Thomas Dine, executive director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, declared Sunday night that relations between the United States and Israel are now “excellent” and have entered a “revolutionary era.”
Israel is no longer treated as a “hindrance” to U.S. relations with the Arabs, but as “an ally, not just a friend, an asset rather than a liability, a mature and capable partner, not some vassal state,” Dine told the same 2,000 persons attending AIPAC’s 27th annual policy conference at the Washington Hilton Hotel.
He said this “revolution has only just begun” and this is why AIPAC decided not to oppose President Reagan’s proposal to sell $354 million in missiles to Saudi Arabia although AIPAC had successfully opposed proposed arms sales to Jordan and the Saudis last year. “This package to Saudi Arabia involves a variety of missiles about which we are of course not particularly happy, and our very strong instinct was to fight it, especially because of Saudi Arabia’s abominable record,” Dine said.
CONSENSUS NOT TO CONFRONT THE ADMINISTRATION
But he said in evaluating the proposal, “We found that there was a consensus among defense experts associated with all factions and all-schools of thought that this particular package would have questionable impact on the security of Israel.”
Dine said there was a “remarkable consensus” among major American Jewish organizations, including the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, not to “confront the Administration’s policy in this particular case.” Kenneth Bialkin, Presidents Conference chairman, who spoke earlier in the day, also stressed his support of this policy.
“We are an activist organization, and deciding not to fight does not come easily to us,” Dine said. “But I believe we are obliged to act not out of impulse, but out of a careful assessment of all the factors in the situation.”
Dine added that “no army should allow itself to be drawn into battles that are outside its vital interests, and no army should fight when the costs of war are greater than any possible gains from victory.” In describing the revolutionary era of U.S.-Israeli relations, Dine said it included strategic cooperation, economics and diplomacy.
NEW CONSTITUENCY OF SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL
“In the process, a whole new constituency of support for Israel is being built in precisely the area where we are weakest–among government officials in the State, Defense and Treasury departments, in the CIA, in science, trade, agriculture and other agencies,” Dine noted.
“These are the people responsible for proposing policy and for implementing it. In a crisis these anonymous officials will play a vital role. And they are now learning, through personal experience, the value of Israel to the United States.”
Dine quoted Secretary of State George Shultz as saying that strategic cooperation is designed “to build institutional arrangements so that eight years from now, if there is a Secretary of State who is not positive about Israel, he will not be able to overcome the bureaucratic relationship between Israel and the U.S. that we have established.”
The theme of the three-day conference is “People Make the Difference in Policy and Politics” and AIPAC president Robert Asher warned against complacency. He noted that complacency and lethargy allowed two followers of extremist Lyndon LaRouche to win the nominations in the Democratic primaries in his home state of Illinois.
NEED NO APOLOGY FOR ADVOCACY OF ISRAEL
Bialkin stressed that the lobbying that AIPAC and its members do is in the American tradition. “As Americans we offer no apology, only pride, in our advocacy of Israel’s welfare,” he said.
To those who complain about the influence of the Jewish community, Bialkin urged them to enter the public debate. “Come in and argue with us and then we’ll see whose arguments obtain the greatest influence with the American people and the American public and I’m sure we’ll not come in second,” he said.
Bialkin also said that he was pleased that some 500 college students were attending the AIPAC conference. He said this should be an answer to “those who worry about the future of our people.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
