranian regime wants to use nuclear weapons to carry out their repeated threats to ‘wipe Israel off the map’ and bring about a Second Holocaust.”

In Israel, preparations are underway for Holocaust Remembrance Day and a ceremonial observance at Yad Vashem this evening. With Iran on a nuclear warpath, this year's observances are especially poignant. 

Most Americans are skeptical that U.S. efforts to negotiate a new nuclear deal with Iran will actually make the world safer. Here in the Gulf, they are emphatic – it would be an outright danger.

“Our first, our second and our third threat comes from Iran,” Bahraini Interior Minister Shaikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa said during a briefing with the delegation in Manama earlier this week.

Many fear that with such a deal, Tehran will have more cash after sanctions are removed and will step up efforts to build weapons and arm terrorist proxies throughout the Middle East.

The Joshua Fund commissioned the poll which was conducted by McLaughlin & Associates and polled 1,000 Americans between March 17 and 22 with a 3.1% margin of error.