At everything’s for sale: sex, booze, tattoos—and maybe some revolutionary fervor.
by Peter Savodnik
The Tijuana of the Caspian
At 8:45 a.m., the Azerbaijani cabbies were clustered in the courtyard next to the customs terminal, waiting for the Iranians to walk through a narrow, rusted door. They do this every morning in the town of Astara, which dates back 6,000 years and today sits on the border between the post-Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan and the Islamic Republic of Iran. It can be hard for the uninitiated to distinguish Azerbaijani Azeris from Iranian Azeris, but the drivers know their clientele.
“The Iranian girls are fairer, and they always have their heads down and their head scarves on,” said Misha Mamedli, a tall, slouching man with a gold front tooth and a stash of self-rolled cigarettes in his breast pocket. But the Iranian men, who have the cash and do the negotiating, drew the most attention from the cabbies. Decked in tight jeans and T-shirts with Italian print, they emitted a cool, confident brusqueness as they marched through the rusted door: their gateway to pork products, alcohol, and easy sex.
“Here, it’s open,” Misha said. “No one cares what you do.”
This makes the mullahs in Tehran very nervous. Books, DVDs, fashions, and—most important—ideas that are inaccessible in Iran are ubiquitous in Azerbaijan. Iranians line up daily to cross the Astara River to buy and sell jeans, chickens, bras, laptops—and often sex and schnapps and heroin. This commerce, combined with cultural curiosity and shared Azeri bloodlines, has transformed Astara into the Tijuana of the Caspian.
Astara doesn’t scream so much as strongly hint at the possibility of sin. Next to the customs terminal’s courtyard and above the row of babushkas selling tea and beef kebabs, there’s a convenient motel (“Ideal for bringing the girls back to,” one Iranian told me). The fluorescent-lit cafés on Aliyarbeyov Street are stocked with Russian vodka and French cognac, and the Turkish Salon, on Fountain Square, offers, among other things, tattoos, piercings, astrological forecasts, and “full-body massage.”
All of this is made possible by the Azerbaijanis’ somewhat attenuated relationship with God, the product of seven decades of Communist rule and a steady influx of Westerners after oil was discovered in the mid-1800s. Iranians find the Azerbaijanis’ mildly ironic attitude toward Islam a welcome relief from the stern theocracy of the ayatollahs. During Ramadan many Azerbaijanis do not fast, and the cafés in Astara do a bustling lunch business, serving lamb shashlik, or barbecue, to visiting Iranians. Manana Shafieva, a stylist at the Turkish Salon, said many Iranian men bring in their wives to be spruced up. “They say, ‘I know she can be beautiful. Can you make her beautiful?’ They know we know about hair and what it means to have a modern image.”
But the Iranian mullahs are not merely concerned about the affectations of modernity. Mamedli, the cab driver, said that the crowds lining up for entry to Astara have surged since June, when hundreds of thousands of Iranians protested the allegedly rigged reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. This has worrisome implications: the potential for political upheaval is acute in Iran’s north, where the bulk of the country’s university students live, along with most of its 15 million to 30 million ethnic Azeris (out of a total population of about 73 million). Prominent ethnic Azeris in Iran include Ahmadinejad’s presidential rival, Mir-Hossein Moussavi, the poet Mohammad Hossein Shahriar, and the filmmaker Kamal Tabrizi. Even the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is part Azeri. Many Azeris are so swollen with ethnic pride that Iranian officials suspect them of dual loyalty.
As a result, an Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs official told me, “it’s common knowledge that the Iranians want the border shut down.”
At night, the courtyard next to the customs terminal was empty except for a few malnourished cats. On the Iranian side of the border, an imam and his flock were praying. Their voices drifted across the river and through the mesh of walls and fences. On Fountain Square, kids blasted Israeli pop music. A guard stopped me as I navigated the darkened market stalls, redolent of tea and rotting nectarines.
“The border is closed until morning,” he said. Then he nodded at the motel. “You want a room? It’s very nice, with a television and a girl.”
I said I was staying near the square and just taking a stroll.
“Only 10 manats,” he persisted. “I can get you this. Anything you want.” I laughed, and he lit a cigarette. “Come on,” he said, “don’t be a Muslim.”
LIVE TALK WITH MR. ADNAN OKTAR AND RABBI MENACHEM FROMAN
(from the TV program on Kanal Urfa TV, Adıyaman TV and Kral Karadeniz TV, November 10th, 2009)
Rabbi Froman with his wife Hadasah
PRESENTER: Today we have very important guests. A very well known rabbi and his dear wife. Mrs. Hadassa and Mr. Froman are with us. First of all, wellcome. Wellcome to the studio.
RABBI FROMAN: Thank you.
ADNAN OKTAR: Masha’Allah. Yes Mr. Froman is such a person who is compassionate, loving the Turkish, seeking peace, seeking beauty between countries. A very precious person. Now you can translate what I said. Mrs. Hadassa is also very precious. They love each other so much insha’Allah. They’ve been married for years now. His wife is also Jewish. She is full of love for Turkey. And we love them so much. Untill the Last Day, both Israel and Turkey will live in friendship and brotherhood insha’Allah. Look, it mentions the courage of Salahaddin Ayyubi, who is Kurdish you know, Salahaddin Ayyubi. Kurdish, Turkish, Circassians, Laz, we are all brothers. Jews are also our flesh and blood insha’Allah. Christians are also our brothers, our flesh and blood. Our Muslim nation is already our soul insha’Allah. Together we will have a brotherly, happy, carefree, troublefree, thornless, beautiful life until the Doomsday. They are entrusted to us from the Prophet Moses (pbuh), the Prophet Abraham (pbuh). Insha’Allah we don’t let anybody touch even their single hair, by the leave of Allah. They will live so comfortably, in tranquility and security, insha’Allah. In Israel, they will also be in peace and calm. We will demolish those walls. Those protective walls in Israel. There will no more be anarchy and terror. They will live in such joy in the Turkish Islamic Union. Isha’Allah Rabbi Froman will come here, they will travel in composure, we do not accept any kind of danger for them. Our Palestinian brothers will also be at ease, Syria will also be at ease, Iraq will also be at ease, Armenia will also be at ease. Insha’Allah they will live peacefully in the compassion and mercy of the Turkish Islamic Union. There will be full freedom for worship, they will worship as they wish insha’Allah.
RABBI FROMAN: First of all we have to thank Allah. That’s the beginning of everything, Bismillah. I want to thank Allah that brought me here from Jerusalem to Istanbul this afternoon. And I have no words how to express my obligation to Allah that gave me such a great grace to come here.
ADNAN OKTAR: Masha’Allah, Masha’Allah.
RABBI FROMAN: Then after we thank the messengers, the messengers of God Who brought, Who brings His grace to us and now I want to thank Harun Yahya for bringing me from Jerusalem to Istanbul and hosted me in such, me and my wife, in such a generous and nice way and I have no else way of how to again thank him for such an expression of the grace, of course. I thank God that we met. I thank God that He decided to bring me here. And I am obliged to this world of grace to continue the channel of grace that Harun Yahya began.
ADNAN OKTAR: Masha’Allah.
RABBI FROMAN: This invitation is a proof, is against satan against iblis. Satan, iblis tries to convince everybody in the world that Islam is a religion of hatred that the more you are Muslim the more you hate Jews, Americans, Europeans. And we have to stone iblis, we have to stone satan, to throw stones against him. And this invitation, a kind invitation of Harun Yahya is a very concrete stone against satan. Another lie of satan is that necessarily there is hatred between Jews and Palestinians in the Holy City. Harun Yahya have not invited only me, he invited with me a friend of mine, a dear friend of mine, and my family, my wife, Sheikh Bukhari who is going to come in a few minutes. Perhaps he is now in the airport I don’t know. And we are going to be here together as two men from Jerusalem, two men from the Holy Land. One Jew and the other is Palestinian. One is Rabbi, the other is a Sheikh, as good friends, and as together, by the grace of God Who sent us Harun Yahya. We want to, again, stone satan that lies that necessarily that there’s hatred between Jews and Palestinians in the Holy Land.
ADNAN OKTAR: By Allah’s leave, it will be like this until the Last Day, insha’Allah. In any case, we will never let anyone do any harm to the Children of the Prophet Abraham (pbuh), to the Children of the Prophet Moses (pbuh). One is the Children of the Prophet Jacob (pbuh) and the other is the Children of the Prophet Ishmael (pbuh). As you know Arabs, the Palestinians are the Children of the Prophet Ishmael (pbuh). And these beautiful beings are the Children of the Prophet Jacob (pbuh). Both are the Children of the Prophet Abraham (pbuh). By Allah’s leave, we will never let anyone touch even their single hair. No country can harm Palestine nor Israel, no one can harm Jerusalem. From now on, an age of peace will prevail. This century is the century when the Turkish Islamic Union will form. A century, which everyone will live in peace. For instance, Israel will be a national state, Iran will be a national state, Turkey will be a national state but the Turkish Islamic Union will be formed. This will be a union of hearts, love and affection. We will make peace prevail in the whole region, insha’Allah with the emergence of Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh). This will be consolidated by the emergence of the Messiah (pbuh).
RABBI FROMAN: I want to say something, personal, little personal. For years I thought that Turkiye has the historical task to bring peace to the region. I think that we have to, three years I thought, that we have to reestablish the Ottoman Empire not of course the Empire of army, of conquering but empire of love, empire of Islam, empire of salam. Because Islam is from salam, it is the same word. By inviting me and other Jews, other Rabbis Harun Yahya represents the whole Turkish nation. I remember after years of thinking that Turkiye is the fact of, is the state that can bring us peace. “Us”, I mean the Palestinians and the Israelis, the Jews and the Arabs. I was in the middle of one of my lectures I said. We’ve many students together and I forgot to lock my mobile and then in the middle of the lecture I have a call. I asked, “Who is speaking?,” “Seda Aral from Istanbul” and she invited me to come to Istanbul and to meet her teacher and to begin a period of peace. For me it is like a miracle. It is like a great grace of God that I was thinking. What I was thinking about the task of the Turkish Nation and God sent me the telephone from Istanbul in the middle of my lecture, in the middle of my speaking to my students and invited me to come and to begin a period of peace.
ADNAN OKTAR: Masha’Allah.
RABBI FROMAN: I want to add something more.
ADNAN OKTAR: Masha’Allah.
RABBI FROMAN: A few months ago I was invited by the special messenger of President Obama to Washington by George Mitchell. He invited me to meet him and to think together how to bring peace to the Holy Land. I came again with an Arab friend with a Palestinian friend – a Sheikh, Sheikh Manasra his name. Together we came to Washington and we sat with George Mitchell and his coop and we spoke about the ways of how to bring peace to the Holy Land. Half of the time of the long meeting that we had, we talked, I and my Palestine friend, about Turkiye. About the task of Turkiye. We tried to explain to Mr. Mitchell, to Senator Mitchell that the power that can bring peace to the Holy Land is the Turkish-Union. And he was so moved. When he was departing he said that in the end of the conversation: “I am very moved from what you say, Rabbi Froman.” And I got a very clear impression that the result of the conversation will be a visit of President Obama in Ankara in Turkiye. There after I came here as the guest of Harun Yahya and I was interviewed by many Turkish journalists and I said, “Look here I see that very soon President Obama will come here.” They looked at me like, I don’t know, lunatic. It was in the quite in the beginning of the period of Obama. After 3 weeks I think or 4 weeks, I heard in the radio President Obama chose Turkiye as the first country in the Middle East that he is visiting. It was I think 3 months after he was elected. I think that the task of Turkiye to make peace in the whole region and especially in the Holy Land will be recognized very soon by the whole world. If the Turkish nation will work for this historical task, national task that they have, the whole world will honor the whole of Turkiye in the region in the whole world.
ADNAN OKTAR: Masha’Allah, Alhamdulillah.
RABBI FROMAN: I want to add something, perhaps for the end of the program. From history of this evening, in this evening after being hosted so kindly, so generously by your students, by your followers, I wanted to pray. We, the Jews pray to the direction of Jerusalem. So I asked Ali and Emre, I wanted to know what is the direction of Jerusalem in my apartment. One of them perhaps Ali, one of your students said, “You know that Istanbul is a place perhaps the only place in the world, the direction of Jerusalem and the direction of Mecca, the kiblah is the same direction, exactly the same direction. From Istanbul if you pray to God, you pray to God in Jerusalem, in the temple in Jerusalem, you pray to God in the mosque of Mecca.” So that gives this place Istanbul a very significant importance, very significant importance in the whole world. I hope that the Turkish nation led by Harun Yahya will fulfill this historical task.
ADNAN OKTAR: Masha’Allah, Masha’Allah. My leadership can be such that it only can be an intellectual leadership. It cannot be physical leadership. It does not mean a political leadership. It is an intellectual leadership, leadership of hearts. May Allah let me be a means in this task, insha’Allah. Masha’Allah. Israel and Israelis as a whole, are entrusted to us by Allah. Children of Ishmael (pbuh) are entrusted to us by Allah, Children of Jacob (pbuh) are also entrusted to us by Allah. Turks will fulfill the task of leadership perfectly with their beautiful souls full of love, full of kindness and full of compassion. This is destiny insha’Allah. Allah created it as it is in the destiny, the whole world will see it. Turkish nation will bring ease, abundance, wealth and peace not only to a certain region but to the whole world, insha’Allah. Allah will make this nation a means to fulfill this task as a leader insha’Allah. Masha’Allah.
RABBI FROMAN: And in the end perhaps we should finish with the beginning of the program Kemal Ataturk. One of the lies of the satan is that you can oppose God. But Allahu Akbar, everything that is happening in the world, in the end helps, supports the word of God. I am not surprised from what you read from Kemal Ataturk. Every positive man, every positive party is the deed of God and for me if Kemal Ataturk is a positive figure, then he is supporting religion and not against religion. That’s what I mean what I say, when I say several times a day “Allahu Akbar”. Allahu Akbar means that even those factors that in our eyes, in the first time are seen to be against the power of Allah, in the end it is very clear that they support the word of Allah. With this perhaps we can be sure that the victory of Allah, Whose one of the nicest names is “Salam” is “peace.” You can be sure that “Allahu Akbar” means peace will win victory, peace will win victory. Allahu Akbar.
ADNAN OKTAR: Masha’Allah, Masha’Allah. Masha’Allah. Our Ataturk, our pride. If it wasn’t Ataturk, Allah forbid I can’t even imagine what could happen. He granted this holy, this beautiful country to us to completely protect it, isn’t it? We are free, democrat, republican, we have the freedom of thought, we speak as we like, we perform our prayers as we like. We live in a modern country. It is a great blessing for everyone to express his ideas. There is no bigotry, no fanaticism. Ataturk didn’t allow communism, he also didn’t allow fascism, of course. He said: “Gentlemen, not to forget, the biggest foe of the Turkish nation is communism. In every condition it should be crashed wherever it is seen.” he says. He never allowed. At his time they made so much pressure, yet he never allowed anyone. He never allowed the fascists, he never allowed the communists. In his ideal there was always the Turkish Islamic Union. One day the Turkic nations will unite, the Islamic world will unite. It will bring peace to the whole region. His wonderful ideal is about to be realized. There is too little left insha’Allah. Turkey is insha’Allah in duty as a nation to make the world live in peace, with love, friendship, brotherhood, modernity, republicanism, democracy, humanity and beauty; and to encourage and protect it. Our heroic army and our heroic nation has this excellent mission insha’Allah. It should not be forgotten that in every condition communism should be crashed wherever it is. So he did not allow communism and fascism. I will recite you a verse from the Qur’an. Surat az-Zumar, 41: “We have sent down to you the Book for mankind with truth. So whoever is guided is guided to his own good and whoever is misguided, it is to his detriment. You are not set over them as a guardian.” There are very beautiful words in the Torah compatible with the Qur’an. Some of which are unchanged words, Allah knows the truth. For example from the Proverbs: “Listen, my son, and be wise, and keep your heart on the right path.”Look how beautiful, for example it says: “for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags.” For example, it says: “Do not gaze at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly! In the end it bites like a snake and poisons like a viper. Your eyes will see strange sights and your mind imagine confusing things. You will be like one sleeping on the high seas, lying on top of the rigging. “They hit me,” you will say, “but I’m not hurt! They beat me, but I don’t feel it! When will I wake up so I can find another drink?” It says “Wisdom is too high for a fool”. (It says that the wisdom is unreachable for a fool. It says for example that “He who plots evil will be known as a schemer.” It says, “The schemes of folly are sin”, that is, scheming, the schemes of folly are sin. It says, “men detest a mocker”. Mocking is not a good thing. Everybody hates a mocker. Insha’Allah.
RABBI FROMAN: So your teacher read the Holy Qur’an and read the Wisdom of Solomon and this is no wonder that the words of Qur’an and the words of Solomon are going in the same direction. Because these Books are the words of God, those Books are the words of One God. So that’s exactly the direction that we have to go, in the direction of your teacher to find the word of God in Turkish, in Arabic, in English, in Hebrew, in every language in this Book, in this Book, in all the books of God, all the Books that God has given us in order to guide us to the right direction which is of course the way to Him, to Himself. His name again and again I remember, that in Arabic and in Hebrew the very name of God is Salam or Shalom. And he works for God, he works for Shalom.
ADNAN OKTAR: Of course Judaism and Islam are particularly very much alike. We believe in One Allah, we believe in all the Prophets, we believe in the angels, we believe in the Hereafter, our belief in the Hereafter is the same. There’s also daily prayer (salat) in Judaism, the Jews also take ablution and pray. There are video shootings about that. They fast as well. The adultery is forbidden, the theft, killing of innocent people are forbidden as well. Loving your neighbors, protecting them are also ordered (fardh) in the Torah.
WE NEED TO BE LITERATE, WE NEED SCHOOLS IN TURKMEN LANGUAGE!
According to some reports, Ayatollah Montazeri who had been prevented from replacing the leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Khomeini, wanted an educational opportunity in Turkish language and invited the leaders of the Islamic Republic to grant Turks their basic rights.
All nations, Turkmen, Azeri Turks, Kashghai Turks, Arabs, Baluchis or Kurds, living in Iran, have had to live under the oppression of a group of chauvinists for eighty years. The regime of the Islamic Republic is not at all more different than regimes of kingdom. The traitor Pahlavi regime tried to represent the multi-national country of Iran as a country of Persians, deceiving the world with historical lies.
The Islamic Republic has not given the rights of the nations, either. On the contrary, it established an oppressive and extreme religious Shiite regime and embedded hatred among the nations. This regime added religious and sectarian discrimination to the lingual and ethnic discrimination. Thus, the chauvinists have had a much more perfect record!
Turkmens were slaughtered because they screamed the slogan “We need to be literate; we need schools in Turkmen language”. Azeri Turks were imprisoned and tortured since they wanted “madrassas in Turkish language”. Baluchis were executed because they insisted on protecting their own traditions, language and sects and…
Now, according to some information, a Shiite leader wanted free education in Turkish in Iran and said that nobody could exploit a religion and race as a right to be superior to others!
Although it is a bit late, the fact that Ayatollah Montazeri defends the rights of Iranian Turks deserves appreciation. Iranian Turks constitutes nearly the half of the country’s population. Azerbaijani Turks, Turkmens, Kashghais and the others have been struggling for years to gain their rights. A Turkmen child and the children of an Azerbaijani Turk, Kashghai, Arabic, Kurdish and Baluchi should be able to call their mothers as not “madar” but “ene, ana, um, mat”. It is a natural right of all oppressed nations to wish to maintain their traditions, languages and cultures, and deprivation from this right is racial discrimination and genocide. The Iranian regime has now become the symbol of racial, lingual, sectarian, political, cultural, social and sexual discrimination.
The fact that Ayatollah Montazeri defends the rights of Iranian Turks is appreciated but is not enough. Ending the oppression can merely be possible through the complete annihilation of the factor that causes the oppression. The oppressed nations of Iran fight for to this end and they will reach their right by exterminating this regime that has deprived them of the rights of life, language, sect and gender.
As Turkmensahra Liberation Organization, we believe that rights cannot be gained only through words. Turkmen population will maintain their fight until they have gained all their rights.
سازمان آزادیبخش ترکمن صحرا – تورکمن صحرا آزادلیق قوراماسی
Tensions in the Turkey- Israel relations will not affect the deep Jewish-Turkish friendship, National Director of the giant U.S. organization Anti–Defamation League, Abraham Foxman said, CNN Turk reported.
“This is an old and strong friendship and therefore new problems [between Turkey and Israel] cannot affect it,” Foxman said at the meeting on the relations of the Turkish and Jewish communities.
Tensions between the two strategic partners arose after Ankara’s refusal to participate in joint military trainings with Israel on the backdrop of Turkey’s rapprochement with Syria and Iran.
“If Turkey wants to be close to the Arab and Middle Eastern countries – there is no problem. But why should it be to the prejudice of the Turkish-Jewish friendship,” Foxman said. “I hope these tensions will be temporary in nature.”
Regarding the 1915 “Armenian genocide”, Foxman said the Anti-Defamation League’s position on this issue remains unchanged.
According to Foxman, the problem of the “Armenian genocide” should be solved between Turkey and Armenia, but not in the U.S. Congress or in the French Parliament.
The draft resolution urging the Obama administration to recognize the so-called 1915 “Armenian genocide” at the Ottoman Empire was submitted to the Senate of the U.S. Congress on Oct.28. Senators Robert Menendez (Democrat from New Jersey) and John Ensign (Republican, Nevada) are the authors of the resolution, ITAR-TASS said.
Azerbaijan, Baku, October 31 / Trend News T. Jafarov /
Azerbaijani laser specialist arrested in Iran is accused of espionage, head of Iranian firm Sazan Elektronics Industry, Abbas Eftekhari, told Trend News over phone on October 31.
“Arrest of Rashid Aliyev has no relation to the contract signed between our firm and Baku State University. He was arrested due to national security. He was arrested for espionage,” Eftekhari said.
Leading engineer-physicist of the biological laboratory of the institute for physical problems of the Baku State University Rashid Aliyev worked in this company in 2006-2008 at the invitation of Iranian company Sazan Elektronics Industry.
Head of the company has repeatedly suggested the scientist to move to Iran for permanent living. But Aliyev did not accept this proposal, and returned to his homeland soon, the Committee for the Protection of Aliyev’s Rights said.
Mammadov said that the corresponding organizations in Iran got letters with a request to investigate the reasons of the scholar’s arrest and release. The Iranian Embassy in Azerbaijan was also informed. However, Aliyev’s family has not got any official information on the reasons for the scholar’s arrest.
The committee and the scholar’s family call on the appropriate organizations to assist in Aliyev’s release and return to his homeland.
After persistent requests of the director Abbas Eftekhari, Aliyev returned to Iran for a short perod on October 5. On October 6 he was arrested under the pretext of problems with visa.
Eftekhari said that he does not know for whom Aliyev dealt with espionage and a core of the problem.
“I was told that this person was accused of espionage. They did not say for which country he worked,” Eftekhari said.
Eftekhari said that Aliyev worked over a joint project in the company. He was arrested by employees of the Interior Ministry and the Ministry of National Security of Iran.
Eftekhari also said about objections during the arrest. “But it is impossible to object to employees of the Interior Ministry and the Ministry of National Security of Iran,” director of the company said.
The permission to meet with Aliyev was not given. But conditions for telephone conversation were created two days ago, Eftekhari said.
Eftekhari stressed that the company hired a lawyer to protect rights of Azerbaijani scholar. But the police do not allow him to work.
“Arrested person does not have rights to hire a lawyer and deal with protection till the case is submitted to the court upon the Iranian laws. We have hired a lawyer for Aliyev but the police said that he does not need a lawyer’s services till the trial is conducted. After the case is submitted to the court, we will hire a lawyer and protect Aliyev’s rights,” head of the company said.
He said that Aliyev is in the fifth corpus of Evin jail.
Aliyev has suspended his scientific activity. He voluntarily went to serve in the army when he was 38.
He installed communication systems in N unit of the special purpose till 1999. He participated in organizing and conducting tests in military units of laser technology for special purposes.
He was also involved in overhaul of some vessels of Border Troops, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources.
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The Israel-Palestine peace process – a top foreign-policy objective of the Obama administration – faces continued challenges after months of intense diplomatic talks engineered by George Mitchell, the U.S. envoy for the Middle East. These negotiations have produced a mere handshake between U.S. President Barack Obama, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, without being able to produce any framework for an ongoing peace process.
Obama’s tough rhetoric against Netanyahu backfired, said Ami Ayalon, the former head of the Shin Bet, Israel’s secret service, and former commander in chief of the navy after a panel discussion at the J Street conference in Washington, D.C. The initial stalemate was presented by Netanyahu as a victory, which was in reality a mere defense of the status quo, he added. Ayalon also stated that after this first round of diplomacy, Obama started to be viewed as a collaborator with the current Israeli administration, which created some questions in the Arab world regarding the degree to which he can uphold his strong stance against Israeli demands.
Under these circumstances, I asked Jeremy Ben-Ami, the executive director of the J Street movement, to describe his organization to me. “[J Street] is the political voice of American Jews and other Americans who believe that it is in our best interests and as well as that of Israel to end the conflict with the Palestinians and to have a two-state solution and a comprehensive peace process in the Middle East.”
J Street, with a history a mere 18 months in the making, attracted thousands of supporters, the support of hundreds of the members of Congress, high-profile attendees and the Obama administration’s unequivocal backing last week. The Obama administration has shown its support by sending the National Security Adviser, Ret. General James L. Jones, to represent the President and to speak at the conference. Gen. Jones concluded that “this U.S. administration will participate in J Street’s other activities in the future.” On the other hand, while J Street hosted many members of Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike, the one person who shied away from the conference was Israel’s ambassador to Washington, D.C., Michael Oren. According to the statement that was released by the Israeli embassy, there were “concerns over certain policies of the organization that may impair the interests of Israel.”
One would rightly ask why is it that this new movement attracted so much attention and sparked a range of discussion in America and across the globe, while Israel already has a mighty lobby, centered around the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, in Washington, D.C., an organization that has been staunchly and unequivocally defending Israel’s policies? What is it that makes J Street so unique to draw thousands of participants, many of whom come from the other states and places as far away as Jerusalem?
I attended most meetings of the conference for two-and-a-half days to receive answers to these questions. I met many ordinary participants as well as religious leaders, rabbis and humanitarian workers from Jerusalem. I met a couple of the participants during the “Jewish Community Town Hall” meeting, after speeches by Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the president of the Union for Reform Judaism and Jeremy Ben-Ami. After these speeches, the crowd discussed some of the questions of the ongoing conflict in Gaza and the Israeli-Arab peace process in general. Two participants were from Oxfam International, a confederation of 14 organizations working in more than 70 countries to find permanent solutions to poverty and injustice. One of these participants was John Prideaux-Brune, Oxfam’s country director, who has been living in Jerusalem and Gaza for about five years.
John said that Israel still occupies Gaza from the sea, land and air, even if it claims officially it does no longer do so. According to the Geneva Conventions, Israel has to allow humanitarian help to enter Gaza. However, John argues, what is allowed to go into Gaza is incredibly limited. For example, macaroni cannot get in because it is considered a luxury food item. Israel only allows about 100 trucks of food to go in to Gaza a day, as opposed to 600-700 trucks before the Gaza conflict. Cement or any other construction materials are not allowed by the border officials as they could be used to make tunnels. His frustration goes further by talking about the terrible circumstances the Gazans live under; ordinary Jewish-American people also sitting at our table are equally angry and add their own criticisms to his frustrations. Another Jewish-American participant who is equally frustrated by the Israeli government’s harsh treatment of the Gazan people was Naftali Kaminski, a doctor, who joined the conference from Pittsburgh.
Therefore, the first reason for J Street’s success and wide popularity undoubtedly comes from the grassroots support of ordinary American Jews who are tired of Israel’s grinding policies in Gaza and stubborn settlement practices. The grassroots support is, I believe, the most important element for any organization to be effective and apparently J Street has it all. There is another very important reason for J Street’s immediate success, which is that it coincided perfectly with a new U.S. administration coming into office. J Street’s close relationship with and support of the Obama administration was seen very clearly during the conference and this special relation apparently makes the organization’s mission to fill a gap in American politics even stronger. J Street defends many parallel policies that fit well with the Obama administration’s plans, such as the two-state solution and a complete freeze of the settlements. It was also interesting to see that whenever a panelist talked about a two-state solution, criticized Israel for what it did during the last Gaza war or called for ending the occupation, the J Street crowd roared and applauded excitedly.
Even though J Street received heavy flak from AIPAC and other hard-line right-wing Israeli factions in respect to their criticism of Israel’s policies, the open-minded discussions and honest debates on the panels were exhilarating and personally lifted my hopes for the peace process. To see a crowd in an inaugural conference describe themselves ‘pro-Israel,’ but stand up against the country’s many wrong-headed policies gained my deep respect.
PS. Washington, D.C. marks its streets with letters, and J is missing from the actual map.
