Ethan Mabourak, national organizing manager of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), whose father is Iranian and whose mother is Jewish, is an American born and raised in South Florida. Amid the ongoing U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, what does he think as he navigates these three identities that can collide?

In a video interview with the Kyunghyang Shinmun on the 5th (local time), Mabourak said, “The safety of Jews, Iranians, and Palestinians is mutually interconnected,” and, “This war, which makes no one safe, obviously does not benefit Americans either.”

He grew up within a Jewish cultural community, but meeting and speaking with people from Middle Eastern countries harmed by wars led by Israel prompted a political awakening. NIAC, where he now works, is an advocacy group for Iranian American rights founded in 2002 and the largest Iranian American grassroots organization in the United States.

He emphasized, “The future of Iran must be left to the decisions of 90 million Iranian citizens, not to outside interference.” He continued, “If President Donald Trump wants to stop this war, he should use U.S. leverage, including halting arms supplies to Israel, to stop the attack on Lebanon,” and, “I believe we must not tolerate the war crimes committed by Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israeli government, for the sake of the Jewish ‘moral preservation’ as well.” The following is a Q&A with Mabourak.

- How has your identity as an Iranian- and Jewish-American influenced the formation of your political views?

“I was born in South Florida, where the Jewish population share is high, grew up within a Jewish cultural community, and I still cherish my identity as a Jew. Although my father is Iranian, he left Iran in the 1970s and has never been able to return, so I was effectively raised cut off from Iran. What I heard about the Middle East in the Jewish community was based solely on fear. Israel was cast as David standing up to Goliath, and I heard nothing beyond the simple narrative that ‘everyone hates us because we are Jewish’.”

- Then how did you come to work at NIAC advocating for the rights of Iranian Americans?

“After graduating from college and taking part in various political movements, I met for the first time people from other Middle Eastern countries such as Palestine, Yemen, and Lebanon. Until then I had never met Middle Easterners who had been harmed by attacks led by Israel. When I met them, the simplified narratives inside me began to crumble. In particular, hearing the stories of Iranian Americans who communicate with families in Iran led me to rethink the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) under the Barack Obama administration, which had been seen in the Jewish American community only as ‘capitulation’ and ‘failure’. I came to realize that easing the sanctions that had isolated Iran from the outside world was creating conditions for the growth of a middle class that could advance democracy in Iran from within, and I shifted toward supporting diplomacy.”

- I have heard that because the Iranian diaspora is deeply divided, organizations like NIAC that argue for a diplomatic solution have been heavily attacked not only by pro-Israel groups but also by other Iranian groups that support war.

“That is right. Because NIAC opposes war, we have faced unfair attacks that we are defending the Iranian regime from pro-Israel groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), as well as from Iranian groups that support restoring Reza Pahlavi and from opposition media such as Iran International. Their claim that maximum pressure must be imposed to topple the regime in Iran stems from collective trauma experienced during the Iranian Revolution and cannot be lightly dismissed. Yet this war has stripped their argument of persuasiveness. Iran has instead gained greater leverage through the war, namely the ability to threaten closure of the Strait of Hormuz.”

- There are also claims that if President Trump stops the war now, a further emboldened Iranian regime cannot be contained.

“Has this war not demonstrated that the more the United States intervenes, the more it strengthens hardliners in Iran who reject diplomacy and seek nuclear weapons? Just as the future of the United States should be decided by 300 million Americans, the future of Iran should be decided not by any external force but by the 90 million Iranians who live there. In fact, they have the capacity to do so. In the ‘Women, Life, Freedom’ movement, Iranian citizens made meaningful gains without outside interference. The United States should stop intervening in domestic politics in Iran, among other reasons so that the Iranian government cannot plausibly claim that popular uprisings are instigated by outside forces. According to polling conducted by NIAC, 70% of Iranian Americans oppose this war. This is not merely an idealistic claim. It arises from a deep understanding of history that U.S. interventions in Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan failed to improve the lives of people in those countries or of Americans.”

- Even President Trump now seems to want to step away from this unpopular war. But hardliners within the Republican Party and Israel have emerged as variables.

“President Trump and Republican hardliners are trapped in an ‘escalation trap’ of their own making. The hardliners have effectively ‘delegated’ Iran policy to Israel and insist that negotiations with Iran are simply impossible. They ignore the voices of prominent Iranian opposition politicians who have long advised that war cannot be the solution and of Iranian American groups such as NIAC, while treating only the views of Israel as if they were expert opinions.”

- According to a survey by the Jewish organization J Street, 60% of Jewish Americans also oppose the Iran war.

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeks to equate himself with all Jews. Pro-Israel lobbying groups have even tried to pass bills that would redefine criticism of Israel as an apartheid state as antisemitism. That makes it harder for those of us who fight antisemitism. For our safety and moral preservation, we should not tolerate the State of Israel, which is committing horrific crimes under the pretext of values Judaism seeks to uphold. So long as Israel commits war crimes against Palestinians and wages war on neighboring countries, the safety of Jews can never be guaranteed. Like it or not, the safety of Jews and the safety of Iranians and Palestinians are interconnected.”

- Since the launch of the second Trump administration, arrests and deportations of Iranians have increased.

“Last year and early this year, the Trump administration put Iranians who had fled Iran and applied for asylum onto planes and returned them to Iran on three occasions. People whose lives are threatened by the Iranian government because of religion or sexual orientation were deported back to Iran. Even those who are lawfully present in the United States are facing danger. Four Iranian nationals with no criminal record have been detained and placed in removal proceedings, and with adjustments of status such as for green card applicants suspended indefinitely, the legal status of many Iranians has been put at risk. One piece of good news is that a federal court sided with 83 Iranian nationals in a lawsuit supported by NIAC.”

- American civil society looks powerless, unable to stop President Trump from running amok.

“Seeing the tremendous pain and violence that families and relatives in Iran are suffering has left Iranian Americans deeply frustrated, and I feel a real sense of frustration, too. Still, we are not letting go of hope. American politics moves slowly, but it does move. The way to stop this war is to use U.S. leverage over Israel to halt the attack on Lebanon, and ahead of the November election there are more candidates pledging to cut off arms supplies to Israel. In fact, stopping arms to Israel can be accomplished if legislators are willing to enforce laws that already exist, such as the Leahy Law, the Arms Export Control Act, and the Foreign Assistance Act. The United States has no reason to subordinate itself to the interests of Prime Minister Netanyahu. Recently, a War Powers Resolution measure passed the U.S. House, and Representative Tom Barrett, a Republican from Michigan, cast a yes vote for the first time. Farmers in his district protested because fertilizer prices surged due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian Americans are a small population, but if many groups such as farmers, veterans, and labor unions join in solidarity to press members of Congress, change can happen. I am holding on to that hope.”