Washington Report, October 18, 1982, Page 4

Lobby Activities

For Arabs:

Two of the most active organizations of Arab-Americans—the National Association of Arab-Americans (NAAA) and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC)—have grown by leaps and bounds over the last four months.

NAAA's membership has increased more than 60 percent, while ADC enlisted 300 new members at a recent fund-raising dinner in Utica, New York, to boost its dues—paying members to over 11,000.

Both organizations have also hired about 20 new people. NAAA recruited Howard Cook to serve as its main lobbyist on Capitol Hill replacing Jean Courey, who was shifted to corporate relations. Mr. Cook worked in congressional relations under the Johnson Administration and has served as a lobbyist for the American Medical Association. NAAA also hired an office administrator and several researchers. Meanwhile, the 45 volunteers that joined NAAA early last summer to lobby members of Congress and help out in the Association's office have stayed on. NAAA's Communications Director, Ronald Cathell, told The Washington Report that with the new staff it hopes to be a more effective lobbying organization when Congress returns after the November elections.

Many of ADC's nine new staffers were hired for the "Save Lebanon" program, the Committee's national effort to assist victims of the war in Lebanon and to provide services to needy relatives in the U.S. ADC has also started a new research institute that is being headed by Dr. Eric Hoogland, who has taught Middle East politics at Bowdoin College in Maine and at Ohio State University ADC has opened new offices in Delano, California, and Boston, Massachusetts, and has started a new chapter in New Orleans, Louisiana. A fulltime director has also been hired at its Los Angeles branch. At the same time, ADC offices in Portland, Houston, Detroit, Pittsburgh and Los Angeles have launched newsletters for local-members.

For Israel:

American Jewish organizations have stepped up their efforts to rebuild congressional and public support for Israel that has been lost over the last several months, particularly since the Beirut massacre.

One senior legislative assistant to a Representative on Capitol Hill told The Washington Report that he has never before received the variety of pro-Israel literature that he has recently. In addition to the regular memorandums from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, he has been getting written statements, newsletters and reprinted editorials from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the Zionist Organization of America, Herut-U.S.A.-an organization which says it has close ties with Prime Minister Begin's political party the American Council for Judaism, and the Israel Shelanu, a Hebrew newspaper published in New York.

Much of the recent literature has attempted to turn around criticism of Israel by trying to fix blame for the massacre squarely on the Phalange militia. At the same time, the pro-Israel groups are hailing Israel's democracy, arguing that it was Israel's freedoms of press and assembly that helped pressure Mr. Begin to call for a full investigation, which most of the groups supported.

Some Jewish groups are also trying to improve their relations with the media, which was accused by many Jewish organizations during the war of an anti-Israel slant. After complaining to The Washington Post of allegedly biased reporting in favor of the PLO, Dr. Michael Berenbaum of the Jewish Community Council of Greater Washington was invited recently by the Post's Executive Editor, Benjamin Bradlee, to spend a week observing the newspaper's operations. Dr. Berenbaum said his stay was "part of an attempt to improve the dialogue between the Jewish community and The Washington Post." The newspaper's ombudsman, Robert McCloskey, told The Washington Report that as far as he knew no invitation had been issued to any Arab-American groups, despite similar complaints about coverage.

Meanwhile, the government of Israel submitted to the U.S. on October 8 a request for $3.18 billion in military and economic assistance for fiscal year 1984, $100 million more than was requested for the current fiscal year.