Israel’s government is in the midst of a massive campaign to influence American public opinion to favor a hawkish approach toward Iran and its nuclear program. Part of that effort is a series of public events in various cities with large Jewish communities like mine here in Seattle. The Israeli consul general organized such an event (to be held on October 21st) offering himself as keynote speaker along with a Jerusalem Post reporter and lobbyist for Aipac. None have any special academic or personal experience of Iran. The program is sponsored by the local Jewish federation as a community wide effort to publicize the threat Iran supposedly represents to not just Israel, but the entire Jewish people (these are Bibi Netanyahu’s words).
The local Jewish newspaper refused an op ed I prepared as a critique of the lop-sided program. I am being forced to pay for an ad in order to make a legitimate alternative political approach known to the local Jewish community.
I objected so strongly to this partisan propaganda effort that I am organizing a counter-conference on December 16th tentatively titled Resolving the Iran Crisis through Diplomatic Engagement. The speakers will be Trita Parsi, Prof. Ian Lustick (Univ. of Penn.) and Keith Weissman (formerly of Aipac’s Iran desk). All will embrace a pragmatic, realistic approch to resolving the current crisis. An approach endorsed by our own president.
A recent poll by the American Jewish Committee reveals that 55% of Jews approve of a military attack on Iran by the U.S. and 65% approve of an attack by Israel. This is a chilling result which reveals how much of our work is cut out for us.
If you’d like to support my work by making a donation to cover the costs of the newspaper ad or conference, you may do so via Paypal.
For more of my blog posts on the Iran-Israel-U.S. crisis click here.
