Nuclear Deal With Iran

American Jews and Our non-Jewish Allies Should Rally in Support of the Nuclear Deal With Iran(Don’t let past traumas contribute to our inability to see the looming possibility of a more peaceful world)

by Rabbi Michael Lerner
We in the liberal and progressive wing of the Jewish world must
loudly and publicly congratulate the negotiators who achieved a
deal that will prevent Iran from developing the capacity to build
nuclear weapons in the coming years, an agreement that also
promises an end to economic sanctions. We are glad that
adequate inspections and safeguards are part of this
deal—no one would have trusted it otherwise.

While Republicans rushed to denounce the deal, their response
has been predictable and hollow, given their consistent policy
of opposing anything that might give President Obama the
appearance of having done something valuable. Their primary
claim to credibility comes from identifying with Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who immediately decried the
agreement as “a historical mistake.” The right wing of the
Jewish world is already organizing to oppose the nuclear deal,
with the aid of a handful of billionaires who will fund a steady
and public barrage of opposition. That is why it is important
for Jewish liberals and progressives to speak as Jews to counter
the right-wing assault.

We at Tikkun hope to see the day when Iran’s oppressive and
human-rights–violating government and mullah regime are
non-violently overthrown by democratic means and replaced
with a government that no longer limits free speech, ends its
oppression of women and Baha’i or other minority religions,
and offers a path to peace and reconciliation with Israel. We
also hope to see democracy, human rights, and economic justice
triumph throughout the world, not least in the U.S. and Israel.
A de-escalation of tensions with Iran could be a first step in
demonstrating the viability of a non-violent approach to
political differences. But for this to come to fruition, it
is incumbent upon Israel to help create an economically
and politically viable Palestinian state, and on the US to
stop responding to terrorists with terrorism of its own and
instead replace its foreign policy of domination—through
economics, cultural penetration, hard diplomacy, militarism,
drones, and torture—with a strategy of generosity. To aid this
transition, the Network of Spiritual Progressives has proposed
a Domestic and Global Marshall Plan (To read the plan,
visit: tikkun.org/gmp).

But Israel is in no rush to give up its fantasy of dragging the
U.S. into a war with Iran, particularly if Republicans gain the
White House in 2016 and retain control of both Houses of the U.S. Congress.

We understand why Israeli Jews, still living with the trauma
of the Holocaust and with an ultra-right-wing government that
has consistently manipulated those fears to maintain its power
and control over the Palestinian people of the West Bank and
Gaza, are opposing this plan. It is hard for many Jews, still
recovering from trauma, to believe that peace could actually
be achieved by creating a demilitarized Palestinian state along
the lines suggested in my bookEmbracing Israel/Palestine.
But creating a homeland for the Palestinian refugees living
in misery in refugee camps around the Arab world would in
fact enhance the security of Israeli Jews.

If Israel approached this task with a spirit of generosity and
repentance for its partial role in creating the Palestinian
catastrophe (nakba), and if the U.S. were to launch a
Domestic and Global Marshall Plan in order to replace its
current strategy of achieving “homeland security” through
domination with a strategy of generosity toward the people
of the world, starting with the Middle East, a path to peaceful
reconciliation with Iran would open.

Iran’s anti-Semitic prime minister is long gone, and the majority
of the Iranian people have historically been among the most
welcoming toward Jews. The mullahs’ calls to end the Zionist
state, unsupported by the majority of Iranians, are less a statement
of foreign policy than an expression of anger and despair over the
international community’s inability to push Israel to do right by the
Palestinian people. These calls might disappear if Israel ceased its
covert assaults on Iranian scientists and Iranian technological
developments. And if the U.S. appeared less as a threat and more
as a generous benefactor, peaceful forces in Iran would be dramatically
empowered to overthrow the mullahs’ oppressive regime.

American Jews are faced with this sad fact: there are some in Israel
and some in the right wing of the American political arena who would
prefer to see war with Iran, a war which would be as disastrous for the
Middle East and for the U.S. as the Iraq war that those same hawks led
us into in the past. Many Americans would perceive this as “a Jewish war”
or “a war fought for Israel.” This could lead to a global resurgence
of anti-Semitism far greater than that produced by Israel’s oppressive
treatment of the Palestinian people. But there are those in Israel who
actually welcome that anti-Semitism, believing that this would re-legitimate
what right-wing Zionists believe to be the urgent necessity for all Jews
to move to Israel, to be free of this long historical legacy of Jew-hatred.

Anti-Semitism is never legitimate, no matter how provocative
Israel’s actions. Although Israel claims to speak for all Jews
around the world, and although a significant section of the
American Jewish community maintains blind loyalty to the
Israeli government, the Israeli right wing does not and cannot
represent all Jews. That’s why we at Tikkun, a voice of liberal
and progressive Jews in the U.S., encourage our fellow
American Jews to speak clearly and forcefully to the people
of Israel, to urge them to stop their government from
manipulating the American Congress and the American
people or otherwise attempting to thwart this agreement with Iran.

We have great compassion for our fellow Jews who still live
with the traumatizing impact of the Jewish past, but it is time
to stop letting those fears push us into behaviors contrary to
our long Jewish tradition of seeking peace and reconciliation
rather than resolving conflicts through force, violence, and war.
The way to be real allies to Israel and the Jewish people is to help
our most hopeful and generous selves predominate over the fearful
nightmares of the past, so that we don’t unconsciously collude in
recreating the very things we most fear. An Israel already armed t
o the teeth with the strongest army in the Middle East and over
200 nuclear weapons doesn’t need cheerleading for militarism,
but strong support to become known as one of the most generous
and caring-for-the-other societies in the world.

It would be a great tragedy if U.S. Jews aligned themselves with
Republican hawks to prevent ratification of this international
agreement with Iran, thus setting up the conditions for an Israeli
attack on Iran or other provocations that might lead Ir
an to respond militarily. The perception of the Jewish people as
leading allies with the militarists in the U.S. would be a gift to the
real anti-Semites and a reason why many more young Jews would
flee an identification with Judaism and the Jewish community.
For those of us who are proud of the loving and peace-oriented
elements in the Jewish tradition, and for our non-Jewish allies
who do not want to see the Jews once again demeaned and
isolated, it is time to stand up and be heard. We must loudly
and clearly defend this nuclear agreement and the values tha
t lie behind it. Doing so is good for the Jews, good for the U.S.,
good for Israel, and good for strengthening the part in almost
everyone on the planet that wants a world of peace, kindness,
and nonviolence.

ENDS

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