J Street Conference: "What If Israel Attacks Iran?"

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maghshoosh
by maghshoosh
27-Mar-2012
 

J Street, a Jewish American organization that describes itself as "pro-Israel, pro-peace," has been trying to position itself as a viable alternative to AIPAC for Americans who may descirbe themselves as "Zionist" but believe in the two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict.  Roughly speaking, while AIPAC's policy views on the Middle East correspond to that of Israel's Likud, J Street's correspond to Israel's Peace Now, or what is sometimes labeled as "liberal Zionism."  Here are J Street's Policy Positions on Iran (including a video) and other issues.

So far, AIPAC has been dismissive of and antagonistic towards J Street.  And the latter organization cannot yet come close in influence to that of the former in American government circles.  Contrary to AIPAC's recent conference, featuring Netanyahu and attended by about 13000, which was widely reported in the media, J Street's recent conference, attended by 2500, was hardly heard of.  But, since it would interest viewers of this site, here's their panel discussion on Iran, chaired by Barbara Slavin, at their latest conference:

In the video, Telhami is referring to this recent poll.

And, while on the topic of Iran-Israel threat of war, here are the latest episodes of luv-terekoondan between the two (with the obligatory but varied renditions of Lennon's "Imagine"):

 

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Several responses

by maghshoosh on

ILoveIran,

Since Israel couldn't push Hezbollah back from Southern Lebanon, and in fact Hezbollah-Iranian influence in that region got stronger after the  2009 war, plus for the 1st time Israel had to endure missile attacks over large civilian areas, you're correct to say "Israel lost to Hezbollah in Lebanon."  However, Israel's massive bombardment of mostly-civilian areas in Lebanon may have acted as some kind of deterrent against further Hezbollah attacks, as mentioned by one of the speakers in the 1st video above. The video you posted refers to Hezbollah's neutralization of Israel's ground forces.  Similar thing happened to Israel's naval forces.  But Israel's air force was not countered or neutralized by Hezbollah.  Israel's potential war with Iran is not gonna involve Israeli ground forces, just airforce or missile warfare from both sides.  (Although, there's a good chance that the US forces could get drawn in, in which case they may resort to limited ground incursions.)

Bavafa,

When, in reference to J Street, you write, "their message here of peace and love towards Iran and Iranians," I'm not sure if you're referring to the last 3 clips I posted above or not.  Those clips are not from J Street; they're part of the campaign of "love and peace" that started on facebook 10 days ago.

Speaking of these "peace & love" clips, several Israelis keep saying "I've never met an Iranian," which probably is not true.  About 3% of Israeli population is of Iranian descent (higher ratio than in the US), their former-president-now-convicted-rapist, Moussa Ghassab (Moshe Katsav), is Persian, and so have been a couple other of their high-ranking officials in recent years.  So, in all likelihood, they know of Persians in their midst.


Bavafa

Dorood bar J Street...

by Bavafa on

Not only for the great work they have been doing in facilitating peace between Israeli and Palestinians, but also their message here of peace and love towards Iran and Iranians.

'Hambastegi' is the main key to victory 

Mehrdad


jmyt17

Good Question?

by jmyt17 on

 

Time will show.

I do not have any problem with them.


ILoveIran

"What if Israel attacks Iran?"

by ILoveIran on

Israel does not have the conventional military capability to fight against an 80 million  strong country.  If they try, there will be no more Israel.  Israel lost to Hezbollah in Lebanon (which is just a militia); How are they going to take on the Iranian military in a conventional war?

If Israel decides to use nuclear weapons: Iran can take a nuclear hit; Israel cannot.  Iran does not even need to use nuclear weapons to do the job; it could use other WMDs.  Israel may also face nuclear strikes from Russia, China or Pakistan.

There are 80,000,000 Iranians; Between 200-220 million Persian speakers world-wide. And tens of millions of people sympathetic to Iran.  

Let's put it this way: If Israel attacks Iran, it will suck being a Jew for the next thousand years.