Iran-Iraq Debate

As Jewish public affairs leaders huddle, quagmire in Iraq defers vote on Iran.

Ron Kam peas
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

After the Iran discussion was resolved
— by retelling the issue to a committee
— scarcely a dozen of the more than 400
delegates remained for the Iraq debate.
Other resolutions considered at the Feb.
25-27 plenum in Washington included:
•A resolution encouraging financial
support for Israelis displaced by last sum-
mer's war with Hezbollah and targeted by
Palestinian rocket attacks from the Gaza
Strip.
A separate resolution sponsored by the
Orthodox Union encouraged aid to set-
tlers evacuated from the Gaza Strip in
2005 who are still living in tent cities. Both
measures passed.
• A resolution calling for targeted divest-
ment from Sudan. It unsettled some dele-
gates because of the Presbyterian Church's
2004 resolution calling for divestment
from certain companies doing business
with Israel, a step rescinded in 2006.
Supporters of Sudan divestment said
it was clear that Israel's treatment of
Palestinians couldn't be compared to the
genocide being carried out in Darfur by
militias allied with the Sudanese govern-
ment. The resolution passed.
• Resolutions also passed opposing
criminalization of social-service provi-
sions to illegal immigrants; advocating
limits on handgun sales; advocating

Washington

F

or weeks ahead of the Jewish
Council for Public Affairs ple-
num, community leaders tiptoed
around how to deal with growing Jewish
opposition to the Iraq war:
Mention it? Debate it? Pass a resolution
addressing it? "Fuggedaboutit" was more
the attitude last week at the annual parlia-
ment that attempts to formulate Jewish
community consensus on the issues of the
day. Who has time to deal with Iraq when
Iran is turning into such a headache?
Yet on the issue of Iran as well, con-
sensus proved elusive. Off the record,
delegates said the JCPAs failure to agree on
an Iran policy underscores the American
Jewish community's nervousness about
taking any militant posture in the Middle
East given the quagmire Iraq has become.
The delegates from Jewish community
relations councils across the United States
and major Jewish organizations became
mired in debate late into the night over
whether Iran should even be on the agen-
da. That left them little energy to deal with
what had been a compromise formula for
an open debate on the Iraq war.

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decreased dependence on fossil fuels;
opposing social-service funding cuts at
the local and state levels, as well as some
tax cuts; and opposing laws and constitu-
tional amendments that deprived groups
of civil liberties, an implicit rebuke to the
anti-gay marriage movement.
The absence of Iran from the agenda
led the Boston JCRC delegation to offer
its own hastily drafted resolution to
launch a "Stop Iran" movement. Delegates
wondered aloud why the threat from a
government that talks of destroying Israel,
backs terrorists, denies the Holocaust and
appears to be rushing pell-mell to build
a nuclear bomb was a no-show when it
came to forming policy.
JCPA officials initially responded that
the umbrella body already had a position
on Iran's nuclear threat. Last passed in
2005, it calls for placing a high priority on
stopping Iran's nuclear program. But that
didn't satisfy delegates.
The Boston JCRC proposal called for
Jewish and non-Jewish groups to form a
"Stop Iran" coalition that would launch
political, economic and educational
initiatives against the Iranian nuclear
threat, including a mass demonstration in
Washington and a divestment campaign.
Martin Raffel, director of the JCPAs Task
Force on Israel and Other International

Concerns, noted that the umbrella body's
Iran policy was evolving. He cited an effort
to consolidate a national strategy outlined
in a Jan. 30 memo to JCRC professionals
and the JCPA executive.
Components of that strategy, accord-
ing to the memo, would include building
coalitions with non-Jewish groups, lobby-
ing, media advocacy and American Jewish
pressure on foreign governments and
businesses that deal with Iran.
Once Raffel outlined the memo, the ple-
num voted overwhelmingly —with only
the Boston delegation opposed — to refer
the Boston resolution to Raffel's task force.
"We will deal with that issue expeditious-
ly," Raffel said. "That includes divestment."
According to Robert Cohen, execu-
tive director of the Jewish Community
Relations Council of Metropolitan Detroit,
"My sense of the room was that the
majority of the delegates voted to refer
the Iran resolution to a task force because
they were assured that the JCPA staff and
leadership would meanwhile move ahead
with a number of Iran-related activities
while the task force took sufficient time to
carefully formulate an overall policy and
program. There was almost no time for
the delegates to consider all of the ramifi-
cations of the Iran resolution proposed at
the plenum."

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