Washington Report, November 28, 1983, Page 5

Lobby Activities

For Arabs:

A media blitz launched by the National Association of Arab Americans (NAAA) has generated a considerable amount of publicity in the Washington-Baltimore area during the past month over the issue of U.S. aid to Israel. Despite the NAAA's efforts, however, Congress approved its largest ever aid package for Israel—$2.61 billion—before adjourning for the year. (See story on p. 4)

The first phase of the campaign consisted of 60-second radio advertisements that were run, beginning October 31, on four stations in Washington and one in Baltimore. In one segment of the ads, listeners were asked: "At a time when there is less for all Americans, when unemployment affects millions, when we are suffering the effects of Israel's invasion of Lebanon, is it fair for Congress to give $2.6 billion to Israel?" Congressman Clarence D. Long (D-Md.) was singled out in the ads as being in "the forefront of this 'More for Israel' campaign." NAAA spokesman Ronald Cathell said that the ads were later updated "practically over night" when, on November 4, Mr. Long added to a budget resolution an amendment which proposed more aid for Israel. The amendment was later approved.

NAAA's Maryland chapter called a press conference November 8 to protest the refusal by 14 Baltimore radio stations to air the advertisements. One station manager who refused them said publicly that he thought the ads were "anti-semitic." A spokesman for one of the Washington stations which ran the ad said it caused an "overwhelming response" by persons on both sides of the issue, while another station spokesman said that as a result of the ads he had "received a lot of positive statements toward the NAAA. They have been more positive than negative."

As part of the second phase of the campaign NAAA put up 10 billboards along frequently traveled commuter routes into Washington. The signs, in place through mid-December, show bar graphs comparing U.S. aid levels to Israel and Lebanon with the amount of humanitarian assistance provided to the Palestinians.

The controversy created by both the radio spots and the billboards generated numerous newspaper articles and led to some two dozen invitations to NAAA, asking its spokesmen to participate in radio talk programs on stations broadcast in Washington, Baltimore, New York, Detroit, Minneapolis and other U.S. cities.

For Israel:

Although many Jewish American leaders have strong misgivings over the Middle East views of Rev. Jesse Jackson, a black Democratic candidate for the presidency, some of them have moved quickly to try to head off a potential schism between the Jewish community and black Americans which threatened to develop as the result of a recent anti-Jackson newspaper advertisement. The two column ad, which ran almost the length of a full page, said Jackson was "a danger to American Jews, and was illustrated with a photo showing Jesse Jackson embracing PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat. It appeared in The New York Times on November 11, and was sponsored by a group called "Jews Against Jackson."

Albert Vorspan, vice president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC), expressed the sentiment of many Jewish leaders when he told some 3,000 delegates attending a UAHC meeting that Jewish Americans should "refuse to turn the Jackson campaign into a Jewish-black confrontation." But Hyman Bookbinder, Washington representative of the American Jewish Committee, in writing his personal views in an article for the Washington Jewish Week, said that "If he (Jackson) should cling to his view about Jewish interests that have angered our community in the past—and do it in front of the inevitable TV cameras that will broadcast his words to millions—then a confrontation is unavoidable." Mr. Bookbinder went on to quote Rev. Jackson as having said in the past that Zionism is a "poisonous weed that's choking the flower of Judaism" and that the resignation of U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young in 1979 was a "capitulation to Jewish pressures."

Several days after the ad appeared a meeting was held between representatives of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and Rev. Jackson. Also attending was another black leader, Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry, Jr. and Mark Siegel, founder of the pro-Israel National Bipartisan Political Action Committee, who assessed the meeting as "positive and constructive and at least it was the opening of a dialogue. To the extent that we can talk and not shout, that's progress."

"Jews Against Jackson" was started by the Jewish Defense League (JDL), whose founder, Rabbi Meir Kahane, was evicted by police for causing a disturbance at the rally in Washington where Rev. Jackson formally announced his candidacy. The group is forming chapters across the country, according to the ad.