As a community, we can be willing to bomb Iran into oblivion in order to stop its nuclear program, or we can worry about the rights of its citizens. We cannot, and should not even pretend, to do both.<\/p>\n
Were there a way to push such propaganda that also benefited the Iranians fighting for participatory democracy, it would be benign. But when Cotler and Kirk call on Jews to demand democracy and human rights in Iran — implicitly branding it as a pro-Israel priority — it actually undermines the cause of dissidents who are risking their lives and being tortured daily just for the basic human dignity that most JTA readers take for granted.<\/p>\n
At the same time, numerous Jewish leaders and friends of AIPAC routinely defend Israel\u2019s right to attack Iran and push for stronger international sanctions, including denial of certain conveniences and necessities that impact the quality of life for most Iranians — those whom Cotler and Kirk would presumably “save” from the regime.<\/p>\n
Unlike the black South Africans of the 1970s and 1980s, these Iranians are not encouraging us to isolate and strangle their country economically and politically. It\u2019s something we do because we care more about Iran\u2019s threat to Israel than we do about the lives of individual Iranians who may or may not support the Islamic regime.<\/p>\n
As should also be evident, not only do most of the brave Iranians Cotler and Kirk claim to be helping not want their help, they would probably continue much of the terrorist and nuclear enterprise the current regime is pursuing. As we\u2019ve seen with their counterparts in Egypt, Libya and Syria, Iranians are not looking to replace their leadership in order to make friends with Israel.<\/p>\n
Unlike Iraq, which the British created barely a century ago, Iran\u2019s Persian national identity stretches back thousands of years. The recent election of a \u201creformist\u201d president to succeed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won\u2019t change most of Iran\u2019s hard-line policies, given the religious control over major decisions. But even a complete change of regime — whether by internal revolution or external force — would be unlikely to produce a cooperative government that renounces Iran\u2019s inbred aspirations to regional hegemony.<\/p>\n
If the main reason the pro-Israel community pushes democracy and human rights for Iranians is to justify further crippling sanctions and to enable the devastating use of force, then we should stop. Let\u2019s stick to emphasizing Iran\u2019s violation of its international obligations and the dangers it poses to its Gulf neighbors and the State of Israel.<\/p>\n
This superficial \u201chuman rights\u201d campaign will not fool the European, Russian and Chinese officials we do need to convince. It\u2019s only fooling some of our own, and the transparent cynicism of this approach affects our credibility on the nuclear issue and many other communal priorities we want to advance.<\/p>\n
(Shai Franklin is senior fellow for United Nations Affairs at the Institute on Religion and Public Policy.)<\/em><\/p>\n![\"Share](\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\")