April/May 1995, Pages 70-72

American Jews and Israel

By Nathan Jones

Likud Lobbying Irks Rabin

In the 1980s when Israeli government policies were dictated by leaders of the hard-line Likud party, they and Israel's U.S. lobbyists bitterly denounced efforts by Israeli peace activists to convince the American Jewish community and members of Congress to oppose the West Bank Jewish settlements that were creating "obstacles to peace." Now the situation is reversed, with a parade of Israeli right-wing leaders raising funds in the U.S. for use in Israel's 1996 election campaign, and at the same time urging members of Congress to oppose a U.S. role in guaranteeing any land-for-peace agreement reached between Israel's Labor government and Syria.

Directors of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, much of whose funding is controlled by whatever government is in power in Israel, are divided. The organization strongly supports the Labor government position. Individual directors, however, remain personally cognizant of the fact that Likud may soon be in the driver's seat again in Israel. They are not anxious to undergo the high-level organizational purges that accompanied efforts in late 1992 to convince incoming Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin that a U.S. organization that had been so supportive of Likud governments could be equally supportive of a Labor government.

Two of the most divisive U.S. visits of 1995 have been by Likud leader Benyamin Natanyahu and would-be Likud leader Ariel Sharon. Upon his return from a February trip to the United States, Sharon described in the March 18 international edition of the Jerusalem Post some of his conversations with U.S. congressmembers and Jewish leaders and added:

"When Labor leaders return from their travels, I set out for the same Jewish communities in which they have left confusion and disorder, where they have advocated strengthening Arafat 'as a shield for Israel.' I go to the same newspapers, the same editorial writers, to AIPAC, to the congressional committees, the senators on Capitol Hill...There is just one ray of light in the national camp, and that's the Judea, Samaria and Gaza Settlers' Council. I have been part of their campaign for years, setting up an information network in the U.S. and Europe."

It will therefore come as no surprise to Washington Report readers to learn that Sharon's February visit to the U.S. was sponsored by the YESHA Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. In a Feb. 22 appearance under YESHA auspices at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, Sharon said that "once there is a different government in Israel composed of national Jewish parties, the settlements will proceed and develop."

He said that "one should think of several hundred thousands living in areas that are vital to the security of Israel." Sharon added that "we do not see any possibility whatsoever that those Jewish communities will ever be under foreign jurisdiction."

Sharon divided his press conference into English- and Hebrew-language sessions. Addressing English-speaking journalists, Sharon said "we would like to see all of the foreign embassies in the capital of Israel, and the capital of the Jews for the past 3,000 years...What we expect from the American political echelon is to understand the problems of Israel. We have to explain the dangers and we hope that they will understand that no pressure should be put on Israel that would endanger our existence there. I do not see any pressure and as a matter of fact, there is no pressure from this administration...I would not have signed anything with Arafat. He is a major war criminal, a murderer. No one since Adolf Hitler has had so much Jewish blood on his hands. Israel should regain what it gave up in Gaza, the right to preemptive search and seizure and hot pursuit...If self-rule is given in Gaza and Jericho, it will not be granted over the whole area...Arafat is not the greatest hope of mankind."

Netanyahu Attacks Oslo Accord During U.S. Tour

Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who also visited the U.S. in February, likewise made it clear that if Israeli voters bring him to power he will not further implement the Oslo agreement. He told a Heritage Foundation audience in Washington, DC that although a future Likud government would not seek to reoccupy Gaza, it would reserve the right to strike at "terrorists" there. He said his government would revert to pre-Oslo formulas to grant only limited autonomy to Palestinians in the West Bank.

"Gaza will not be the model for Judea and Samaria," Netanyahu said. "We have to go back to the model which was the premise" of the Madrid agreement of 1991 and to the Camp David accords of 1978.

Last November Netanyahu told leaders at the Council of Jewish Federations' General Assembly in Denver that debate about the peace process should be conducted in the Israeli Knesset, not in the U.S. Congress. However, his February visit to the U.S., in which he met with a number of congressmembers, was his fourth in six months. President Bill Clinton declined Netanyahu's request for an appointment.

Labor Party Dissenter Joins U.S. Trek

If the U.S. lobbying and fund-raising of his Likud party rivals upset Israeli Prime Minister Rabin, the visit that probably aggravated him most was that of Labor Party Knesset member and deputy mayor of Tel Aviv Avigdor Kahalani.

Kahalani is chairman of "The Third Way," a movement of dissenting Labor politicians and retired military leaders who oppose plans to trade Golan Heights or Jordan Valley land for peace.

Kahalani made a 12-day trip to the U.S. after both Sharon and Netanyahu, speaking to journalists at the National Press Club and to congressmembers including Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms (R-NC). Denouncing Kahalani from Israel, Rabin said Third Way leaders do not represent the Labor Party and that Kahalani's trip was sponsored by right-wing forces in Israel.

"Israel finds itself with certain problems regarding its relationship with the U.S. as a result of the activities of the right wing," Rabin was quoted as saying in the March 18 Jerusalem Post. "In the U.S. there is talk of reconsidering aid to Israel, and there are those who say the aid should be channeled through the Defense Department budget. There could be no greater mistake. It will cause a confrontation between Israel and the Pentagon. That's all we need. Everything we've built during the last 20 years will go pfeiffen."

The Yiddish expression "go pfeiffen" seems to have found its way into American argot as "go pffft." Rabin's specific concern was over Sen. Jesse Helms' remarks about abolishing foreign aid and letting the Pentagon provide whatever aid Israel still needs from the Defense Department budget (see report on page 26).

Rabin Lobbies To Help Jordan

King Hussein of Jordan has high hopes that his peace treaty with Israel will yield U.S. aid on the magnitude of Egypt's $2.1 billion annually over each of the next 10 years. He was specifically given to understand that it would result in forgiveness of Jordan's approximately $750 million debt to the U.S. government. Both he and Israeli Prime Minister Rabin were stunned, therefore, when Republican budget cutters announced that the current installment on debt forgiveness for Jordan might be cut from $275 million to $50 million.

The Jordan monarch, who had a visit to Washington to lobby for aid already scheduled for March, was saved from pleading for what he already had been promised, however, by a high-level lobbyist named Yitzhak Rabin. The Israeli prime minister telephoned President Clinton and, according to White House spokesman Michael McCurry, was "upset and somewhat alarmed" about reductions in the program that was to wipe out Jordan's debt in three roughly equal installments.

Somehow House Speaker Newt Gingrich got the word, saying "the whole argument now is a matter of timing." He added in Delphic Gingrich style: "No one has any arguments, because you're not going to get the money back anyway. You're just keeping it on the books." Translation by Washington director Jess Hordes of the Anti-Defamation League: "The question is no longer whether Jordan will get the full debt relief, but how it gets packaged."

Loss of the financial rewards promised by the United States would be a particularly bitter pill for King Hussein, who has had to crack down hard on press and other freedoms at home to keep popular discontent over the treaty with Israel from breaking into the open. Jordanians had to listen to Israel radio to learn that buses carrying Israeli tourists have been stoned, both on the road to Petra and even in the Jordan valley between the Israeli border and Amman. They also learned from Israeli media that near Petra the tomb of Aaron, the brother of Moses, has been defaced by graffiti left by Israeli tourists, and that one busload of Israeli tourists was turned back at the Jordanian border because passengers from a nearby Israeli kibbutz were found to be carrying counterfeit Jordanian dinars.

New Jersey Jewish Federation Will Donate to Settlements

The Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County, NJ has become the first federation in the United States to break the unwritten rule that money raised for Israel by Jewish federations in the U.S. would not be spent outside the Green Line, Israel's 1967 border. The federation will send $22,000 to the American Friends of the Israel Community Development Fund in New York to support facilities in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Ariel. The controversial decision may set a precedent for other federations. It may also alienate donors who believe in a land-for-peace agreement with the Palestinians.

There are 181 local Jewish federations in the United States. Traditionally they divide their charitable contributions about equally between Jewish causes in the United States and Israel. They allocated $230 million to Israel in 1993 and $201 million in 1994. A federation spokesman said the drop resulted not from reduced collections but because federations chose to keep more of their money at home. Federation leaders have criticized YESHA leaders for demanding a share of federation contributions for settlements at the same time they are conducting independent U.S. fund-raising appeals.

Clinton to Address 1995 AIPAC Meet

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee's 1995 conference will open May 7 with a morning session featuring addresses on Middle East peace by U.S. President Bill Clinton and, by satellite, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Also invited to participate is Crown Prince Hassan of Jordan. Other speakers scheduled for the three-day conference in the Sheraton Washington Hotel in the national capital include Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-KS), Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD), House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) and, in a discussion of the 1996 presidential election and foreign policy, Marvin Kalb of George Washington University, William Kristol, former chief of staff to Dan Quayle, New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis, and New Republic owner and editor-in-chief Martin Peretz. Registration for all conference events is $375, but partial registration rates also are available from AIPAC at 440 First St. N.W., Suite 600, Washington, DC 20001, telephone (202) 639-5202.

AIPAC Attacked Over Contract With America

Matthew Dorf of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported in an article printed March 2 in the Washington Jewish Week that some Jewish activists were criticizing AIPAC for not having entered the congressional battle in opposition to the balanced budget amendment. Linda Heller Kamm, co-president of Americans for Peace Now, said the amendment would have "dire consequences for the nation's economy" and the ability of the U.S. to fund the peace process. AIPAC supporters countered that "the amendment would not affect its major issues of concern: aid to Israel and the peace process," Dorf reported.

In a subsequent article printed in the March 16 Washington Jewish Week, Dorf reported that "legislation now on Capitol Hill threatens tens of thousands of Jewish immigrants who collect welfare benefits." He explained:

"Many in the Jewish organizational world are concerned that local communities will be forced to fill the void when Jewish immigrants who now receive welfare are forced off the rolls...The overwhelming majority of Jews who come to the United States each year from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe enter the country as refugees. Thousands more come from Iran. An estimated 30,000 Jews are expected to come to the United States from the former Soviet Union this year alone."

The House welfare reform bill limits refugees to five years of benefits and cuts from the welfare rolls all other categories of immigrants except refugees over 75 years of age and those who become U.S. citizens.

Two Jewish Organizations Attack Farrakhan Contracts

B'nai B'rith's Anti-Defamation League has joined the American Jewish Congress in a campaign against contracts let by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to the Nation of Islam (NOI) to provide security services in federal housing developments. NOI is headed by Minister Louis Farrakhan, who is accused by Jewish leaders of preaching anti-Semitism.

Both national Jewish organizations have taken out full-page advertisements in Jewish weekly newspapers to air their charges against Farrakhan. Inquiries from the American Jewish Congress, Rep. Peter King (R-NY) and, after the November 1994 election, Senator Bob Dole (R-KS) have inspired a HUD investigation of the contracts and a March 2 House subcommittee hearing on the contracts.