Congratulations are in order for Elie Wisel for his advertisement calling on Congress to strengthen sanctions on Iran. The ad doesn’t go as far as the Sun would go, in that it wants President Obama and Congress to demand “as a condition of continued talks” the “total dismantling of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and the regime’s public and complete repudiation of all genocidal intent against Israel.” We oppose negotiations with the mullahs outright, preferring instead a strategic aim of regime change and democratization. But the statement by Mr. Wiesel, and the highly public way in which he is making it, are newsworthy. Mr. Wiesel is a towering figure. He emerges as the first of those who have befriended our Democratic presidents to break with Mr. Obama over the President’s agreement in principle with the mullahs.

Mr. Wiesel’s statement appeared in an ad in the New York Times this morning. It is reportedly set to appear in the Wall Street Journal, which has distinguished itself with its hard-headed editorials in respect of Mr. Obama’s demarche. “If there is one lesson I hope the world has learned from the past it is that regimes rooted in brutality must never be trusted,” Mr. Wiesel says in his statement. “The words and actions of the leadership of Iran leave no doubt as to their intentions,” he adds. He asks whether the civilized nations can trust a “regime whose “supreme leader said yet again last month that Israel is ‘doomed to annihilation,’ and referred to my fellow Jewish Zionists as ‘rabid dogs?’” He asks whether those “whose believe in the United States” should trust “a regime whose parliament last month erupted in “Death to America” chants.”

The ad was sponsored by one of the founders of Birthright Israel, Michael Steinhardt (who was also a founder of the Sun, although he sold his interest in 2008). It is going to be illuminating now to see who follows Mr. Wiesel’s example in taking a high profile position against a demarche that has pitted Jerusalem and Washington to a degree that hasn’t been seen since, oh, 1956. It was certainly well-timed. The strengthened sanctions for which it calls have, according to a cable this evening from Foreign Policy magazine, begun to be circulated in draft form by Senator Kirk and two democrats, Messrs. Schumer and Menendez. The measure, called the Iran Nuclear Weapon Free Act of 2013, wouldn’t halt the negotiations outright. But it would strengthen the hand of the administration. There are few in Elie Wisel’s league. Let us hope he has emboldened others to step forward.