Colorado Jews say NO! to war on Iran

Don't do it. Don't Attack Iran
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Thursday, March 1 at 12:01 AM

Statement of a Group of Colorado Jews

We, the undersigned, all Colorado Jews, are worried about a U.S. and/or Israeli attack on Iran.

The military components for such an attack have been put in place over the past six months. We, who only a few generations ago, witnessed our families in Europe turned into ashes in Auschwitz, Buchenwald and Sachenhausen, look with unparalleled horror at the prospect of either the US or Israel using tactical nuclear weapons. We fear the consequences of such a strike could trigger a wider regional conflict, with the shadow - the genuine possibility - of world war in the offing.

The ratcheting up of anti-Iranian rhetoric in the media, the spreading of half -truths about the nature of the Iranian regime, its role in Iraq, the disinformation campaign about its plans to develop nuclear energy - all are reminiscent of the build-up to the -invasion and occupation of Iraq. Recent position papers from rightwing think-tanks suggest that Iran be dissolved into some kind of federated state -- a scheme suspiciously similar to the emerging re-division of Iraq into ethno-religious enclaves, a form of divide-and-rule to more easily control oil production.

We also know, sadly, that the forces pushing for a military confrontation include some major American Jewish organizations - AIPAC, the ADL and the AJC among them, all of whom have lobbied hard with the neo-cons in power for yet another war. For many years, these same groups echoed the US and Israeli governments' support for the Shah of Iran as a foil against Arab countries like Iraq in the era before the Islamic revolution in Iran.

In the same way that most opponents of the current war in Iraq never supported Saddam Hussein's repressive regime (while US governments did for decades), we are not defenders or supporters of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which also enjoyed the military backing of the US during the war Saddam launched in the 1980s. We abhor its current president's purposely provocative statements to deny the Holocaust. Despite his fiery anti-Israeli rhetoric, we note that Iran has not attacked any of its neighbors for 200 years and has shown no intention of changing course. Nor is there as yet any evidence that it is building nuclear weapons.

Rationally, a war against Iran makes no sense - except to line the pockets of war-profiteers and Big Oil at the expense of the rest of us.

The US is bogged down in a losing and morally repugnant war in Iraq. The November, 2006 elections were a clear signal that the people of this country have had enough of Bush's War. Although it failed to address the central question of the US military occupation the bipartisan Iraq Study Group Report issued in December of last year, acknowledged the failure of the neo-con strategy. Yet the ruling elite wants to expand that blunder by preparing to attack Iran.

Nor does such a war make sense for Israel, bogged down after 40 years' occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, unable to find a formula to equitably share land and resources with the Palestinians. We are convinced that Israel's future is made less - not more - secure by its military imposition of one-sided division of the spoils of war. In the end, Israel's security can only come by normalizing its relations with its neighbors. It cannot do that until its resolves the Palestinian question. Launching a war against Iran will further endanger Israeli security, not guarantee it.

We consider an attack on Iran, disguised as a "pre-emptive" war or a fabricated provocation, as criminally insane, its consequences predictably inhumane. The massive bombing campaign now off the drawing board and in the works, no matter how "precision-guided", will kill thousands of civilians. A US-Israeli attack could destroy Iran as a nation and a civilization.

While we do not underestimate the difficulties of negotiating with Iran, we call on our government and the government of Israel to stop this march to war and to enter into negotiations with Iran to freeze and reverse the nuclearization of the Middle East and to address all other outstanding issues without preconditions. Both Israel and Iran have to accept each other's existence.

We call on all people, in the Jewish Community and beyond, to help stop this terrifying drive for war. War is not the answer.

Don't do it. Don't Attack Iran

Signed by: Mark Belkin - Lakewood Field Director, American Federation of Teachers, Colorado; Ira Chernus - Boulder; Alan Gilbert - Conifer John Evans Professor. Grad School of Intrntnl Studies, DU; Denny Linn - Vail; Sheila Linn - Vail; Leslie Lomas - Boulder; Rob Prince - Denver; Vicki Rottman - Denver; Juliet Wittman - Boulder; Evan Weismann - Denver