Focus on Arabs and Islam

An item in this space in our previous issue discussing the pending nomination of former CIA General Counsel Stanley Sporkin to a federal judgeship cited the case of a high-ranking CIA official discharged in 1984. Friends of the CIA official, Charles Waterman, called to tell us that he was never under suspicion of making classified information available to Israel as we had stated. In fact he was not charged with revealing any classified information but was discharged only because he could not pass a polygraph test administered at the time the leak of some information was being investigated. Further, the fact that such information had been leaked was revealed through U.S. Government intercepts of cables to a Far Eastern firm. Therefore, there has never been even an allegation linking Mr. Waterman with disclosure of information to Israel. Since in the same issue we had also reprinted an article from the Washington Times naming Mr. Waterman, we contacted him and received the following statement from him:

Insisting on one's innocence in the face of distorted conclusions and calculated leaks to the contrary is a messy business, as I'm sure you can imagine. But let me state the essential facts as I know them:

As far as I know, I was never even suspected of making available any information to Israel-much less that of a sensitive, classified nature. Even had I done what was alleged in the Washington Times article, the company referred to is not Israeli, but Far Eastern.

My personal reputation, I believe, is that of being "even-handed" on Middle East issues. Most probably consider me an Arabist by inclination and background.

I utterly deny having leaked any classified or sensitive information to the alleged recipient or anyone else. The allegation in the Times article that I confessed and then recanted is simply untrue. There is no other meaningful evidence available that I leaked or provided information to anyone. The alleged recipient himself says I didn't do so.

The FBI conclusions are based entirely on polygraph readings, not facts. I have no quarrel with any judgment that I reacted to these tests emotionally. But the FBI's interpretation of these reactions is tragically wrong. The Justice Department's distorted conclusions, however, forced my departure from the CIA.

In order to redress the record we are happy to reprint Mr. Waterman's statement and deeply regret that our article and our re-printing of the Washington Times article may have given the impression that he was under suspicion of leaking information to Israel, since he was not. We received several calls on this story. The unanimous verdict of all who know Mr. Waterman—and he is well and favorably known to many present and former U.S. Government officials who have served in the Middle East—is that he has received a bum rap, first from the Department of Justice and the CIA and now from papers that have printed the allegations, including The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. We regret our role in what seems to be a true miscarriage of justice.

—Richard Curtiss

Focus on Israel and Jews

The 54th General Assembly (GA) of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds (CJF) met in Washington, D.C. November 12-17 in what the Washington Jewish Week's David Silverberg called "a time of unprecedented political strength for the Jewish community and a time of calm and cooperation in U.S.-Israeli relations." The CJF is a kind of "parliament" representing American Jews, consisting of over 200 federations located mainly in large cities and towns. The federations collect more than $600 million annually and then allocate the money to Israel—via the United Jewish Appeal—as well as to various agencies serving American Jews. Silverberg noted that this year the GA convened "in the wake of a major victory on Capitol Hill," a reference to the success of the pro-Israel lobby in forcing the Administration to agree to a Senate resolution postponing the consideration of a $1.9 billion arms sale to Jordan until March 1, or until Jordan begins direct negotiations with Israel.

The major issue at the GA's political forums was whether the American Jewish community should be "single issue" or "multi-issue." Tom Dine, the executive director of the America-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Washington's principal pro-Israel lobby, said his organization was "single-minded about a single issue"—the "issue" being Israel, of course. But other Jewish leaders who spoke at the GA disagreed. Hyman Bookbinder, the Washington representative of the liberal American Jewish Committee, paid tribute to AIPAC and the many Jewish political action committees (PACs) which have proliferated over the last few years. However, he also said Jews had to care not only about Israel, but about social issues as well. Bookbinder was criticized by Marshall Breger, formerly President Reagan's liaison to the Jewish community, for spending "20 minutes" talking to White House Chief of Staff Donald Regan about the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) welfare program.

Several prominent figures in American politics also addressed the GA, including Richard Murphy, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs. Murphy said the American-Israeli relationship "had never been stronger" and that chances were good that Jordan's King Hussein would enter peace talks with Israel "without a guaranteed outcome." Among the less prominent speakers was Mordechai Levy, the leader of the controversial Jewish Defense Organization (JDO)—an outgrowth of the Jewish Defense League founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane. Levy told the Jewish Week that, unlike Kahane, he believed in aharat yisrael ("love of Israel") and considered Jews who belonged to Peace Now and New Jewish Agenda as "mixed up" rather than "enemies or traitors."

Agenda believes that Palestinians, as well as Jews, have the right of self-determination. In 1983, it lobbied at the GA for a freeze on Jewish settlements in the West Bank. But this year, according to spokesman Rabbi Gerry Serotta, "there was no particular priority of that sort." Other Jewish "doves," however, did appear at the 1985 GA. Rabbi Moshe Halbertal, founder of Israel's religious peace group Netivot Shalom, spoke with Rafiq Halabi, an Israeli Druze TV correspondent, under the sponsorship of the New Israel Fund. The Fund provides grants to peace groups in Israel.

While some 3,000 delegates attended the GA conference in Washington, Jews throughout the U.S. have been anxiously awaiting the latest developments in the Mideast peace process. The majority of American Jews have always supported Israel's Labor party rather than the right-wing Likud bloc, and are behind Prime Minister Shimon Peres' peace initiative towards Jordan. Unlike members of the Likud, few American Jews oppose Peres' idea of turning over parts of the West Bank to Jordan in exchange for a peace treaty. They have defended the Israeli occupation of the West Bank not out of any special religious attachment to the land but because they have considered it necessary for Israel's security.

Despite their support for the Peres initiative, however, American Jews do not anticipate any great breakthrough in the peace process in the near future. The Near East Report, which is published by AIPAC, has criticized Jordan for demonstrating more interest in a rapprochement with Syria than in the Peres peace proposal. It also expressed disappointment with King Hussein for not breaking his alliance with Yassir Arafat when the PLO Chairman was summoned to Amman several weeks ago. The newsletter blamed Hussein for "keeping the window open to the PLO" which, for AIPAC, means "shutting the window to peace."

Unlike AIPAC, Israeli Jewish psychiatrist Ruchama Marton believes that opening the window to peace means opening it to the PLO as well. The 48-year-old Marton is an activist in the Progressive List for Peace (PLP), an Israeli political party which advocates negotiations between Israel and the PLO. The PLP is represented in the Knesset by Mohammad Miari—a Palestinian—and Reserve General Matti Peled—a Jew. Ms. Marton recently toured the U.S. and Canada with the Reverend Canon Riah Abu El-Assal, Vicar of the Christ Evangelical Episcopal Church of Nazareth and third on the PLP'selectoral list. Of the PLP had received 20,000 more votes in the last election, the Reverend Abu El-Assal would be sitting in the Knesset today.) The tour was sponsored nationally by the Paris-based International Jewish Peace Union, the Presbyterian Church, USA, and the Palestine Human Rights Campaign.

The tour's local sponsor, Washington Area Jews for an Israeli-Palestinian Peace, arranged several appointments on Capitol Hill for Marton and the Reverend Abu El-Assal. Marton, who has worked with Israeli soldiers traumatized by their experiences in the Lebanon war, said that Israel desperately needed peace and that the U.S. had to help. One of the things it can not avoid doing, she added, was to bring the PLO into the peace negotiations.

—Andrea Barron

Andrea Barron, a Ph.D. Candidate in International Relations at the American University in Washington, D.C., is active in Washington Area Jews for an Israeli-Palestinian Peace and writes frequently about the Middle East.