Shamir Gets Mixed Signals In Southern California

By Pat McDonnell Twair

It's a truism that the only Americans Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir listens to are American Jews, because he sees Israeli access to US aid as dependent upon US Jewish organizations. The Nov. 15-18 Southern California segment of Shamir's national visit provided the Israeli hard-liner with mixed signals as to whether, as he leads Israel toward a full-scale confrontation with the Bush administration, American Jews will be with him or against him.

As Shamir arrived in Los Angeles, 32 rabbis from Judaism's Reform movement issued a letter to the president of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion objecting to its plans to confer an honorary doctorate on Shamir.

Signers of the letter said they were aghast that the institute would honor Shamir, "a former leader of the terrorist Stern Gang, " who opposed the Camp David accords and encourages Jewish settlements on the West Bank and Gaza. The open version of the letter, which appeared in the weekly Los Angeles Jewish Journal, accused Shamir of "cynical deals with religious zealots and extremist politicians" while ignoring the needs of Russian Jewish immigrants.

Reform Rabbi Isaiah Zeldin of Stephen S. Wise Temple of gel-Air, where the degree was conferred on Shamir, responded that the dissenting rabbis were mostly "undistinguished" representatives of "the extreme left. " This must have made interesting reading for such prominent rabbis as Sanford Ragins and Leo I. Beerman of Leo Baeck Temple in gel-Air, both of whom had signed the letter.

Zeldin defended Shamir as a man who had stood up for liberal Judaism against the strictly conservative Orthodox Jews in Israel. Inexplicably, Zeldin said Shamir is willing to negotiate with Arabs on all points except an independent state and the division of Jerusalem.

When he received his degree Nov. 17, Shamir pledged that "Jerusalem is one city, united, never to be divided again. " Later the same day, several thousand Southern California Jews cheered and applauded Shamir at Sinai Temple in West Los Angeles when he vowed: "We cannot possibly agree to partition (Greater) Israel again. There is simply no room for two states in such a small area. " Speaking to 35 evangelical Christian leaders from throughout the US the previous day, he urged them to convince their followers to stand with Israel in the $10 billion loan guarantee controversy.

On the final day of his Los Angeles schedule, Shamir addressed the World Affairs Council at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel. His address to the heavily Jewish audience focused on UN Security Council Resolution 242, which, according to Shanir, allows Israel to administer the territories until a just and lasting peace has been achieved. And, in pure Likud-speak, he asserted: "242 leaves the issue of the borders entirely to the agreement of the parties in accordance to the principles it sets out."

Although the diminutive 76-year-old prime minister appealed for financial assistance in settling 400,000 new immigrants over the past two years, the strongest round of applause from the World Affairs Council audience, as in his other California appearances, came when he swore Jerusalem will never again be divided.

Although most of his Jewish audiences lavished approval on the Polish-born Shamir, a line of Americans opposed to his positions stood in front of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel during his appearance.

As passing vehicles honked their approval of the protest signs, particularly one reading "America goes hungry, while Israel gets our money," demonstrators got a special lift when former California Gov. Edmund G. (Pat) Brown, father of presidential hopeful and also former Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown, walked by them, looked at their posters denouncing Shamir's hard-line stance, and gave his thumbs-up approval.

Besides seeking to promote passage of the $10 billion in US loan guarantees, Shamir's visit also was designed to attract American investment in Israel. In addition to having private meetings with California Gov. Pete Wilson and former Secretary of State George P. Shultz, he addressed a business symposium set up to increase economic ties between California and Israel.