Sudan divestment endorsed JCPA also focuses on environment, security threats

Washington Jewish Week
March 1, 2007
By RICHARD GREENBERGAND and ERIC FINGERHUT

Environmental degradation, Middle East security threats and moral issues confronting all Jews particularly the genocide in Darfur dominated the annual plenum of the Jewish community's chief policy-making arm, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, held this week in Washington, D.C.

The growing strategic and existential threat posed by Iran was perhaps the most attention-getting agenda item, and, in fact, spawned a set of controversial resolutions calling for divestment from companies doing business with Tehran. The issue was tabled, however, for procedural reasons and was referred to a JCPA task force for further study and "accelerated action," according to a JCPA spokesperson.

A vigorously debated resolution calling for targeted divestment from the Sudan was passed, however. The measure was aimed at protesting the ongoing ethnic cleansing campaign in Darfur, a region of the Sudan, which, according to the resolution, has claimed the lives of more than 400,000 civilians in the past few years.

Opponents of divestment, however, have expressed fear that it could be used by opponents of Israel, which itself has been the target of divestment campaigns.

"That's totally illogical," countered Jack Fein, a New York-based JCPA delegate representing the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. "That's like saying all wars are wrong."

Fein said he also "strongly supported" divestment from Iran. "Purim is coming," he added, "and the Jewish people are now dealing with the same sort of threat from Persia all over again."

That threat was discussed by several conference speakers, including Sallai Meridor, Israeli ambassador to the United States; former U.S. diplomat Dennis Ross, now a distinguished fellow with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy; and Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), a prospective presidential candidate.

Both Meridor and Ross, who spoke during the same session Sunday, characterized Iran, which is rapidly developing a nuclear program, as a danger not only to nearby Israel, but to the entire Middle East and beyond. Acting under cover of a nuclear umbrella, Iran could wage widespread political blackmail or worse, perhaps in concert with nuclear-empowered jihadists scattered around the world, Meridor said. "If this is not stopped, it could be a nightmare for our children," he told a receptive crowd of approximately 250 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel.

Although Meriodor and Ross painted a troubling picture, they emphasized that the situation is not grave, and that there is time, however limited, to exert diplomatic and financial pressure on Iran to change its ways. Both speakers, for example, said they support divestment in Iran as a tool for prodding Tehran to abandon its nuclear build-up, which has continued unabated despite sanctions recently imposed on it by both the United Nations Security Council and the United States.

Notwithstanding the Islamic nation's defiance and belligerence, it is a country where strategic "parallel realities" now prevail, according to Ross, who termed that "good news." Although Iran has not changed its behavior, he explained, there are signs that economic difficulties created by the sanctions have spawned internal dissonance in Tehran over the nuclear issue.

That disunity, said Ross, could be exploited by the West and used as diplomatic leverage if it is coupled with even tougher economic sanctions. Ross called on Saudi Arabia, European nations, and other countries with influence in Iran to "find a way to tighten the economic noose" on Tehran. He cautioned, however, against U.S.-initiated "regime-change" in Iran, labeling such an approach "faith-based rather than reality-based" policy. While Ross did not rule out U.S. negotiations with Iran, Hagel, who has emerged as one of the Bush administration's most vociferous foreign policy critics, stressed the need for engagement with Tehran.

"Engagement creates dialogue and opportunities to identify common interests, demonstrate America's strengths, as well as make clear disagreements," Hagel said in his Monday presentation.

The environment particularly the threat posed by global warming was another key issue for many attendees, although it was not divorced from partisan politics.

Consider, for example, the Sunday afternoon JCPA presentation on the environment, a joint session with the Spitzer Hillel Forum on Social Justice. After urging the attendees to support an administration plan to reduce gasoline consumption, Alexander Karsner, assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy, was peppered with pointed questions about why President George W. Bush had not acted sooner on this issue and had rejected the Kyoto climate-control protocols.

Among the skeptics was delegate Lee Diamond, 46, of Falls Church, who said in an interview that he does not take the administration's environmental efforts seriously.

Meanwhile, Spitzer attendee Keren Neiger, a senior at Indiana University, said in an interview that the Spitzer forum neatly dovetails with the environmentally friendly lifestyle she is trying to develop. "We can easily make little changes in our life to better the environment," she added. On the social action front, all three members of a Sunday afternoon panel agreed that civil equality for Arab citizens of Israel is an important goal. The three are part of an interagency task force of 70 organizations under the auspices of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee designed to educate the Jewish community on the issue.

One of the panel members, Ami Nachshon of The Abraham Fund Initiatives, which works to promote peaceful coexistence among Israel's Jewish and Arab citizens, noted that civil equality, in addition to being morally proper, would also bring economic benefits to Israel by enabling Arabs to be more productive members of society.

The JCPA conference also featured a speech by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. In his remarks, Breyer, who studiously avoided commenting on pending or upcoming cases, discussed general principles that might be used in deciding civil liberties cases in a time of war, such as this. In outlining one of those principles, Breyer said the ancient Roman statesman Cicero "was wrong" when he declared that "when the canons roar the laws fall silent."

The JCPA also passed several other resolutions Monday night, including companion measures aimed at "alleviating the suffering of attacked and displaced Israeli citizens." One of the two resolutions concerns Gaza evacuees. The other one deals with victims of last summer's Lebanon war, as well as residents of the southern Israeli city of Sderot that has been rocketed for the past six years by Palestinians firing from nearby Gaza. Another resolution endorses immigration reform in part by eliminating or expanding immigration quotas "to allow greater access to those who wish to pursue the American dream." Still other resolutions that were passed vow to fight handgun violence and to oppose government budget cuts that restrict social services.