January 03, 2008
The assassination of Pakistani opposition leader and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was shocking on a number of levels. It was a humanitarian obscenity, a blow to democratic dreams for millions of Pakistanis, and a fearful reminder of the volatility of yet another largely Muslim country at war with its own radicals.
Bhutto’s murder was also a reminder of the nuclear tinderbox upon which all of the Mideast, and by extension the entire world, precariously sits. Pakistani and American officials assure us the country’s nuclear arsenal is in safe hands — we can only hope that is true.
We can also hope that the specter of The Bomb will be all the persuasion Gov. Corzine needs to sign legislation divesting state pension funds in companies that do non-humanitarian business in Iran. The state Senate voted unanimously late last month to divest all state pension plans from Iran as a means of pressuring the Islamic Republic to end its suspected nuclear weapons program, seconding legislation passed over the summer by the state Assembly. New Jersey would be the fourth state to pull its funds from Iran.
It would be foolish to deny that the virulent anti-Semitism and dangerous rhetoric of President Ahmadinejad are not factors in making Iran’s nuclear potential a top priority among Jewish organizations, from the state’s Jewish federations to its pro-Israel PACs. In addition to Ahmadinejad’s threats to “wipe Israel off the map,” Iran continues to provide financial and military support to Hizbullah and Hamas.
And yet a nuclear Iran poses a serious concern to the United States and the international community. As the American Jewish Committee has noted, “Iran’s massive and longstanding support for terrorist organizations — its proxies in carrying out attacks across the globe, in undermining Arab-Israeli reconciliation, and exerting Iran’s political influence in the Middle East and beyond — suggests the havoc that a nuclear Iran, a potential nuclear proliferator to terrorists, will bring to the region and to the world.”
Targeted divestment, which focuses on companies invested in Iran’s energy sector, is a powerful, nonmilitary means of disrupting Iran’s government until it can prove to a credible international body that it has ceased its ambitions to manufacture nuclear weapons. The recent National Intelligence Estimate notwithstanding, there are enough warnings concerning uranium enrichment and Tehran’s own ambiguous boasts and taunts to justify further pressure on its economic sector.
In response to a question from an NJJN reporter last week, Corzine suggested that he has no objections to the divestment bill as passed by the legislature. We urge him to sign it and put New Jersey on the side of those who seek stability in the Middle East and throughout the world.