UANI Statement on Action by Obama Administration and U.S. Congress to Sanction Iran

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 30, 2012 Contact: Nathan Carleton, press@uani.com Phone: (212) 554-3296 UANI Statement on Action by Obama Administration and U.S. Congress to Sanction Iran New York, NY - United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) CEO, Ambassador Mark D. Wallace, issued the following statement today regarding news that the Obama administration plans to move forward with sanctions against Iran's oil industry, and also following news that U.S. Reps. Ted Deutch and Robert Dold have introduced legislation to sanction companies that invest or conduct transactions in the Iranian energy sector: We applaud the Obama administration, Congressmen Deutch, and Congressman Dold for taking action to tighten sanctions against Iran. Now is the time for the strongest and most robust sanctions against the regime in history. UANI has, since its founding, consulted with members of Congress to devise and introduce legislation to compel corporations, firms, and financial institutions to choose between doing business with the U.S., or Iranian entities including Iran's Central Bank. We will continue to devise measures that show the Iranian regime that the U.S. and international community will under no circumstances allow a nuclear-armed Iran. UANI has regularly called for the sanctions against Iran's Central Bank the Obama administration is now enforcing, and on December 5, 2011 wrote to President Obama following reports that the Administration was opposed to such sanctions. Click here to read UANI's full December 5, 2011 letter to President Obama. Click here to learn more about UANI's Model Legislation. ### United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a program of the American Coalition Against Nuclear Iran, Inc., a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. The prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran should concern every American and be unacceptable to the community of nations. Since 1979 the Iranian regime, most recently under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's leadership, has demonstrated increasingly threatening behavior and rhetoric toward the US and the West. Iran continues to defy the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the United Nations in their attempts to monitor its nuclear activities. A number of Arab states have warned that Iran's development of nuclear weapons poses a threat to Middle East stability and could provoke a regional nuclear arms race. In short, the prospect of a nuclear armed Iran is a danger to world peace. United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a non-partisan, broad-based coalition that is united in a commitment to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to become a regional super-power possessing nuclear weapons. UANI is an issue-based coalition in which each coalition member will have its own interests as well as the collective goal of advancing an Iran free of nuclear weapons. The Objectives of United Against a Nuclear Iran Inform the public about the nature of the Iranian regime, including its desire and intent to possess nuclear weapons, as well as Iran's role as a state sponsor of global terrorism, and a major violator of human rights at home and abroad; Heighten awareness nationally and internationally about the danger that a nuclear armed Iran poses to the region and the world; Mobilize public support, utilize media outreach, and persuade our elected leaders to voice a robust and united American opposition to a nuclear Iran; Lay the groundwork for effective US policies in coordination with European and other allies; Persuade the regime in Tehran to desist from its quest for nuclear weapons, while striving not to punish the Iranian people, and; Promote efforts that focus on vigorous national and international, social, economic, political and diplomatic measures. UANI is led by an advisory board of outstanding national figures representing all sectors of our country.

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Eye on Iran: Website Keeps Track Of Businesses With Ties To Iran

For continuing coverage follow us on Twitter and join our Facebook group. Top Stories NY1: "Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and representatives from several peacekeeping agencies launched Thursday a website that aims to keep consumers informed of which companies do business with Iran. Currently, 13 foreign automakers are named, all of whom sell vehicles in Iran or do business with the country's military. De Blasio says Iran and its nuclear program poses a threat to the United States and Israel. 'New Yorkers should feel it's our responsibility to act, put pressure on these auto companies in every way we can, so that we'll ultimately affect the Iranian regime,' De Blasio said. 'It is just simply not right for an automobile manufacturer to sell its goods in support of this regime, the number state sponsor of terrorism, incredible human rights abuser, and a regime that is pursuing an illicit nuclear weapon,' said United Against Nuclear Iran President Mark Wallace." http://t.uani.com/H3oIZS NYDN: "Whoever said city public advocate was a punchless public post? Bill de Blasio, the current occupant of the sometimes-maligned elected office, said Thursday that one of the automakers on his new Iran 'watchlist' - Hyundai - announced it would stop doing business in the nuke-hungry country. De Blasio's website, which was reported exclusively by the Daily News in Thursday's editions, allows users to send social-media messages to pressure carmakers that turn a profit in Iran and also have a large market share in the U.S. He wants the companies to be forced to choose between America or a nation that has been secretive about a nuclear program many diplomats suspect is geared toward making nukes. De Blasio, who held a press conference about the site Thursday, said Hyundai was in talks to end sales of new cars in Iran before the watchlist hit the Web." http://t.uani.com/HxqBtp Reuters: "U.S. President Barack Obama is likely to determine by Friday that there will be enough oil in the world market to allow countries to cut imports from Iran, taking another step toward sanctioning those nations that do not, analysts and a congressional aide said. Obama is required by a sanctions law he signed in December to determine by March 30, and every six months after, whether the price and supply of non-Iranian oil are sufficient to allow consumers to 'significantly' cut their purchases from Iran. 'Every indication we have received... gives us every assurance that the president will make the determination that sanctions can proceed,' said a congressional aide who spoke on condition of anonymity, saying the indications had come from both the State Department and the Energy Department. The law allows Obama after June 28 to sanction foreign banks that carry out oil-related transactions with Iran's central bank and effectively cut them off from the U.S. financial system." http://t.uani.com/H6ZoMr Nuclear Program NYT: "As American and European diplomats prepare for crucial negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program, the White House finds itself caught in a bind: for the diplomatic effort to work, American officials say, the Iranian government must believe that President Obama is ready and willing to take military action. Yet tough talk, necessary as it might be for successful diplomacy, contributes to a sense that war may be unavoidable. And it masks the fact that Mr. Obama, and his military commanders, remain deeply worried about the consequence of an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, either by Israel alone or a strike that could draw in the United States." http://t.uani.com/H6AtYS CNN: "Four Navy minesweepers will be on their way to the Persian Gulf within weeks as part of an effort to boost American military capability in the region amid rising tensions with Iran, a Navy official says. The minesweepers will be loaded onto cargo ships leaving the United States in late April, according to the Navy official. The deployments were publicly confirmed by Adm. Jonathan Greenert, chief of naval operations, earlier this month in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee." http://t.uani.com/H3npKH Sanctions Reuters: "Iran's oil revenue could halve. Top buyers are moving to cut imports of crude from the Islamic Republic amid a coordinated effort by the West to tighten sanctions. If Tehran has to sell the oil it does manage to shift at a discount, it may soon face the pinch. The republic generated $100 billion in oil revenue last year, assuming exports of 2.5 million barrels per day and an average Brent price of $111 per barrel. That is roughly 20 percent of GDP and 80 percent of general government revenue, based on estimates by the International Monetary Fund for 2011. Sanctions could cut Iran's oil exports by as much as 1 million barrels per day, or 40 percent, from the middle of the year, according to the International Energy Agency... A Reuters poll forecasts the average price of Brent in 2012 at $115 per barrel. If Iran has to offer a 20 percent discount on top of that price and was still only able to sell 1.5 million barrels a day, then revenues would halve, shrinking by $50 billion." http://t.uani.com/H6COqM Reuters: "Iran is helping its ally Syria defy Western sanctions by providing a vessel to ship Syrian oil to a state-run company in China, potentially giving the government of President Bashar al-Assad a financial boost worth an estimated $80 million... The source named the Chinese buyer as Zhuhai Zhenrong Corp, a state-run company hit by U.S. sanctions in January. A Zhuhai Zhenrong spokeswoman said: 'I've never heard about this.' She declined further comment." http://t.uani.com/H3j0mX Bloomberg: "Iran and its leading oil buyers, China and India, are finding ways to skirt U.S. and European Union financial sanctions on the Islamic republic by agreeing to trade oil for local currencies and goods including wheat, soybean meal and consumer products. India, the second-biggest importer of Iran's oil, has set up a rupee account at a state-owned bank to settle as much as much as 45 percent of its bill, according to Indian officials. China, Iran's largest oil customer, already settles some of its oil debts through barter, Mahmoud Bahmani, Iran's central bank governor, said Feb. 28. Iran also has sought to trade oil for wheat from Pakistan and Russia, according to media reports from the two countries. The trend is growing, sanctions specialists and U.S. officials say, and is denying the Islamic Republic hard currency to prop up the plummeting value of the rial and to fund nuclear and missile programs." http://t.uani.com/HyDulL Reuters: "Turkey will reduce the amount of oil it buys from Iran by around 10 percent, Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said on Friday, a week after Washington warned Iran's customers they could be subject to U.S. sanctions unless they significantly cut purchases. Turkey will partly replace the oil with 1 million metric tonnes it expects to buy from Libya, Yildiz told reporters... Turkey imports around 200,000 barrels per day of oil from Iran, representing 30 percent of its total imports and more than 7 percent of Iran's oil exports... Turkey's sole refiner Tupras, a unit of Koc Holding, said in a statement to the Istanbul stock exchange that it would cut its purchases of Iranian crude by 20 percent. Tupras is the main Turkish customer, currently buying some 30 percent of its crude oil from Iran, and it has an 9 million tonnes annual purchase contract." http://t.uani.com/Hpi9Qa WSJ: "Turkey's largest mobile-phone operator said it had filed suit against South Africa's MTN Group Ltd., seeking $4.2 billion in damages related to the award of a license in Iran. In a suit filed in the U.S., Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetlera said MTN made improper payments to an Iranian and to a South African government official between 2004 and 2005 to enable the company to secure a license to operate in Iran... United Against Nuclear Iran, a U.S. lobbying group, has sought to persuade foreign businesses to leave Iran. The group in January sent a letter to MTN Chief Executive Sifiso Dabengwa calling for the company to pull out of the country, saying MTN's technology is being used by Iran's government to locate and track mobile-phone users. MTN has responded that interception equipment is installed in all countries where the company operates. 'What the government decides to do with that equipment is not in our hands,' Mr. Dabengwa said." http://t.uani.com/H1LonF FP: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has no intention of entering into negotiations that would allow senators to offer amendments to the Iran sanctions bill facing the Senate, according to his communications director Adam Jentleson. On Wednesday, Reid attempted to bring up the bring up the Johnson-Shelby Iran Sanctions, Accountability and Human Rights Act of 2012 for Senate passage by unanimous consent (UC), meaning there would be no debate and no chance for senators to offer amendments. Reid claimed there was no time to consider amendments. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) blocked the move by objecting to the unanimous consent request because he wanted to offer an amendment to the legislation. Several other senators from both parties also said Wednesday they wanted to offer amendments. Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-AZ) called publicly for Reid to allow a vote on an amendment by Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL), and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), who caucuses with the Democrats, called on Reid to negotiate with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to allow a package of amendments to the bill to include a bill he is co-sponsoring with Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Bob Casey (D-PA)." http://t.uani.com/HmGlUh Human Rights JPost: "While Israeli couple Ronny Edri and Michal Tamir made global headlines this week with their 'Israel loves Iran' Facebook campaign, Iranians face increasingly aggressive crackdowns on internet use as the Islamic Republic ramps up its attempts to control information and quash dissidents. This month, watchdog group Reporters Without Borders (RWB) named Iran as the '2012 enemy of the internet,' and US President Barack Obama accused the Islamic Republic of creating an 'electronic curtain' cutting off Iranians from the outside world... US-based non-profit advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) says Iran also conducts surveillance against web surfers with sophisticated technologies purchased from international companies. Earlier this week, UANI slammed Chinese telecom giant ZTE for selling an advanced surveillance system to Tehran, which it says enables the Islamic Republic to monitor citizens' voice and text messaging as well as internet communications. UANI spokesman Nathan Carleton told The Jerusalem Post that companies like ZTE risk contributing to human rights violations in Iran. 'Any responsible company should pull out of Iran and eliminate the possibility of the regime misusing its technology to track, monitor, and oppress dissidents,' he said." http://t.uani.com/HxDJ1F Foreign Affairs NYT: "After being wrongly maligned as 'assassins' in a Reuters news report last month, female ninjas in Iran may have found the pen momentarily mightier than the sword. But as Reuters discovered after correcting the report, the heavy hand of government can be even stronger in Iran. The news agency said Thursday that officials had suspended the press credentials of its entire staff in Iran over errors in a Feb. 16 video report on Iranian women trained in the ancient Japanese martial art of Ninjutsu." http://t.uani.com/H0wNxz Opinion & Analysis Clifford May in NRO: "The dictionary defines diplomacy as the 'art and practice of conducting negotiations,' but one incisive wag said diplomacy is really 'the art of saying 'nice doggie' till you can find a rock.' So who has the stones required to stop Iran's rulers from acquiring the nuclear weapons they need, not for deterrence as their apologists claim, but to escalate their war against Israel, America, and the West? The United States does, but President Obama is not eager to utilize them. That's understandable: Americans are war-weary. But if Iran's rulers do acquire nuclear weapons on Obama's watch, and if that leads to a 21st century that becomes bloodier than the 20th was, history will not judge him kindly. It is possible that Israelis will do the job others don't want to do. Obama, in his AIPAC remarks, at least recognized the legitimacy of their concerns, acknowledging that 'no Israeli government can tolerate a nuclear weapon in the hands of a regime that denies the Holocaust, threatens to wipe Israel off the map, and sponsors terrorist groups committed to Israel's destruction.' Israelis would like nothing better than to resolve this conflict diplomatically. But Iran's rulers refuse even to talk with the leaders of the tiny Jewish state. Their intransigence is seldom noted, much less criticized, by those most enthusiastic about the possibility of a diplomatic solution. Between diplomacy and warfare lie economic sanctions. Israeli leaders have long been strongly supportive of the increasingly tough measures produced by the U.S. Congress on a bipartisan basis and signed by Obama. Europeans, too, have imposed stiff sanctions. But sanctions - and diplomacy and warfare, too, actually - are means, not ends. No one with a lick of sense backs sanctions because they are confident sanctions will work - with 'work' defined as causing Iran's rulers to decide to forgo the most effective weapon ever invented (by infidels, of course) to project power. So what's the point? For one, sanctions, and the continuing debate they provoke, serve to remind the 'international community' of the threat Iran's theocrats pose. Second, it's always useful to weaken one's enemies, and sanctions - in particular the new sanctions targeting Iran's central bank and expelling Iran from the SWIFT international electronic banking system - have been enfeebling Iran's oil-based economy. Finally, should more kinetic measures be used to stop Iran's nuclear-weapons program, it will be vital for sanctions to be in place - and remain in place - during whatever diplomatic palaver may follow. Opponents of sanctions and more forceful measures don't get this. They argue that diplomacy can still succeed - despite decades of failed outreach to Iran's rulers by both Americans and Europeans. They further argue that sanctions are an impediment to diplomacy. Suzanne Maloney, a senior fellow at the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution, wrote recently that 'the United States cannot hope to bargain with a country whose economy it is trying to disrupt and destroy.' The Iranians, she added, 'cannot be nudged into a constructive negotiating process by measures that exacerbate their vulnerability.' She has it exactly backwards, as anyone who has ever been involved in any negotiation should recognize. If we want Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to stop doing what they are doing - e.g., building nuclear weapons, supporting terrorists, threatening their neighbors, oppressing their own people - we have to do more than 'nudge' them. We have to offer them something of great value. What would Maloney have us put on the table other than an end to sanctions and no use of force - or no further use of force? What else does she imagine they would accept in exchange for giving up the chance to possess the weapons they see as key to achieving the goals of Iran's Islamic Revolution, which include dominance of the Middle East in the short run, and 'a world without America' eventually, with the extermination of Israeli men, women, and children somewhere along the way?" http://t.uani.com/HpwubE Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) a program of the American Coalition Against Nuclear Iran, Inc., a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Eye on Iran is not intended as a comprehensive media clips summary but rather a selection of media elements with discreet analysis in a PDA friendly format. For more information please email Press@UnitedAgainstNuclearIran.com United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a non-partisan, broad-based coalition that is united in a commitment to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to become a regional super-power possessing nuclear weapons. UANI is an issue-based coalition in which each coalition member will have its own interests as well as the collective goal of advancing an Iran free of nuclear weapons.

Florida Family Association offers $1,000 reward for information regarding future CAIR speaking engagements as Tampa School Board meets today at 2 PM t

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Florida Family Association offers $1,000 reward for information regarding future CAIR speaking engagements as Tampa School Board meets today at 2 PM to consider policy prohibiting such speakers. If you have not sent your email to encourage the school board to adopt such policy click here. Florida Family Association sent out an email alert on March 29th regarding continued efforts to oppose CAIR (Council for American Islamic Relations) officials from addressing students in Tampa public schools. Florida Family Association strongly believes that the controversy which has been raised regarding CAIR officials indoctrinating students at Steinbrenner High School has resulted in this school district’s teachers being highly unlikely to invite CAIR back. Click here and click here to read our reasons why this is unlikely to happen again. Nevertheless we want to keep the pressure on and be certain that we know if CAIR or Muslim Brotherhood type organizations are invited back. Therefore, we issued the following press release yesterday announcing a reward for information on future CAIR speakers. For Immediate Release For more information please contact Florida Family Association offers $1,000 reward for information regarding future CAIR speaking engagements at Steinbrenner High School. Florida Family Association communicated a reward offer of $1,000 to anyone including eighty teachers and faculty at Steinbrenner High School who provides the organization with valid information about future speaking engagements at Steinbrenner High School by officials or representatives from CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations), Muslim Brotherhood or similar political organizations. The Email Offering the Reward is posted below. More history on this issue is posted below. Florida Family Association files a public records request with the school district every week to determine if new invitations have been extended to speakers from CAIR. However, the information is not always provided on a timely basis and may not be reliable. The school district is blocking emails from floridafamily.org to Steinbrenner High School. So emails from Florida Family Association were sent via a Gmail account. This block was not in force when Florida Family Association first communicated by email with Edward Henderson about booking the school auditorium for a symposium. The school district is NOT blocking emails from concerned citizens regarding this issue which are sent through another Florida Family Association server. Each school board member has already received 1,100 emails in the first three hours of this day encouraging them to adopt policy which prohibits outside speakers from addressing students if they advocate politics that are antithetical to the constitution. Email Offering the Reward We are offering a $1,000 anonymous cash reward to anyone who provides us with valid information about future speaking engagements at Steinbrenner High School by officials or representatives from CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations), Muslim Brotherhood or similar political organizations. The reward will be doubled to $2,000 cash if valid information is received more than one week prior to the scheduled speaking engagement. This offer is limited to the first person who submits valid information for each future engagement. Duplicate rewards will not be paid for subsequent submissions on the same engagement. Anyone including spouses, sisters, brothers or friends can contact us regarding the reward as long as the information is valid. A submission is determined to be valid once the engagement has been confirmed by the appropriate teachers/officials. Confirmation will be conducted immediately upon each submission. Documents including invitations, flyers, and letters may be all that is required to confirm the engagement. Payment will be made within three business days after confirmation. All communications with Florida Family Association are confidential. Recipients of the reward will remain anonymous. Florida Family Association has kept confidential over three dozen people who have submitted confidential information regarding issues of public concern during the past twenty four years. We routinely request this information from the school board office via a public records request. However, the information is not always timely and may not be reliable. You may contact me at davidcaton@floridafamily.org or my cell phone 813-690-4829. Sincerely, David Caton President Florida Family Association, Inc. This email was sent from my Gmail account because the school district blocked emails to you from davidcaton@floridafamily.org Issue history The Tampa Bay Times reported on January 10, 2012 “Florida Family Association's David Caton protests Muslim speaker's visits to Hillsborough school.” Florida Family Association’s public records request which the school district complied with on December 14, 2011 (the beginning of Christmas break) produced the proof that CAIR officials made presentations to students at Steinbrenner High School in Tampa. Since that time Florida Family Association sent out three email alerts and posted an online article which reported that Hillsborough County School Board members were allowing CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations) officials to indoctrinate school children with propaganda including their version of Sharia law. Each school board member and the district superintendent received approximately 10,000 emails opposing CAIR officials from addressing students. That number does not include emails these officials have received from individuals and other groups apart from Florida Family Association. Florida Family Association continues to this day to submit public records requests regarding this issue. Several organizations including local Tea Party leaders challenged the Hillsborough County School Board on February 14, 2012 to stop local CAIR officials from addressing students. The Tampa Bay Times reported in part “The issue arose late last year when conservative activist David Caton called attention to a visit to Steinbrenner High by Hassan Shibly, executive director of the Tampa-based Islamic group.” Email: ffa@floridafamily.org Florida Family Association, Inc. P.O. Box 46547, Tampa, FL 33646-0105 Telephone 813-264-5888

Jawad in Ha'aretz: "Can my enemy's enemy be my friend?"

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Please take a moment to visit and log in at the subscriber area, and submit your city & country location. We will use this information in future to invite you to any events that we organize in your area. Can my enemy's enemy be my friend? by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi and Phillip Smyth Ha'aretz March 30, 2012 http://www.meforum.org/3201/israel-friend-enemy Print Send RSS Share: Be the first of your friends to like this. A recurring question of the past year has been whether Israel can come out of the unrest of the "Arab Spring" with any new allies. The point is hardly immaterial: The future of Israel's peace treaty with Egypt hangs in the balance, as Egyptian political parties call for a referendum on the Camp David Accords. Observers also point to the possibility of a revolt against Hashemite rule in Amman instigated by Bedouin tribes and/or Palestinians in Jordan. This too could derail that country's peace treaty with Israel. Conventional wisdom has generally said that Israel can attain regional support by way of an alliance or coalition of minorities. From the 1950s through the 1980s, Israel engaged in the so-called "strategy of the periphery," forging ties with minority groups in enemy states ‏(such as the Maronites in Lebanon and Kurds in Iraq‏). Additionally, Israel entered into a military alliance with Turkey, and a number of sub-Saharan African countries were engaged by Israel to counter the threat of pan-Arabism. The concept of an alliance among regional minorities sounds like an attractive proposition. But is it realistic? The evidence appears to suggest otherwise. Start with the case of Syria. Recently, such commentators as Michael Young, of Lebanon's Daily Star, have suggested that the Alawites, who have under the Assad dynasty dominated the upper ranks of that country's security forces and government, could try to salvage some form of self-rule in the form of a mini-state in the northwest of Syria, should the regime lose control over Damascus. As far back as 2002, Middle East scholar Mordechai Nisan wrote: "It is not impossible, aside from the rhetoric of animosity gushing from Damascus against Israel, that the compelling reality of a common condition can awaken the possibility of Jewish-Alawite cooperation in the future. Perhaps this will surface when the Alawites fall from power and return to their classic minority vulnerability." In this context, on the basis of the principle that "my enemy's enemy is my friend," many Israelis are hoping for such an alliance. For example, in January, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Benny Gantz stated that Israel was prepared to take in Alawite refugees from Syria in the event of outright sectarian civil war. Undoubtedly, he was aiming to lay the foundations for cordial relations between Israel and the Alawite community at large. However, the reasoning for courting the Alawites can only be described as bordering on the realm of fantasy. As they share a land border with Hezbollah-controlled territory, there is no reason to think that the Alawites would not continue to rely on their long-standing allies − namely, Iran and Hezbollah, who perceive them to be fellow Shia − to prop up this rump state. When many Israelis think of a loyal minority ally, the country's Druze often come to mind. Following the 1967 Six-Day War, some Israelis envisioned a Druze state that would encompass the Golan Heights and Syria's Jabal Druze. Policy makers imagined that state serving as a buffer against Syria. However, there was significant factionalism and differing interests within the Israeli and Syrian Druze communities. When some Golan Druze leaders were approached, they leaked the plans to Syrian intelligence, effectively killing the prospective Druze entity. Another group touted as potential allies of Israel in the region are the Christians. It is apparent that the Arab Spring has brought few signs of a bright future for them. Last year, around 200,000 Copts fled Egypt in the wake of rising mob attacks on churches and Coptic villages. In the wake of countless bombings and kidnappings, most of Iraq's Christians too have left the country. Many Syrian Christians fled the heavy fighting in Homs. The chances of a Christian state, let alone a pro-Israel polity, in the Middle East are virtually zero. Perhaps the biggest obstacle to a state is the fact that Christians suffer from intra-sectarian conflicts. Frequently, regional Christian sects have adopted their own particular nationalist identities that clash with the ethnic beliefs of their coreligionists. During Israel's 1982 intervention in Lebanon, a state of minorities, it engaged in creating political and military alliances with the Christians, Druze and even Shi'ite Muslims. Part of the reason Israel invaded Lebanon was to install a pro-Israel minority Christian leadership. After the assassination of pro-Israel Maronite leader Bashir Gemeyal, though, Israel's alliance with the Christians crumbled. Instead of ushering in a new era of minority cooperation, Israel was caught in an anarchic meat grinder, in which minority was pitted against minority. Minority alliances per se shouldn't be shunned, but Israel should pursue regional alliances based more on realism than on the perception of shared oppression, with its need to create a united and mutually beneficial minority front against an almost monolithic Arab-Islamic foe ‏(essentially a utopian dream‏). With Iran's increased belligerence and nuclear ambitions, Israel's Sunni Arab enemies of old, for example, are seeing their interests dovetail with Israel's. Predicating partnerships simply on the basis of minority status doesn't reflect the complex and often conflicting minority societal, ideological and political positions. When Bashir Gemeyal was questioned about his cooperation with Jerusalem he answered, "In politics there is nothing permanent, you don't have permanent allies and permanent enemies, we are taking the maximum advantage." Perhaps it's time for Jerusalem to adopt the same view. Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi is a student at Brasenose College, Oxford University, and an adjunct fellow at the Middle East Forum. Phillip Smyth is a journalist and researcher specializing in Middle Eastern affairs. He travels regularly to the region. Related Topics: Israel & Zionism, Strategic alliances | Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi | Phillip Smyth This text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral whole with complete information provided about its author, date, place of publication, and original URL.
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