Lobby Activities

By George F. Smalley

For Arabs:

On June 7, a number of American groups combined efforts to collect contributions for relief of the victims of attacks on the Sabra, Shatila, and Burj al-Barajineh Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut. Guest speakers at an evening benefit held at the Hotel Washington in Washington, D.C. were Felicia Langer, an Israeli attorney who frequently defends Palestinians, and Professor Edward Said of Columbia University, a member of the Palestine National Council. Sponsors of this event included the Washington chapter of the American Federation of Ramallah, Palestine, the EI-Bireh Palestine Society, the Palestine Human Rights Campaign, and the relief group Save Lebanon.

The director of Save Lebanon, James Zogby, has said that in addition to giving humanitarian assistance to members of some 700 Palestinian families who have fled the camps, his group also had sent a letter to President Hafez al-Assad of Syria, urging him to try to halt the assault on the three camps by Lebanese Shiite militiamen. Speaking to reporters on May 29, the same day the letter was sent, Dr. Zogby said that Syria has "considerable leverage" in Lebanon, and that "if they had a mind to it the Syrians could put an end, or at least a dent, in the fighting that is taking place."

A more direct appeal to stop the fighting was made in a letter to Nabih Berri, the leader of the Shiite Amal militia in Lebanon, Dr. Zogby said, and to Mr. Berri's "contacts" in the U.S. Amal laid siege to the camps on May 19, saying that it would not allow Palestinian fighters to regain the power they exercised in Lebanon prior to Israel's 1982 invasion.

Dr. Zogby also called on the Reagan Administration to honor its commitment—made to the PLO at the time of its withdrawal from Beirut in the summer of 1982—to protect Palestinian families left behind in Lebanon, either by pursuing a U.S.-sponsored resolution in the U.N. Security Council, or by asking Arab governments to intervene diplomatically.

As a first step in its relief efforts, Dr. Zogby said that Save Lebanon gave $9,000 to two humanitarian groups in Lebanon to help Palestinian families that took refuge in the area around the abandoned U.S. Embassy in West Beirut. According to Dr. Zogby, the two groups, Najdi and Amel, purchased and distributed basic items such as bedding, pots and pans, and food. An estimated 50,000 Palestinians were living in and around the three refugee camps before the fighting started, but thousands now have fled to other areas of Beirut.

Appeals to end the fighting also were made by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) and the National Association of Arab Americans (NAAA). ADC chairman and former Senator from South Dakota James Abourezk said the fighting was "totally senseless" and "can do nothing but bring joy to the hearts of the Zionists." NAAA said in a brief statement that it "mourns the bloodshed and loss of life" and condemns "the spectacle of Arab killing Arab."

For Israel:

Battle lines have been drawn by the pro-Israel lobby to oppose the Reagan Administration's plan to hold a meeting between U.S. officials and a delegation of Jordanians and Palestinians, provided the Palestinians are not members of the PLO. President Reagan was encouraged to take this step by King Hussein of Jordan during the king's recent visit to Washington, and the White House responded by saying it would work for such a meeting soon as a prelude to direct peace negotiations between the delegation of Arabs and the Israeli government.

The gauntlet was thrown down by Kenneth Bialkin, the chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the umbrella group of 38 national Jewish organizations in the U.S. Writing in a June 11 Op-Ed article in the New York Times, Mr. Bialkin criticized the Reagan Administration's plan to meet first with Jordanians and Palestinians, arguing that King Hussein himself must take the next step, not by helping arrange the meeting the U.S. already is behind, but rather by agreeing to negotiate directly and immediately with Israel. Otherwise, Mr. Bialkin warned, "Israel will continue to occupy the territories and to further incorporate them and their inhabitants into its economy and society."

Mr. Bialkin said "it is hard to see the point" of the U.S. holding separate talks with an Arab delegation. "For a peace negotiation to mean anything," he said, "the parties involved must have a clear objective and must be willing to take steps to reach it." Mr. Bialkin added: "Neither the PLO nor King Hussein seem prepared to take any such steps, and it is hard to imagine that talks with them would amount to anything but fractious rhetoric."

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), itself one of the 38 member groups of the Conference headed by Mr. Bialkin, editorialized in a recent issue of its newsletter, Near East Report, that "the stumbling block (to peace talks) remains King Hussein's refusal to accept direct negotiations with Israel without preconditions."

The opposition within AIPAC and the larger pro-Israel community to the proposed meeting mirrors the stand taken by the Israeli government. On June 10, Prime Minister Shimon Peres outlined a five-point plan to bring about Arab-Israeli negotiations, but it excluded any prior talks between the United States and Jordanian and Palestinian representatives. The Prime Minister charged that this step was designed by King Hussein "to bring about partial (U.S.) recognition" of the PLO. Both Israel and its mainline supporters in the U.S. have long opposed U.S. government actions to confer, or those which appear to confer, legitimacy upon the PLO or the Palestinian cause.

Meanwhile, in a separate statement issued June 5 Mr. Bialkin cautioned the Administration and Congress that any new U.S. arms sales to Jordan "will create additional problems for Israel by placing an added financial burden on its economy that could severely threaten the chances for economic recovery." Similarly, AIPAC's executive director Thomas Dine recently told legislators at a hearing that Israel's troubled economy would face an "added burden" if the U.S. sells Jordan sophisticated planes and missiles because Israel, according to this argument, would have to purchase more arms, too.

To block the sale, Mr. Bialkin and Mr. Dine are arguing that King Hussein has made no substantive moves toward peace and that the king has appeared conciliatory only as a ploy to get American arms. For his part, King Hussein believes that before he can go farther than he already has to make peace he must be reassured—such as by an arms sale—that the Reagan Administration is prepared to support him.

George F. Smalley is managing editor of The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.