Focus on Jews and Israel

By Andrea Barron

Jewish Groups Abandon "Hands-Off" Policy on Israeli Security Issues

Last September, the American Jewish Congress (AJ Congress) issued a public statement endorsing the idea of an international peace conference on the Middle East—a position supported by Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres of the Labor Party and rejected by Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir of the Likud. Since then, other American-Jewish organizations have voiced opinions on both the international conference and on Israel's 20-year occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, abandoning their traditional "hands-off" policy on questions related to Israeli security.

The Holocaust Survivors Association USA, for instance, praised the AJ Congress for its "courageous stand" on "two vital issues to the Jewish state and the Jewish people: the control of the West Bank and the need for an international conference." Pioneer Women/Naamat, a women's labor Zionist organization, and Rabbi Alexander Schindler, president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC), have expressed support for the conference. So has the American Jewish Committee, which is worried about the radicalization of Palestinian youth in the occupied territories and about Arabs becoming a majority in the Jewish state.

The American Jewish Congress' endorsement of an international peace conference in the Middle East has drawn a mixed response from American Jewish organizations and Israeli politicians. Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres supported the statement, but Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir criticized it. Knesset Member Abba Eban rebuked Shamir for virtually telling American Jews to "keep their pockets open and their mouths shut."

Herut Zionists of America, on the other hand, has denounced the AJ Congress for "attempting to dictate Israeli foreign policy," and said an international conference would increase the power of the Soviet Union and China—"two longstanding enemies of Israel...at the expense of Israeli interests." The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) and Americans for a Safe Israel (AFSI), which favors Israeli annexation of the West Bank and Gaza, both oppose the idea of an international conference. AFSI Chairman Herbert Zweibon said Peres should not have presented this idea at the United Nations "without the consent and approval of his government."

There is a good reason why neither the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the major pro-Israel lobbying organization, or the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations has taken a stand on the international conference. Both Labor and Likud supporters occupy leadership positions in each group. According to Wolf Blitzer of the Washington Jewish Week, "If either the Presidents' Conference or AIPAC were to go too far in siding with Labor or Likud, the organization could begin to come apart."

Some Israelis, meanwhile, have become deeply involved in the ongoing debate over whether American Jews have the right publicly to oppose specific policies of the Israeli government. Former Israeli Ambassador Abba Eban, for example, believes they do, and has criticized Shamir for virtually telling American Jews to "keep their pockets open and their mouths shut."

Jesse Jackson and American Jews

Has Democratic presidential hopeful Jesse Jackson improved his image in the Jewish community since his 1984 presidential campaign, or will he again face widespread opposition from American Jews because of his views on the Middle East?

Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the UAHC's Religious Action Center in Washington, DC, thinks Jackson has changed. He now talks about "secure borders" for Israel, Saperstein wrote in a recent issue of the leftist Jewish monthly magazine Tikkun, and Jackson has endorsed the Camp David accords "often to the chagrin of his Arab-American supporters." Saperstein also commended Jackson for promoting Jewish-black dialogue, for criticizing all nations—not only Israel—that do business with South Africa, and for bringing up the Soviet Jewry issue at a meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

Rabbi Alexander Schindler, however, found the interview with Jackson conducted by Tikkun editor Michael Lerner "bitterly disappointing," possibly because Jackson denied the existence of anti-Semitism among black college students and refused to condemn Black Muslim minister Louis Farrakhan for calling Judaism "a gutter religion." Lerner himself said Jackson must think Jews are "idiots" to believe there is no anti-Semitism among black students: "To say that is as weird as if I were to claim there is no anti-Arab sentiment in Israel." (Middle East-related excerpts from Tikkun editor Michael Lerner's interview with Jackson appear on page 11 of the Washington Report.)

Some Jews have already begun to speak out actively against the Jackson candidacy. Right-wing extremist Meir Kahane plans to reconstitute "Jews Against Jackson," founded in Boston in 1984, and New York Assemblyman Dov Hikind, formerly of the Jewish Defense League, has established a new "non-sectarian" anti-Jackson group—the Coalition for a Positive America.

Another American Jew has become an adviser to Jackson and a liaison between the Jackson campaign and the Jewish community. Ann Lewis, former head of Americans for Democratic Action and the sister of US Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA), believes Jackson is "genuinely sorry" for some "dumb comments" he made in 1984 which offended Jews. "We must try to put that behind us," she has said. Stressing Jackson's success in increasing black voter participation and his views on economic justice, Lewis says "The winning coalition of the eighties has to include the progressive Jewish community and the rainbow supporters of Jesse Jackson."

Barney Frank and the PLO

Unlike his sister Ann, Barney Frank is not an ardent supporter of Jesse Jackson. But Frank has taken a position unpopular with many of his Jewish constituents by strongly opposing the attempted closure of the PLO offices in New York and Washington, DC.

Rusel Pergament, editor of the Boston area weekly newspaper The Tab, blamed Frank for trying to placate the "Jesse Jackson" wing of the Democratic Party by not supporting Israel. Pergament appears to have missed the point, however. Frank thinks the PLO offices should remain open because "even terrible people have a right to free speech...If we shut the PLO office in Washington because most of us in America believe that the PLO is an immoral organization," he said, "what do we do about South African diplomats who tour this country defending their right to impose a terrible form of oppression on black people?"

Frank has also sponsored an amendment to the McCarren-Walter Act which would prevent the US government from barring or deporting foreign visitors because of their political beliefs. The Frank legislation—H.R. 1119—would apply to officials and supporters of the PLO as long as they have not participated in terrorist activities. Some members of Congress, apparently, would like the Frank bill to exclude PLO members under all conditions. According to Frank's foreign affairs legislative assistant, the Massachusetts congressman would oppose such a change. But the Washington Jewish Week has quoted "insiders" on Capitol Hill saying that an amendment to H.R. 1119 excluding the PLO would probably pass if it was introduced on the House floor.

Andrea Barron, a PhD candidate in international relations at American University in Washington, DC, is a member of Washington Area Jews for Israeli-Palestinian Peace (WAJIPP) and New Jewish Agenda (NJA).