March 1989, Page 29

Focus on Jews and Israel

By Andrea Barron

Soviets Jewish Immigration to Israel May Climb

US business leaders and Jewish leaders are reported to have reached agreement which could result in a significant increase in the number of Soviet Jews who settle in Israel. According to this arrangement Duane Andreas, chairman of the US-Soviet Trade and Economic Council, would ask Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to allow direct flights between Moscow and Tel Aviv. If Gorbachev consents, the Jewish leaders would encourage the new Bush administration to waive the Jackson-Vanik Amendment. This amendment has imposed tariffs on imports from Soviet bloc countries because of the restrictions these nations have placed on emigration. (One Jewish organization—the American Jewish Congress—already supports a temporary suspension of Jackson-Vanik.)

Larry Cohler reported in the Washington Jewish Week that the agreement between the Jewish delegation and the US-Soviet trade association may have been concluded at a private January meeting held in the New York apartment of Edgar Bronfman, president of the World Jewish Congress. A list of participants reads like a "Who's Who" of world Jewry. Besides Bronfman, it includes Simcha Dinitz, chair of the World Zionist Organization-Jewish Agency Executive; Seymour Reich, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations; Morris Abram, immediate past chair of the Presidents' Conference; and Shoshana Cardin, the head of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry. The US-Soviet Trade Council, which wants to promote trade between the United States and the Soviet Union, was represented by Andreas, who is Jewish, the council's executive director James Giffen, and several other council members.

At present, only Jews who possess letters from relatives inviting them to live in Israel are granted Soviet exit visas. The emigres arrive first in Vienna or Bucharest, carrying Israeli visas. But then, instead of continuing on to Israel, some 90 percent of them "drop out." Most proceed to the United States, which admits them as refugees. Israeli government officials say their country desperately needs Jewish immigrants and they have approached American-Jewish leaders for help in stopping the diversion of Jewish refugees to the US. The question of the emigres' final destination has become more heated since the number of Jews allowed out of the Soviet Union is expected to climb to 38,000 in 1989. More than 19,000 Jews left the Soviet Union in 1988, the highest number in nine years.

Some American-Jewish leaders have argued that Soviet emigres should have the right to settle in the US regardless of the type of visa they have. But others say they are worried that the cost of resettling the emigres could overwhelm their communal institutions. That is one reason they say they support direct flights between Moscow and Israel, which would eliminate the "drop out" problem. For Morris Abram, "the issue is not an issue of human rights but the redemption of Jews as Jews. (The emigres) should go to Israel," he told the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot. "I did not hear in my whole life about a demonstration to let Jews go to Brighton Beach." The Brighton Beach community in New York has one of the largest concentrations of Soviet Jews in the US.

AIPAC Begins the New Year With Its Hands Full

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is gearing up to lobby the 101st Congress with a new legislative director. Esther Kurz, deputy director of AIPAC's legislative department, willbe replacing Douglas Bloomfield, who recently left the organization because of a conflict with research director Steve Rosen. Rosen has argued for more executive branch lobbying while Bloomfield wanted AIPAC to continue to concentrate on Congress. Kurz reportedly accepted the position with the understanding that congressional lobbying would remain AIPAC's primary focus.

AIPAC will have its hands full during the Bush administration, as it seeks to counter growing public support for the Palestinians, which has been emerging since the intifadah began in December 1987. The organization will continue fighting for the traditional items on its agenda—maintaining high levels of aid to Israel, preventing arms sales to Arab countries, improving US-Israel trade relations, and trying to delegitimize the PLO. It appears, however, that AIPAC may also be preparing to lead a struggle against grassroots Middle East peace initiatives which support Palestinian statehood.

In a November 1988 fund-raising letter, Edward Levy, the president of AIPAC, and Thomas Dine, its executive director, cited two "anti-Israel" local initiatives which, they said, "condemned Israel" and called for a Palestinian state. (The initiatives had appeared on ballots in San Francisco and Cambridge, MA, but neither referendum "condemned" the Jewish state. Question 5 in Cambridge called for a cut in aid to Israel and "peace for all states in (the Middle East) including Israel," while Proposition W in San Francisco supported US recognition of the Palestinians' right to self-determination and a state next to Israel.)

Levy and Dine praised the pro-Israel community in San Francisco for "recognizing the danger early. They mobi lized fully against the proposition (and) joined with the national pro-Israel community to fight the measure." The letter went on to criticize the Cambridge pro-Israel community, which "did not take all these steps (and) did not take advantage of their true potential." The San Francisco resolution was defeated by a 2-1 margin but voters approved the Cambridge referendum.

The Boston Globe may not have paid very much attention to what happened in Cambridge on Nov. 8 but Washington's most powerful foreign policy lobby certainly did.

Andrea Barron is a Ph.D. candidate in international relations at the American University in Washington, DC, and is a member of the Jewish Committee for Israeli-Palestinian Peace.