Iran’s new leadership is far more militant and even more deeply committed to Israel’s destruction. It has categorically rejected any possibility of a “longer and stronger” deal and won’t even discuss its destabilizing military activities through regional proxies, and continues to provide precision guided missiles and drones to its proxies and develop its nuclear program at an alarming rate.

Ironically, the Biden administration’s conciliatory approach to an increasingly militant Iranian leadership ignores our best hope for strengthening the cause of peace in the region. The Abraham Accords, helped create a growing strategic alliance between Israel and moderate Sunni Arab states that fear Iranian hegemony and value Israeli innovation. In addition, the inclusion of Ra’am in the new Israeli government is opening up unprecedented opportunities for reconciliation between Arabs and Jews in Israel and throughout the region.

Indeed, Iran’s encouragement and material support of Hamas aggression in the 11-day conflict with Israel in May was aimed precisely at inflaming tensions between Arabs and Jews, which is key to expanding Iran’s regional hegemony. The restoration of the JCPOA will only increase Iran’s capacity to fund such aggression.

Ultimately, Iran’s growing intransigence may lead the Biden administration to cease its efforts to revive JCPOA and, instead, to work with regional allies to develop a more effective strategy for encouraging the development of a more peaceful Middle East while restraining Iran’s ambitions and its proliferation of precision-guided missiles.

It gives me no pleasure to know that we were right to oppose the deal in 2015. I wish we had been wrong. I wish that America’s ardent pursuit of a deal had led to a kinder, gentler Iranian regime, as many in the Obama administration predicted. But even before President Barack Obama left office, Qassem Soleimani, leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, was expanding Iran’s murderous activity in Iraq and Syria, and its presence in Lebanon was posing ever greater threats to Israel and to American regional interests.

As the United States faces new threats from Iran, Russia and China, the Biden administration needs to find the same courage that CJP and others found in 2015 to oppose the Iran deal. I think President Joe Biden understands this, even if the left wing of his own party disagrees.

The American Jewish community has a great deal at stake in this fight. The Abraham Accords and new Israeli government have opened up new opportunities for regional peace — opportunities that unchecked Iranian aggression will destroy. We cannot afford to be MIA in this crucial debate.

Barry Shrage served as president of CJP, Greater Boston’s Jewish Federation, from 1987 to 2017. He is now professor of the practice in the Hornstein Program and the Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University.