By Leyna Krow, Assistant Editor, JTNews
Iran has been a source of concern for Israel advocates for several years. But in recent months, as Iran has made headlines around the world for its contested elections and growing talk of nuclear weapons development, the Jewish community in the United States has increasingly been taking notice. And they have questions.
In hopes of providing insight — and concise answers — about Iran, several local Jewish organizations are partnering together to host a panel discussion on Iran at Temple De Hirsch Sinai at 7 p.m. on Oct. 21.
According to Tana Senn, director of communications at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, the event called “Facing the Iranian Threat” will focus on “the political realities inside Iran, what the Obama administration’s options are and what they’re discussing, and what can people do if they care about this issue,” she said.
Panelists will include Israel’s consul general to the Pacific Northwest Akiva Tor, Jerusalem Post correspondent Yaakov Katz, and AIPAC’s national policy deputy director Jeff Colman. The panel will be moderated by Dave Ross, host of “The Dave Ross Show” on KIRO 97.3 FM.
Sponsoring organizations are the Jewish Federation, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, and StandWithUs Northwest.
“There is a lot of need for education in our community about Iran, around both the history, and the seriousness of the threat,” said Wendy Rosen, executive director for the Seattle chapter of the AJC. “A lot of people are concerned about Iran, particularly with relation to Israel. This is a very timely event.”
But assuming responsibility for educating the entire Jewish community about Iran is a big undertaking, and not everyone feels that the sponsors of the Oct. 21 panel are the best organizations for the job. Richard Silverstein, who writes about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and other issues involving Israel on his Tikun Olam blog, said he contacted the Jewish Federation after the event was announced to express his concern that the panelists might be presenting a biased opinion.
“The Federation event is part of a campaign to massage [the United State’s] policy in the direction Israel wants it to go, which is confrontational and hawkish, and to use sanctions and the threat of force to get the outcome that it wants to see — the end of Iran’s nuclear efforts,” Silverstein told JTNews.
Silverstein said he would like to see someone on the panel who will advocate diplomatic engagement, rather than sanctions and possibly war with Iran as the only ways to halt the country’s nuclear ambitions.
Silverstein pointed to a recent American Jewish Committee poll, stating that 36 percent of American Jews would oppose an attack on Iran.
Rob Jacobs, regional director for StandWithUs Northwest, insisted that Silverstein’s interpretation of what will be said by the panelists is inaccurate.
“I think he’ll be disappointed because if he thinks this is going to be a group of people saying ‘let’s all go to war,’ that’s not what he’ll find,” Jacobs said.
He stressed that both Tor and Katz, whom Silverstein has criticized for what he considers to be overtly hawkish writing, have been pushing for both “diplomacy and economic incentives” for Iran to give up its nuclear aims.
Senn, however, acknowledged that the panel may not represent the full spectrum of political thought on the Iran issue, allowing that the possibility of a military strike against Iran would not be out of the question for any of them.
“I think it’s fair to say the presenters agree that to talk about the first step but not to talk about the next step is foolhardy,” she said. “But sanctions does not mean diving into military action.”
She stressed that the aim of the event is not to advocate for one course of action or another, but instead to provide those in attendance with the facts about Iran so they can decide for themselves what they think ought to be done.
But even to that end, Silverstein is critical of the panel’s capabilities, claiming that none of the speakers qualify as experts on Iran. Although they all may be qualified to speak about Israel, none have a solid background in Iranian history or politics, he said.
“I guess it depends on what you would define as an expert,” Senn countered. “But these are all extremely educated people who are dealing with this issue in their professional lives.”
Senn did note that the Federation had hoped to bring in an Iran scholar to speak about the issue from an academic perspective, but couldn’t make it work within their budget constraints.
“We scoured the state, but there was not one [expert] to be found. And we don’t have funding to fly someone in,” she said. “Ideally, we wanted this to be a local symposium,”
Two of the three panelists are coming in from out of town, however. StandWithUs is flying in Katz from Israel — he will also be speaking at other StandWithUs functions while in Seattle — and AIPAC is flying in Colman from Washington, D.C.
When he felt his request that a more diverse and qualified range of participants be added to the Oct. 21 panel fell upon deaf ears, Silverstein decided to host his own Iran panel to make sure that the other perspective is heard in Seattle as well.
Silverstein’s event will take place Dec. 16 at Town Hall Seattle. Speakers will include Keith Weissman, former director of AIPAC’s Iran desk, Ian Lustick, political science professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and Trita Parsi, director of the National Iranian American Council.
“My goal was to seek people who had particular expertise in either the Israeli or Iranian side of this,” Silverstein explained. The panelists are people whom Silverstein has come across during his research for his Tikun Olam blog posts.
Silverstein said his event will be funded, he hopes, primarily by donations. Unlike the event at Temple De Hirsch Sinai, attendees will have to pay for tickets to the discussion at Town Hall.
He stressed that he wants to be sure the wider Seattle community is aware of the possible dangers of imposing harsh economic sanctions against Iran and that sanctions and war are not the only options for dealing with the country.
“Most specialists in this country say sanctions won’t work — they didn’t work in Iraq, and they aren’t working now. And a military attack would be even worse — a catastrophe. The only approach that would work is diplomatic engagement. Put all issues on the table, sanctions, the nuclear program, support for Hamas, and work through them. That’s the only way to get outcome both parties can live with.”
He acknowledged that the speakers at his event won’t represent a particularly broad range of views on how Israel and the U.S. ought to deal with Iran, either.
“This is not a panel that’s diverse ideologically,” he said.
He defends his decision of speaker choice because he said anyone who wants to hear arguments in favor of sanctions and military action will have had the opportunity to do so at the October panel.