Concern that the current controversy over Israeli settlements could lead to an erosion of support for Israel in the United States is one of the reasons that a group of Jewish leaders have called on Israel to freeze its expansion of settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Theodore Mann of Philadelphia, a co-chairman of Project Nishma, gave this explanation after 10 members of the group met here Wednesday with Israeli Ambassador Zalman Shoval.
“The basic American public support for Israel is waning,” said Mann, a former chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
“That troubles us more than anything else, because in the end, you cannot separate the United States Congress from the American people.”
Project Nishma, a group of more than 100 prominent Jews, including many former heads of major Jewish organizations, issued a statement last week calling on Israel to announce a temporary freeze on settlements and to extend it if there is a reciprocal response from the Arab states and the Palestinians.
Mann conceded that members of Project Nishma had long been opposed to Israel’s settlement policy. But he said the statement was issued out of concern that the controversy over Israel’s rapid expansion of settlements is jeopardizing the peace process, Israel’s attempt to win U.S. loan guarantees and even foreign investment in Israel.
He said the controversy during the last three weeks has escalated to such an extent that it is endangering the continuation of Israel’s annual U.S. economic and military aid.
“It might indeed become popular to vote differently on aid to Israel” in Congress, which has long overwhelmingly supported such aid, Mann warned.
PRIVATE WARNINGS FROM JEWISH LEADERS
He said Project Nishma’s statement is aimed primarily at the Israeli public, which it hopes to convince that the settlements are jeopardizing Israel’s relations with its key benefactor.
The off-the-record meeting with Shoval was held in part to explain Project Nishma’s views to the Israeli government.
Project Nishma is made up mostly of former chairpersons, presidents and executive directors of Jewish organizations, who formed the organization as a platform to speak out on issues involving Israeli peace and security.
Mann said current leaders can only speak in the name of their organizations and, except for a few, most Jewish organizations have not taken a position on the settlements.
But he said that many Jewish leaders have warned Israeli officials privately of the difficulties the settlements are causing. He said he would not be surprised if they do decide to speak out publicly on the issue, as has Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League.
At a conference here this week sponsored by the Wilstein Institute of Jewish Policy Studies, Shoshana Cardin, chairman of the Conference of Presidents, said Tuesday night that the settlement issue had not been discussed by the conference. But she indicated the subject may be taken up.
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.
