Washington Report, December 13, 1982, Page 4

Lobby Activities

For Arabs:

Apparently recognizing that there is strength in numbers, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) has been steadily developing working relations with dozens of church, peace, human rights and ethnic groups and has helped form a coalition which focuses solely on Middle East issues.

The coalition is called "The Middle East Working Group," and is made up of over 20 organizations, including the International League for Peace and Freedom, Friends Center on National Legislation and a group calling itself Washington Area Jews Against the Invasion (of Lebanon). Members of the task force held their first formal meeting in late November—although they had been meeting informally for several months—and then met again in early December to form small units to distribute information to specific members of Congress aimed at thwarting military aid increases for Israel. Despite their efforts, however, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved $475 million above President Reagan's request in aid to Israel—although Congress is not expected to pass a foreign aid bill during its present "lame-duck" session.

Marvin Wingfield, ADC's liaison with the groups, says church and peace organizations have in the past concentrated their attention primarily on Latin America, but that "the same sense of conscience and moral concern which has led many groups to be actively involved with Central American issues has been stirred by the war in Lebanon."

ADC's Executive Director, Dr. James Zogby, told The Washington Report he hopes to build ADC into a broader "peace and justice" type interest group with a wide base of grass-roots support—arguing that "Arab- Americans are not politically isolated anymore," and should join groups which have similar concerns so as to have a stronger impact than they can have on their own. But he stressed his primary concern will continue to be "a just peace to the Middle East."

Since ADC's founding two years ago it has also been active in the Washington-based Campaign for Political Rights—on whose board Zogby serves—an alliance of about 80 groups which monitors legislation on this issue. ADC has also been working closely with Washington's Hispanic community on legislation effecting immigration laws and its Detroit chapter is building a coalition with members of the black community.

For Israel:

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), operating in high gear and at odds with the Reagan Administration, worked successfully to help win approval for an aid bill containing $2.6 billion for Israel—almost half a billion dollars more than President Reagan requested.

Only hours before the vote, AIPAC supplied Senators on the Appropriations Committee with a position paper attempting to refute each of the written arguments against the increase which the Administration delivered to the same Senate offices only one day earlier. For example, in response to the Administration's point that increases in aid would adversely affect the peace process, AIPAC argued that failing to approve the aid "would send a dangerous signal of abandonment to Israel's enemies." It also raised objection to the view in the Administration's position paper that an additional $125 million in economic assistance would "further stimulate an economy (Israel's) which is stronger at the moment than ours."

Meanwhile, recent statements by three prominent American Jews are causing new fissures within the Jewish community after several months of efforts to restore the unity that had been breached at the time of the Lebanon invasion. In speeches before the American Jewish Congress, Felix G. Rohatyn—chairman of the Municipal Assistance Corporation of New York City—and Victor H. Gotbaum—executive director of District Council 37 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees—criticized the Begin government's rejection of President Reagan's peace proposals and its policy of constructing additional settlements on the West Bank. Mr. Rohatyn said that many American Jews have been reluctant to express criticism of the Israeli government due to "explicit suggestions of Israeli officials and Jewish leaders that such criticism played into the hands of Israel's enemies and ultimately fostered anti-Semitism." Their statements followed those of Alexander Schindler, the head of American Reformed Judaism, who urged Jews in the U.S. to "affirm our own identity" apart from Jews in Israel. He told leaders of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations that the opinions on domestic and international issues of many American Jews "are too often determined by the standard—is it good or bad for Israel?"

The American Jewish Congress has drafted the language for shareholder re-solutions—signed by sympathetic stockholders and sent to the chairmen of 25 major U.S. corporations —requesting a report from each company on its efforts to shape Congressional and public opinion on Middle East issues during 1981-82 and on its plans for similar activities in 1983. The resolutions ask how much money was spent supporting the sale of AWACS planes to Saudi Arabia and argue that "such lobbying cannot generally be justified as advancing the corporate interests." The resolutions were sent to: American Airlines, Alcoa, Blount, Boeing, Deere, Dravo, Dresser, Eastern Airlines, Fluor, FMC, Ford, Greyhound, GTE, Halliburton, H. J. Heinz, Kellogg, Mobil, NL Industries, Northrop, Owens-Illinois, Republic Steel, Smith Kline Beckman, United Technologies, Westinghouse and the Whittaker corporation.