[by Matt Goldberg, Director]
Jewish Community Relations Council
On January 8, the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Community of Louisville hosted Bob Feferman, outreach director for United Against a Nuclear Iran, UANI, in the Patio Gallery at the Jewish Community Center. UANI is an organization dedicated to promoting economic sanctions designed to deter Iran from pursing nuclear weapons.
Feferman shared a PowerPoint presentation designed to educate Americans on the current status of Iran’s nuclear program, its clandestine nature, the status of economic sanctions, and what we, average citizens can do.
According to Feferman, Iran has several nuclear facilities around the country and is currently enriching uranium to 20 percent, when any possible civilian use would necessitate uranium only enriched to 3.5 percent. Western nations, including Russia and China, have offered to supply Iran with all the uranium they could need for their stated non-military purposes, if they would agree to ship their remaining uranium out of the country. To date, Iran has not accepted the offer. On the contrary, they have ratcheted up production of highly enriched uranium.
While there is some talk about a military option, Feferman emphasized that the economic sanctions currently imposed on Iran are just now beginning to have real teeth, and they are not fully exhausted; therefore, any talk about military action is premature as long as sanctions are not complete or fully in effect.
UANI is promoting an initiative that calls for the U.S. Congress to pass legislation that will tell corporations that if they do business in Iran, they will not be able to do business in the United States.
Many corporations have stopped doing business in Iran, some thanks to pressure from UANI; however, some corporations, like Nissan and Ericsson, are still doing business there. Feferman’s hope is that, with increased awareness, every major corporation doing business in Iran will cease the practice, and that the U.S. government and state governments will not award government contracts to corporations still doing business in Iran.
The goal of United Against a Nuclear Iran is to make economic sanctions so severe that Iran will have no choice but to make the reasonable concessions to end the militarization of their nuclear program, thereby making any military action, which nobody wants, unnecessary.
