Clinton Hopes Indyk Appointment Will Appease Jewish Leaders

By Sheldon L. Richman

The appointment of Martin Indyk as President Bill Clinton's chief Middle East adviser was aimed at easing concern in the American Jewish community that the new administration lacked a strong advocate of Israel. Prior to Indyk's assumption of the key White House position, American Jewish leaders had been quoted as expressing concern both about the absence of a recognized partisan of Israel and about the presence of Secretary of State Warren Christopher. The Jewish leaders' complaint was based on Christopher's service in the number two State Department position under both Cyrus Vance and Edmund Muskie in the administration of former President Carter. Among pro-Israel groups, the Carter administration is regarded as having been too hard on Israel and too accommodating to the Arabs.

Indyk, executive director of the pro-Israel Washington Institute for Near East Policy, was named National Security Council senior director for the Near East and South Asia and as a special assistant to the president. He is a former employee of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and a founder, with a former member of the AIPAC board of directors, of the Washington Institute, which consistently took pro-Likud positions when Yitzhak Shamir was in power.

The appointment of Christopher was known to be such a troubling matter to Israel supporters that, according to an article by White House correspondent Thomas Friedman in The New York Times, Clinton asked several Jewish senators to lobby Jewish leaders to back the appointment. The disquiet by mainstream Jewish leaders over Christopher's selection reportedly was aggravated by the naming of W. Anthony Lake as national security adviser and Peter Tarnoff as a top State Department official. Lake and Tarnoff, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, also worked for Carter.

The Times article itself created controversy. Washington Jewish Week (WJW reported that some American Jewish leaders disavowed the views expressed in the Times and that Christopher met with Jewish leaders to give his assurances about his support for Israel. After the meeting, those leaders said they were satisfied with Christopher, according to WJW. Among those seeing Christopher were Lester Pollack, the new chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations; Malcolm Hoenlein, executive director of the conference; and Monte Friedkin and Liz Schrayer, both of AIPAC.

Praise for Christopher was issued by the National Jewish Democratic Council. Executive Director Steve Gutow noted that the new secretary's comments to the congressional committee considering his appointment "underscore the strong commitment which he has to the state of Israel, which we have never doubted." Christopher's remarks were said to be "another sign that Bill Clinton's powerful pro-Israel campaign positions will be translated into foreign policy once he takes office." In those remarks, Christopher said he and Clinton would work to end the Arab boycott against Israel.

In discussions with Jewish leaders, Clinton himself has acknowledged that "there is a problem out there." He has reportedly said he would name well-known Jewish leaders to subcabinet jobs. It has also been reported that former state department official Richard Schifter, a leading neoconservative Clinton supporter and Washington Jewish Week columnist, has been offered the job of ambassador to Israel.

Some Jewish leaders were not mollified by assurances that Lake and Christopher were sympathetic to Israel. They compared the treatment of Jewish interests to those of other groups and found it unsatisfactory. "That's all fine," an anonymous executive of a major American Jewish organization told Times correspondent Friedman. "But why is it that when it came to women's issues he [Clinton] didn't say, 'Don't worry about who is in the Cabinet, Hillary will be at my side to represent you'? And why is it when it came to appointing blacks he didn't say, 'Don't worry about Cabinet posts, I have a lifelong record of civil rights activism'? But when it comes to Jews in the Cabinet, that is what we hear."

Abraham Foxman, executive director of the Anti-Defamation League, added, "When you look at the people appointed to the top foreign policy jobs, there is a lingering concern about Carterism. The Jewish community was disturbed and distressed about Carter's Middle East policy, because it was simplistic, preachy and involved holding Israel to standards that were unreasonable given the neighborhood it lives in." Foxman told the Times that there is "disquiet" about the foreign policy appointments because "all of those who will be dealing with Israel come from that background. In fairness," he added, "they are all distinguished public servants, and they will be working with [Vice President] Al Gore and Defense Secretary Les Aspin, who have been known for their open and strong support for Israel."

The Clinton people, according to the Times, believe that the mainstream pro-Israel groups worry that liberal Jewish groups, such as Americans for Peace Now, have made important inroads into the administration. Liberal Jews who are or have been Clinton appointees include Sara Ehrman, community liaison adviser; Peter Edelman, legal affairs adviser for the transition; and Eli Segal, campaign chief of staff. Other Jewish appointments include Robert Reich as secretary of labor and Mickey Kantor as U.S. trade representative. Reich is not known for his involvement in pro-Israel groups. Kantor, however, is on the AIPAC board of directors.

The Times also reported that Clinton was considering appointments of other mainline Jewish Americans to subcabinet posts in order to "defuse the tension." Being considered for jobs are Stuart E. Eizenstat, who was Carter's domestic policy adviser, and Lynn Cutler, deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

"Breaking Basic Ground Rules"

In a related matter, senior officials in Israel's foreign ministry have criticized what they regard as interference by a Jewish-American leader in Israeli-American relations. According to the weekly Forward, the officials' ire was aimed at Lester Pollack, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, who reportedly counseled Christopher against appointing a special emissary to the Middle East. The Israeli officials complained that Pollack did not discuss the matter with Jerusalem first, thus, as Forward put it, "breaking basic ground rules governing relations between Israel and the Jewish leadership in America. "

Among those perturbed at Pollack's action was Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Yossi Beilin. "I view this matter very gravely," he told Forward. "The Jewish leaders expressed their opposition to the concept of an emissary without any prior consultation with the prime minister's office or the foreign ministry. They can fight for Jewish representation in the new administration, but they cannot express views supposedly held by Israel, without consulting us first."

Complicating matters is the fact that while Beilin says Pollack conceded that he raised the emissary issue without consulting Israeli leaders, Conference Executive Director Malcolm Hoenlein denied Beilin’s charge that there had been no prior consultation with the Israeli government. The Forward reported that Hoenlein, expressed reservations about the appointment of an emissary.

The Israeli embassy would neither confirm nor deny Hoenlein’s account, according to the Forward. But the prime minister’s office has expressed support for Beilin’s complaint about the Conference of Presidents chariman. The Forward added, however, that Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin shares reservations about the appointment of an emissary. He reportedly is concerned that such an emissary would signal that the Middle East is not important enough to warrant the president’s and the secretary of state’s direct attention and that the appointment could undermine the face-to-face negotiations that began at Madrid.