WASHINGTON With unrest mounting in Iran over official claims of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejads reelection, US Jewish organizational leaders were calling for more American support for the protesters and more international action to stop the Islamic Republics nuclear program.
Since Ahmadinejad was declared a landslide winner June 13, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets in protest.
As the first signs of a violent crackdown came Monday, June 15, some Jewish communal officials including Abraham Foxman of the ADL and Malcolm Hoenlein of the Conference of Presidents questioned whether the US should be doing more to show solidarity with the demonstrators.
Foxman said he had not heard America embrace Ahmadinejads main challenger, former Prime Minister Mir Hussein Mousavi.
Hoenlein said he understood why the US doesnt want to become a factor in the process, but added, When do the young people feel theyve been abandoned by the West?
Talking to reporters Monday, Obama said it is up to Iranians to make decisions about who Irans leaders will be and the US wants to avoid being the issue inside of Iran.
What I would say to those people who put so much hope and energy and optimism into the political process, he added, I would say to them that the world is watching and inspired by their participation, regardless of what the ultimate outcome of the election was.
The protests and crackdowns in Iran are likely to reignite the debate over the best way to stop Irans pursuit of nuclear weapons and support of international terrorism: Negotiate a deal with the countrys current Islamic rulers that helps prolong their political survival, or ramp up support for forces seeking to topple the regime? Read the related IJN editorial
WHILE Israeli officials and Jewish organizations have yet to weigh in strongly on the question, for weeks they have been asserting that it doesnt matter whether Ahmadinejad or Mousavi is president because the final decision-maker is the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and by most accounts he is a strong backer of Irans current nuclear policies and support for terrorist proxies such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
But in recent days Mousavi, the prime minister during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, has sided unabashedly with the demonstrators, even as they have appeared to be challenging the legitimacy of the regime.
This, coupled with his calls for better relations with the West and less support for Hamas and Hezbollah, has many portraying Mousavi as a true reformist candidate who could potentially trigger significant changes on some fronts.
But Dan Mariaschin, international executive director of Bnai Brith International, cautioned against losing sight of the fact that Mousavi was the prime minister when Irans nuclear program launched.
Those who think there are sharp differences between Mousavi and Ahmadinejad are certainly taking a leap of faith, Mariaschin said.
In the end, said David Harris, the executive director of the American Jewish Committee, in a statement, The re-election of Ahmadinejad underscores why the international community must do all it can to deny the Iranian regime the means to carry out its dangerous and destabilizing ambitions.
MOUSAVI and his supporters have shown no sign of backing down against an expanding security clampdown.
He has appealed directly to Irans all-powerful ruling clerics to cancel the results of last weeks election. But chances to wipe out the results were very remote, leaving Mousavis backers with few options other than taking to the streets.
Mousavi has threatened to hold a sit-in protest next week at the mausoleum of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, if authorities ban his followers from holding their rally. Such an act would place authorities in a difficult spot: embarrassed by a demonstration at the sprawling shrine south of Tehran, but possibly unwilling to risk clashes at the hallowed site.
On Monday night, police and hard-line militia stormed the campus at the citys biggest university, ransacking dormitories and arresting dozens of students angry over what they say was mass election fraud.
The nighttime gathering of about 3,000 students at dormitories of Tehran University started with students chanting Death to the dictator, but it quickly erupted in to clashes as students threw rocks and Molotov cocktails at the police, who fought back with tear gas and plastic bullets, said a 25-year-old student at the university who witnessed the fighting. He would give only one name, Akbar, out of fears for his safety.
The students set a truck and other vehicles on fire and hurled stones and bricks at the police, he said.
Hardline militia volunteers loyal to the Revolutionary Guard stormed the dormitories, ransacking student rooms and smashing computers and furniture with axes and wooden sticks, Akbar said.
Before leaving around 4 a.m., the police took away memory cards and computer software material, Akbar said, adding that dozens of students were arrested. Read the related post, “Lost opportunity,” on the IJN blog
He said many students suffered bruises, cuts and broken bones in the scuffling and that there was still smoldering garbage on the campus by midmorning but that the situation had calmed down.
Many students are now leaving to go home to their families, they are scared, he said. But others are staying. The police and militia say they will be back and arrest any students they see.
I want to stay because they beat us and we wont retreat, he added.
One of Mousavis websites, said a student protester was killed early Monday during clashes with plainclothes hard-liners in Shiraz, southern Iran. There was no independent confirmation of the report.
There also have been unconfirmed reports of unrest breaking out in other cities across Iran.
