Viewpoint Pro-Oslo groups need backing of U.S. Jews
By NEVE GORDON
I was living in Israel in 1993 when
Israelis and Palestinians alike, glued to the TV, watched Yithzak Rabin and
Yasser Arafat as they shook hands on the White House lawn. It was a moment full
of promise and it managed to infuse hope into a region where people had become
accustomed to strife and violence.
Sept. 5 marked the anniversary of the Oslo accords, but the
optimism it inspired has given way to despair. Recently Arafat was back in the
White House, this time meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu. While the 1993 meeting
seemed like a genuine fork in the road, a chance to choose the path of peace,
this time the two mens forced amicability and grudging agreements seemed
merely a detour on the way to further bloodshed.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has rejected the accords that implicitly
recognize the Palestinians rights to self-determination, a notion that is
tantamount to statehood. He believes that giving the Palestinians political
freedom is a compromise Israel should not make: Autonomy over civil
institutions like education and health is OK; a state is inconceivable. His
intransigent policies have all but buried Oslo, and, with it, the promise.
While it is up to the Israeli public to stand up to
Netanyahus dangerous decisions, which have led to the destruction of the
peace process, the Jewish lobby in the United States must also be held
accountable for the degeneration in Israeli-Arab relations. It, too, is
culpable insofar as its leaders are supporting Netanyahu while persistently
ignoring the opinion of constituents, namely the Jewish population in the
United States.
Allow me to explain. Within the American-Jewish community,
Netanyahus position concerning the peace process is unpopular. According
to Tom Smerling of the Israel Policy Forum, an organization that conducts
regular polls within the Jewish community, 70 percent of Jews express
strong support for the Oslo accords and want the Clinton administration
to take a proactive stance to move it forward. Moreover, an overwhelming
majority of Jews -- 80 percent -- support the Clinton
administrations current efforts to revive Israeli-Palestinian
negotiations.
Despite the evidence that American Jews are pro-Oslo, several
Jewish lobbying groups from the center to the extreme right have endorsed
Netanyahus approach. Most prominent of these is AIPAC -- American Israel
Public Affairs Committee -- which wields great power on Capitol Hill. In a
January issue of the Near East Report, AIPAC published a long, detailed
article titled The Year in Review. Concealed in seemingly impartial
language, the editors fully appropriate Netanyahus line, while
rationalizing the decision to support all of the prime ministers policies
by claiming that Netanyahus Likud [is] undergoing an extraordinary
ideological transformation. AIPACs claim is deceitful. Most Israeli
analysts, on both sides of the debate, would probably agree that Netanyahu has
not altered his beliefs since he gained power and has, in fact, succeeded in
accomplishing his long-standing objective -- to undermine Oslo.
Along similar lines, the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish
Organizations -- which is an umbrella organization for many Jewish groups --
does not embrace a pro-Oslo stand. Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of
the conference, claims that the organization is in favor of peace but that it
is by no means committed to the Oslo agreements. Hoenlein prefers to speak of
peace only in abstract terms, forgetting that anyone can be an advocate for
abstract peace -- even the fascist Rabbi Meir Kahane.
Both AIPAC and the conference have urged President Clinton not to
pressure Netanyahu, knowing full well that the latter has abandoned the Oslo
accords. How is it, I ask myself, that in a country whose very existence is
grounded on the revolutionary slogan no taxation without
representation, the majority of Jews continue donating money to lobbying
groups that do not represent their interests?
Jews who believe that Israels future lies in a peaceful
resolution should support groups that actually represent their views, like
Friends of Meretz, Peace Now or the new lobbying group Beit Shalom. These
groups are Zionists and believe in a Jewish homeland, yet unlike AIPAC, they
have joined the Israeli peace camp, which supports the establishment of a
Palestinian state.
These groups realize that only a two-state solution will bring
peace to the region, because only a two-state solution is just.
Neve Gordon has for the past five years been a member of the
political science department at the University of Notre Dame. A native Israeli,
he and his family recently returned to Israel.
National Catholic Reporter, October 16,
1998
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