Shai Franklin’s Distorted
Discourse on Iranian Dissidents
by Rabbi Dr. Daniel M.
Zucker
American Thinker, June 21, 2013
Intellectual Conservative, June 22, 2013
On Monday, June 17, 2013, Shai Franklin, currently senior fellow
for United Nations Affairs at the Institute on Religion and Public Affairs,
penned a critique[1] for the Jewish
Telegraphic Agency entitled “Op-Ed: Stop pretending to care about
Iranians’ rights” in which he roundly criticized Professor Irwin Cotler and
Illinois U.S. Senator Mark Kirk for their essay[2]—“Op-Ed:
Stand with the dissidents of Iran”, published in JTA on
Friday, June 14, 2013. Franklin condemned the Cotler-Kirk call for support of the
newly formed Iranian Political Prisoners Global Advocacy Project as
counter-productive. He proclaimed that their appeal for support “actually
undermines the cause of dissidents who are risking their lives and being
tortured daily just for the basic dignity that most JTA readers
take for granted.”
Mr. Franklin may be an expert in many areas of Middle-East
affairs—his background certainly implies such—but on this issue he is woefully
ignorant. No—this writer is not an eye-witness to the Iranian prison system—thank
God. But he does have regular contact with scores of former prisoners who have
been part of the Iranian dissident movement for over three decades. And their
testimony consistently calls for greater international scrutiny of the Iranian
prison system.
Mr. Franklin criticized Cotler and Kirk for publishing their essay
in a Jewish newspaper. He wrote: “But when Cotler and Kirk call on Jews to
demand democracy and human rights in Iran — implicitly branding it as a
pro-Israel priority—it actually undermines…” I have read the Cotler-Kirk essay
multiple times; nowhere does it address the Jewish community to act on behalf
of Israel. In fact, nowhere in their essay do they address their words
exclusively to the Jewish community! Publishing in the JTA in
today’s world is no more of an intention to address an exclusive faith/ethnic
community than was my 2008 publication of essays about Iraq in the AINA press
an address limited to Iraqi Christians or my essay about Syria in 2009 in Ashraq
al-Arabi an exclusive to the Arab world. But Mr. Franklin should
understand something—and this is that leading advocates as well as lawyers for
the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the leading opposition movement to
the Tehran regime, with supporters both in and outside Iran—leading advocates
for the NCRI are Jewish. And some of us support the NCRI because we care about
human rights, and some of us do so because we believe that it is in Israel’s
interests to see regime change in Iran, and some of us are involved for both
reasons.
Franklin suggests that “not only do most of the brave Iranians
Cotler and Kirk claim to be helping not want their help, they would probably
continue much of the terrorist and nuclear enterprise the current regime is
pursuing.” It appears that Franklin doesn’t remember the words of the young
dissidents in the streets of Tehran during the summer and fall 2009 riots as
they repeatedly chanted: “Obama
ya ba oona ya ba ma”—“Obama: Are you with us or with them?” and “Na ghazeh na lobnan
janam fadai iran”—“Neither Gaza nor Lebanon is our business; no to Gaza and
no to Lebanon. Iran is our business, and I give my life for that!” He also
seems to be uninformed about the current pro-democracy demonstrations[3] in the capital this past weekend where hundreds
of Tehranis, mostly young people, staged a march in which they were chanting,
“free all political prisoners,” “we don’t want a government with guidance
patrols,” “Sattar Beheshti, we will continue your path,” “Neda Agha Soltan, the
lady of Iran, your path is continuing,” and “don’t be afraid, we are all
together” or a similar demonstration Monday in Hamedan where the crowd
chanted “Political prisoners must be released” and “Cannons, Tanks,
Bassijis are effective no more”.[4] Does Franklin
need to be reminded that one of the first places that Neda Soltan’s fiancé
Caspian Makan came to visit after his escape from Iran was Israel?[5] Ninety percent of Iranians hate the regime and
everything for which it stands. Yes, ten percent support the regime and would
like to see Israel destroyed, but the vast majority of Iranians reject the
regime’s policies. Unfortunately the ninety percent is the group without the
guns.
Franklin says that Iranian dissidents aren’t asking for “us to
isolate and strangle their country economically and politically.” Maybe
Franklin isn’t looking or listening to the right dissidents. My sources[6] report that many Iranians are calling for stiff
sanctions and boycotts of products that bring income to the regime. Franklin
further states his belief that most Iranians will want nuclear arms even if the
regime is overthrown. He writes: “But even a complete change of regime —
whether by internal revolution or external force — would be unlikely to produce
a cooperative government that renounces Iran’s inbred aspirations to regional
hegemony.” Obviously Mr. Franklin is not very familiar with the National
Council of Resistance of Iran or its nominal leader, President-elect Mrs.
Maryam Rajavi. The NCRI’s 2012 annual convocation in Paris drew over 100,000 attendees
from around the world; the 2013 convocation next weekend promises to feature a
larger attendance yet. The NCRI “Ten Point Plan for Future Iran”[7] specifically rejects nuclear weaponry for Iran and
calls for regional harmonious relations. That doesn’t sound like an aspiration
to regional hegemony.
Mr. Franklin’s portfolio calls for him to promote human rights;
that’s an admirable goal. As he is a Jewish professional I assume that he is
committed to Israel’s safety and survival. The two are not mutually exclusive
despite what he seems to think. And if he would get out into the field and see
the work of the NCRI and its subsidiary, the PMOI (Peoples Mojahedin Organization
of Iran), he might come to realize that regime change is not only desirable, but
if led by the popular NCRI, will result in amicable relations between Iran and
Israel as was the case prior to the 1979 Khomeini revolution.
Rabbi Dr. Daniel M. Zucker, author of over ninety articles on the
Middle-East, is founder and Chairman of the Board of Americans
for Democracy in the Middle-East, a grassroots organization dedicated
to teaching the public and its elected officials of the need to
promote genuine democratic institutions throughout the Middle-East region as an
antidote to the dangers posed by Islamic fundamentalism. He may be contacted
at contact@ADME.ws.
NOTES:
[1] Shai Franklin,
“Op-Ed: Stop pretending to care about Iranians’ rights”, JTA, June
17, 2013, http://www.jta.org/2013/06/17/news-opinion/opinion/op-ed-stop-pretending-we-care-about-iranian-rights
[2] Irwin Cotler and Mark Kirk, “Op-Ed:
Stand with the dissidents of Iran”, JTA, June 14, 2013, http://www.jta.org/2013/06/14/news-opinion/israel-middle-east/op-ed-stand-with-the-dissidents-of-iran.
[3] “Security forces
attack protesters chanting anti-regime slogans”, Iran Focus,
June 16, 2013,
[4] INTV, “Iran: gathering in Hamedan with
people chanting anti-regime slogans”, PMOI, June
17, 2013, http://www.mojahedin.org/pagesen/detailsNews.aspx?newsid=26880.
[5] JPost.com Staff, “Neda's fiance: Iran will
be free”, The Jerusalem Post, March 19, 2010, http://www.jpost.com/International/Nedas-fiance-Iran-will-be-free.
[6] Joseph Puder, “Iran is Ready for
Change”, Front Page Magazine, September 24, 2007, archived in: Iran
Watch – September 24, 2007, http://ncpdaus.org/iran-watch-september-24-2007/. Also see:
NCRI, “Iran: NCRI Women's
Committee calls for sanctions on Mullahs' regime”, NCRI, June
23, 2009, http://www.ncr-iran.org/en/ncri-statements/women/6575-iran-ncri-womens-committee-calls-for-sanctions-on-mullahs-regime.html.
[7] NCRI, “Maryam Rajavi's Ten Point Plan for
Future Iran”, NCRI, January 8, 2013, http://www.ncr-iran.org/en/ten-point-plan.html,
and Ibid, “Non-nuclear Iran”, NCRI, January 8,
2013, http://www.ncr-iran.org/en/non-nuclear-iran.html.
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