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AJC supports sanctions on Iran's finance, energy

Last week, President Obama and Congress sent a clear message to Iran that if it continues to threaten the security of the world, their government will face serious consequences. This is why American Jewish Committee was a strong supporter of this legislation, which enacts tough, rigorous sanctions to ban U.S. banks from dealing with foreign banks doing business with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, bar companies from U.S. government contracts if they provide Iran with technologies that restrict the free flow of information (AJC was part of the No Nukes for Iran group that recently rallied in Morristown against Honeywell for their business dealings with Iran -- hopefully passage of this act will change their policy), and exact penalties against foreign companies that assist Iran's energy industry and nuclear program.

These sanctions are the direct result of the Iranian regime's refusal to open its nuclear program to scrutiny by the international community, and we at AJC hail the U.S. government for taking this important step to prevent Iran's nuclear ambitions by enacting new sanctions targeting Iran's financial and energy sectors, as well as the relentless leadership of New Jersey's Sen. Robert Menendez and Rep. Scott Garrett and, the support of all New Jersey's members of Congress with their co-sponsorship.

Ferne Hassan
Associate director, AJC/New Jersey

Flotilla fiasco

I am troubled by the "shoot ourselves in the foot" tactics of the IDF's naval unit that boarded the flotilla. The word that comes to mind is "shlemiel" -- the picturesque shtetl character made famous by Ruth Wisse. The shlemiel was not only a comical figure in Jewish culture; he also represented a more serious character. The shlemiel was impotent and ineffective. He is most poignantly described by Bialik in his poem about the Kishinev pogrom entitled the "City of Slaughter." The shlemiel represents the long history of persecution and abuse that made the Jew the epitome of the suffering servant.

One of the hopes invested in modern Zionism and the successful rebuilding of Israel as a Jewish state was the corollary that with statehood a new Jewish character would emerge. The Jew would be reasonable and self-reliant and eager to bring to the world the best of his cultural repertoire. Instead, the "new Israeli" is represented by two apparently polar opposites who actually have so much in common: the black hat ultra-Orthodox man of Jerusalem and the "pretty boy" of Tel Aviv. Both are non-violent, at least when it comes to defending their fellow citizens and their country. Both are devout believers in contrasting mythologies. One believes that a superman messiah will save them and the other believes that a super-president will save them by coercing Israel into a peace with Hamas "for their own good."

While it is hard to prioritize the threats against the Jewish state, they are all so compelling. There is Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and the assault from the West, which is focused upon the delegitimization of the Jewish state. But, I would list the greatest danger as Israel's assimilation and abandonment of their own authentic identity that finds its roots not in 18th century Europe or 21st century America, but in the classics of biblical civilization. For example, it was Mosaic legislation that ordered national conscription that the ultra-Orthodox choose to overlook. And in every existential crisis from the Holocaust to the War of Liberation we stood alone. In the Six-Day War and in the Yom Kippur war, our leaders were warned not to initiate the fighting. Fortunately, Levi Eshkol ignored President Johnson, but tragically Golda Meir heeded Nixon's warning. The result was a military debacle, the deaths of thousands of our young men and a long hard war to regain our losses. Now, too, America gives us advice such as open the blockade in Gaza, talk to Hamas. Does Obama advise us to sit with our enemies because he intends to lead the U.S. into a similar session with al-Qaeda? Or, is it the old double standard? Has everyone forgotten that there is an international rule of law regarding terrorists? Or, is it that there are no more terrorists and Hamas is more accurately characterized as resistance to the occupation?

The fiasco of the Gaza flotilla shines like a beacon reminding us that often the good guys work alone. In the days following the embarrassment at sea, there have been numerous analyses such as the Turks gave us bad intel or they, the Hamas supporters, tricked us or Obama warned Netanyahu to go easy and avoid a violent confrontation. They are all laughable. Who would trust the Turks when even the Americans kept vital intel from us about Saddam Hussein, and doesn't every battle plan consider a possible ambush? Unless Israel works hard to restore to the IDF its deterrent capability, I am afraid that the episode of the Commando Shlemiels will provide our enemies with old fashioned belly laughs whenever Netanyahu "draws his tongue like a bow" and blusters all kinds of sound and fury which signify nothing.

Saul Goldman
Coral springs, Fla.