America's retreat from maintaining a strong military presence and moral leadership in the Mideast and Asia is a strategic blunder that aggressive regimes, including Iran, will seek to use to their advantage, says one former Iraqi Parliamentarian and longtime friend of Israel.

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Mithal al-Alusi, a Sunni Muslim who served in Iraq's Parliament from 2005 to 2010, during which time he advocated normalized relations between Iraq and Israel, told JNS this week that Iran is using Iraq as a way station for transporting material for producing "missiles and drones" from Iran to the Gaza Strip. He also said that America's precipitous withdrawal from Afghanistan has created a "strategic vacuum" he believes will be exploited by Iran, Pakistan, China, and Russia.

A champion of human rights, rule of law, free markets, and democratic alliance, Alusi, 68, has paid a high price for his principles. Forced to flee Iraq as a young man for protesting Saddam Hussein's human-rights abuses, he returned to Iraq with his family following the entry of US troops into the country in March 2003. In September 2004, after accepting a leadership position in Iraq's de-Ba'athification Commission, he made a public visit to Israel, speaking about the importance of cooperation between Iraq and the Jewish state. As payback for their father's public stand, terrorists murdered Alusi's sons Ayman, 29, and Jamal, 22. In 2005, the American Jewish Committee (AJC) awarded Alusi its Moral Courage Award for his determination, in the words of the AJC's president David Harris, to "insist Iraq refuse anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism."

Despite numerous assassination attempts against him, Alusi remained in Iraq and was elected three times to parliament. He has consistently advocated for human rights, a free press, and normalized relations among democracies, including the United States, Iraq, and Israel. Since his sons' murders, he has visited Israel several more times to attend the yearly counterterrorism conference at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC), now known as Reichman University, in Herzliya, considered center stage for the articulation of Israel's national defense policy.

In 2019, Alusi received the AJC's Jan Karski Award for his "profound personal courage in seeking to achieve his vision of a genuine breakthrough in relations between Arab nations and Israel," according to AJC president Harriet Schleifer.

'We can't do it alone'

Alusi, who contends that Iran's mullahs have bribed many Iraqi politicians and infiltrated the Iraqi government, corroborated statements by Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz at last week's IDC Conference accusing Iran of training terror operatives from Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq at Kashan airbase north of Isfahan, Iran. Gantz also spoke of Iran trying to transfer "know-how that would allow the manufacturing of UAVs" or unmanned aerial vehicles, in the Gaza Strip.

Alusi echoed Gantz's descriptions and added that not only is Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps training individuals from all over the Mideast at Isfahan to become terrorists but is also transporting material to produce missiles and drones across Iraq "with help from Iranian and Iraqi militias." The materials, including missiles and drones themselves, are being moved from Iran, through Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon into Gaza, said Alusi. He believes that the absence of significant US military presence in Iraq has allowed this to take place and that the power vacuum is being filled by Iran – a threat to both Iraqis and Israelis.

"In Iraq now, we have 14 provinces with zero American presence," he said. "In the [Iraqi] provinces with zero American presence, Iranian [terrorist] militias are happy, and they do what they want. Israel's army is strong, but it's not fair to run away from the arena and leave them and [Iraqis] to fight the terrorists and bring international safety. We can't do it alone."

It's incorrect, said Alusi, to believe that average Iraqis have not fought to preserve the freedom and democracy that American troops brought to the country. He pointed out that in recent years, thousands of peaceful demonstrators took to Iraq's streets to protest government corruption, in addition to Iran's meddling in the country. He claimed that over the time span of approximately one year from October 2019 to October 2020, 800 unarmed, pro-democracy Iraqi demonstrators were killed, and more than 7,000 were "disappeared" by "Iranian militias" within Iraq.

The US's precipitous troop withdrawal from Afghanistan was a strategic blunder that will likely have far-reaching negative repercussions, argues Alusi.

Referencing the current policy discussion regarding the fate of Afghan assets worth $10 billion in overseas accounts, he said any release of assets to the Taliban would gravely compound the mistake.

"The Taliban is an extremist organization that doesn't reflect the average Afghan citizen," said Alusi. "Any pushing money to them will never develop something positive in Afghan society."

From Iraq, to Afghanistan, to Saudi Arabia, the United States appears to be in retreat, and this will embolden terrorists and extremist regimes, Alusi believes. He cited the Biden administration's removal of an advanced missile-defense system from Saudi Arabia in recent weeks as a mistake.

"The US is saying, 'We are out in Afghanistan, we are out in Iraq, we are out in Saudi Arabia,'" he said. "This is an open door for the Iranian terrorist regime."

He would like to see the United States resume a stronger role in world leadership. It should start with refusal to appease terrorists and solid support for moderates.

"I don't want America quiet against fascists and terrorists," he said. "I'd like to see stronger American involvement supporting human rights, democratic values, and peace."

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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Before she entered the rabbinate, Jan Uhrbach was a litigator who yearned for work that aligned with her deepest values, including her spirituality.

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"The law is combative, especially litigation, and I wanted to make a shift to focus less on winning and losing, and more on bringing competing interests together," says Rabbi Uhrbach, who was recently named interim dean of the rabbinical school of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTS), the conservative movement's flagship seminary. The first female to head the 135-year-old institution, which ordains both rabbis and cantors, Uhrbach, 58, plans to stress the values of unity and diversity of views in training the movement's clergy.

The ability to make space for nuance and a range of views is a leadership quality Uhrbach thinks is especially needed at this time of division, both within Judaism and broader American society.

While Conservative movement clergy don't necessarily have to be moderates, they do need to be able to make space for a range of perspectives, she believes.

"We are training leaders who can dwell in ambiguity and hold 'both/and' thinking," says Uhrbach. "As the Conservative movement, we are the center. … It's not necessarily about taking the middle ground each time, but the ability to allow for and hold competing values with commitment, which can be hard … the particular kinds of rabbis and cantors we ordain are so essential now."

"There is evil, there is goodness. But where those lines are is more difficult to discern than most of us would like to believe."

For Uhrbach, leadership comes in many forms, including the everyday tasks of taking accountability for one's own community. Asked whom she admires in Conservative leadership, she spoke about Rabbi Hazzan Jeffrey Myers (who reportedly led several congregants to safety during the 2018 Tree of Life mass shooting in Pittsburgh), and Naomi Kalish, director of the Center for Pastoral Education at JTS, where students are trained in counseling fellow Jews in crisis, including the sick, dying and aggrieved.

"There are countless people in leadership who are unifiers," says Uhrbach. "It's easy to stir up passion at the polarities and that's what gets attention, but a lot of the work is being done in much quieter ways."

Uhrbach highlighted the efforts of JTS graduates working in pastoral care in hospitals, hospices and homes throughout the coronavirus pandemic. "They make a difference in the healing process of people suffering illness and their families," she says. "They aren't necessarily grabbing headlines, but they have been some of the greatest heroes in the pandemic."

And she believes that rabbis and cantors should take moral stands. An example, she says, is marriage equality, regardless of sexual orientation.

"I took a public stand in favor of marriage equality because I believe Judaism demands that we work toward the full dignity of all human beings," she says.

Asked via email to comment on current events, including the recent Israel-Hamas conflict and rising incidents of violent antisemitism across the United States, Uhrbach declined, but wrote generally of the need for clergy in the Conservative movement to balance moral imperatives, including the commitment to fellow Jews with a commitment to humanity.

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Another example, she stresses, is the need for practicing Jews to balance obligations towards fellow Jews and obligations toward humanity as a whole. "These are both fundamental Jewish values, which are sometimes easy and sometimes difficult to reconcile, but we're not free to abandon either one."

Uhrbach says she is "most at home" with Judaism through "study in intellect and the life of prayer," but believes direct engagement with the world is also important. Under her leadership, she would like JTS to nurture clergy with a range of spiritual styles.

"I want our school to be a place where people with a range of ways of connecting to God can grow: through study and intellect; piety and prayer; pastoral work and being present one-on-one; and social action," she says. "We all need to push ourselves to grow in each area while acknowledging no one person can serve God in all ways at all times. We do it together as a community."

In terms of social action, Uhrbach believes that while conservative rabbis and cantors should not endorse candidates, "anyone who has read the Tanach would be hard-pressed to argue politics has no place in the Torah. The Exodus narrative is about overturning an unjust society. To say a rabbi has no place in politics is to render religion irrelevant. Religion can comfort, and it should. It should also challenge us to confront ways we may be contributing to injustice."

She added that there is "no ideological or political litmus test" for JTS students. "There is evil, there is goodness. But where those lines are is more difficult to discern than most of us would like to believe most of the time."

Uhrbach's role models include Rabbi J. Rolando Matalon, and Hazzan Ari Priven, spiritual leaders of Congregation B'nai Jeshurun on Manhattan's Upper West Side, which she says she attended in the 1990s. She also cited as "lifelong influences" two mentors from her law career. One was Judge Kimba Wood, for whom she clerked after law school in the Southern District of New York, and whom she remembers for her "commitment to justice and kindness." She also admired Robery Callagy, head of Satterlee Stephens Burke & Burke, a Park Avenue law firm she worked for and made partner at in the 1990s. A devout Catholic who "knew the name of every employee, from the person who worked in the mailroom to the people who cleaned the office at night," Callagy structured the firm's pay scale so there was not too big a gap between the highest and lowest earners.

He embodied a generosity of spirit and kindness and a sense of 'Dayenu' – that the world is not just about acquiring more and more," she says.

Uhrbach also honors the memories of her father and mother, whom she says modeled spiritual and personal growth.

"My mother was ahead of her time in a lot of ways," says Uhrbach. "She always treated my sister and me with a lot of respect, and was interested in what we thought and felt. So much of who I am is shaped by who she was."

In terms of being the first woman to lead the Conservative Movement's educational wing, Uhrbach says she feels privileged and excited.

She believes it remains "more socially acceptable" for a woman to be "vulnerable," and that women leaders tend to bring a needed quality of "humility" to leadership.

"I think the world needs leaders willing to be publicly vulnerable," says Uhrbach. "It is hard, but it's something we can model. Being able to say, 'I don't know' or 'I was wrong' or 'I need help' … I'd like for us to embrace more leaders who can do that."

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org

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Although the mood exiting the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC, on Monday was largely upbeat, with attendees, who travel to the nation's capital to lobby their members of Congress on behalf of the US-Israel alliance, generally pleased about Benjamin Netanyahu's decisive election victory that day (although it remains uncertain if he can still form a government), when asked their feelings about Sanders's decision to shun this year's AIPAC policy conference, many expressed outrage.

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"I'm thrilled about Bibi's re-election," said Michael Elman, 64, a retina surgeon from Baltimore. "Hopefully, he'll be able to form a government. I support his policies. We think it's a good move for the Jewish people, and hopefully, they can get out of this paralysis."

He added that "Bernie is a wolf in sheep's clothing. With friends like that, we don't need enemies."

Sanders's decision to skip the conference, as well as his recent characterization on Twitter of the historically bipartisan advocacy group as providing a "platform … for leaders who express bigotry," coupled with his characterization of Netanyahu as a "reactionary racist" in last week's Democratic presidential debate in South Carolina, comes at a time when many Jewish-Americans are distressed about a rise in anti-Semitism associated with extremism at both ends of the political spectrum, and what they perceive as a Democratic Party increasingly populated by members who are hostile to Israel.

Both his comments and his absence reverberated throughout this year's event, with speakers ranging from US Vice President Mike Pence to House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to former New York City Mayor and Democratic presidential contender Michael Bloomberg making reference to them.

In his speech on Monday, Pence said if elected, Sanders would be "the most anti-Israel president in the history of this nation." And in reference to Sanders's remarks, he said, "it is wrong to boycott and slander Israel. It is wrong to boycott and slander AIPAC."

Bloomberg called Sanders "dead wrong" to describe AIPAC as a "racist platform."

Attendees by and large strongly echoed these sentiments, although there were a small number of dissenters.

"To associate pro-Israel advocacy with bigotry, [Sanders] is advancing anti-Semitism," said Robin Hanerfeld of Bethesda, Md. "He's emboldening anti-Semites to start using the word to describe us."

Anne Brody Elovic, 58, a homemaker from the heavily Jewish village of Skokie, Ill., said "Bernie Sanders is a putz. If you want to run this country, have the chutzpah to come stand here and tell us what you think."

Some who expressed disappointment in Sanders self-identified as Democrats.

"Among this crowd, there's a resounding agreement that Bernie made a bad decision," said Gaby Cosgrove, a dentist from Los Angeles. "As a very devoted Democrat, I feel he's embarrassed me."

Referring to Democratic candidates who either spoke or addressed the conference by satellite, Cosgrove added that she thought Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) "were wonderful." She said the same of Bloomberg, who was there in person.

'Extremism tends not to be good for minorities'

Among those taking strong exception to Sanders's recent statements claiming AIPAC provides a "platform for leaders who express bigotry" were non-Jewish African-American and Hispanic Israel-supporters in attendance. Many had traveled from across the country at their own expense to show their support for Israel and the values they believe Israel upholds.

"If AIPAC promotes bigotry, then why am I here? Why is there a whole constituency group led by African-Americans here?" said London Camel, 20, a student at Florida Agricultural Mechanical University in Tallahassee, Fla.

"The organization is bipartisan and about dialogue, so why not come, Senator Sanders?" posed Landen Coles, 19, a student at the University of Miami.

Older African-American Israel-supporters echoed the younger generation's sentiments and added some of their own. "Senator Sanders should keep in mind that extremism tends not to be good for minorities," said Eric McLendon, 56, of New York, who works in commercial real estate.

Nonetheless, two of about two-dozen AIPAC attendees interviewed expressed some degree of qualified support for Sanders, saying that although they disagreed with his recent statements about Netanyahu and AIPAC, they supported his right to make them and would consider voting for him to be the next president.

"Israel's important to me, but I'm not a one issue voter," said Jonah Dubin, 21, a student at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pa. "Bloomberg is standing in a better place on Israel, [but] lot of people feel Sanders would be better on health care."

But, added Dubin, "It influences my decision to vote for Sanders in a negative way that he didn't come here."

Some cited the values of debate and discussion in voicing their disapproval of Sanders's choice to rebuff AIPAC.

Originally from Venezuela, Veronica Figoli of Denver, Colo., says life back home "became broken" when people ceased being able to have civil conversations. A lifelong Democrat, she says she disagrees with Sanders's characterization of AIPAC and decision not to attend, emphasizing that she believes "the most dangerous conversation is the one which never happens."

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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