Ronald Lauder, left, receiving the French Legion of Honor from President François Hollande. Photo: Présidence de la République.

One of the world’s most renowned Jewish leaders, Ronald S. Lauder, President of the World Jewish Congress (WJC), said that the only thing preventing Iran from going nuclear is France. His remarks were made at a gala dinner in New York Tuesday night.

“Tomorrow the meetings with Iran resume in Geneva and frankly only France stands between us and a nuclear Iran,” said Lauder, referring to the talks between Iran and world powers over the country’s nuclear program. “But the rest of the world is silent,” he added.

Lauder also mocked the U.S. point person in the negotiations, Wendy Sherman.

“The chief U.S. negotiator in Geneva is a person named Wendy Sherman, she was the point person who negotiated with Kim Jong-il to keep North Korea nuclear power free, and we all know how well that turned out,” he said.

Lauder painted a bleak picture for world Jewry at the black tie event that honored Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel and his wife Marion.

“The world’s attitude towards Israel and Jews in general has not improved over the years, it has grown more hostile,” he said. “Almost seventy years and three generations after the Second World War it is acceptable once again to utter anti-Semitic statements out loud.”

“Yes anti-Zionism has been a fashionable way for anti-Semites to express their hatred,” he clarified.

“Iran is racing to complete a nuclear bomb, even as they promise to erase Israel from the face of time, and the world is silent,” he said. “Just as the West gave up Czechoslovakia to Hitler in Munich in 1938, we see what is happening again and the world is silent.”

Touting the global work of the WJC, Lauder pledged “I will never trust a flimsy piece of paper signed by a tyrant.”

Other attendees at the event included Hillary Clinton, Ralph Lauren, Israeli Minister Silvan Shalom, Huma Abedin, Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor and Ira Rennert.