Washington Report, November 5, 1984, Page 8

Lobby Activities

For Arabs:

Arab Americans made noticeable strides as participants in this year's presidential election campaigns. This increased involvement is seen in the fact that, for the first time ever, the Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns appointed Arab Americans to help generate votes within the Arab American community. By contrast, when it became known during the last presidential election that an Arab American had been offered a similar liaison position with President Carter's campaign, it attracted negative publicity and was withdrawn.

Joseph Baroody, the national chairman of Arab Americans for Reagan-Bush, announced late last month that a national committee of 28 Arab Americans had been formed to recruit supporters for President Reagan. "Thousands," he said, responded. The American Federation of Ramallah, Palestine, which claims 30,000 members nationally, endorsed Mr. Reagan's reelection.

In addition to Mr. Baroody, and the three Democratic members of Congress serving in informal liaison positions with the Mondale campaign—Rep. Nick J. Rahall (D-WVA), Rep. Mary Rose Oakar (D-OH), and Sen. George Mitchell (D-ME)—a number of other Arab Americans played visible roles in this year's election. Lawyer George Salem served as executive director of Ethnic Voters for Reagan-Bush, while some 10 Arab Americans participated as delegates or officials at last summer's Democratic National Convention. Among them was Essa SackIlah of Houston, the first Palestinian American ever elected as a Democratic delegate, according to the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC).

Many Arab Americans were drawn to the Rev. Jesse Jackson and his unsuccessful bid to win the Democratic party's nomination. One of Rev. Jackson's deputy campaign managers was James Zogby, who was then serving as executive director of ADC. Mr. Zogby estimated that Arab Americans contributed about $200,000 to the Jackson campaign.

Both James Zogby and David Sadd, executive director of the National Association of Arab Americans, consider 1984 to be a landmark year for Arab American political involvement. "Today we have an organizational presence in American political life that cannot be ignored," Zogby said last July, after the Democratic convention. More recently, Mr. Sadd stated that for the first time "Americans of Arab heritage are seriously contributing as a body to the American political process."

For Israel:

During the final days of the 1984 presidential campaign, President Reagan and Vice President Bush used their appearances before Jewish American audiences to alleviate concerns that a second Reagan Administration might overstep the Constitutional separation of church and state. President Reagan's support for prayer in public schools, and his close ties with the "religious right," drew criticism from some Jewish organizations and became key issues for many Jewish voters. The candidates' views on Israel were of seemingly less importance as a determining issue, since both strongly supported the Jewish state.

Speaking at a synagogue on Long Island less than two weeks before election day, President Reagan said that as Americans "we establish no religion in this country, we command no worship, we mandate no belief." Similarly, Vice President Bush told a meeting of the Zionist Organization of America that keeping religion and politics separate "means defending the rights of others to practice their faiths or refrain from practicing any faith as they see fit."

Despite these reassurances, the head of the American Jewish Congress, Rabbi Henry Siegman, called Mr. Reagan to task for allowing "the Christian right," as he put it, to become the "very heart" of the conservative movement in America, and for allowing it a prominent voice within the Republican party. "What is particularly ominous is that all of this has happened with the support and blessing of our President," Rabbi Siegman said, adding that "there's nothing innocent about the President's involvement."

Mr. Mondale's supporters sought to exploit this sentiment to swing votes in their favor.