The United States should “take the pressure off Egypt and Israel by initiating an indefinite suspension of the autonomy talks,” according to Maxwell E. Greenberg, chairman of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith.
“Let the autonomy discussions wait until Jordan’s King Hussein and responsible Palestinian leaders join the talks,” he said. Greenberg, a Los Angeles attorney, said he was making that suggestion to President Carter and all the other Presidential candidates.
“Let’s have our notion show some strength and moral fiber by declaring that it will protect the lives of Palestinian peacemakers against the Soviet-trained terrorists of the Palestine Liberation Organization, “he told the 300 ADL Leaders gathered at the ADL’s National Commission meeting last night. The meeting ends tomorrow.
WANTS ISSUES CLARIFIED
He said that while the tax-exempt ADL “does not and cannot get involved in polities,” it could suggest policies to all candidates, or ask them to clarify their attitudes on various issues.
For example, he went on, while each of the candidates has repeatedly declared support for the right of Israel to exist and be secure within recognized boundaries, and each has called for an “undivided” Jerusalem, “history has taught Jews that these simple phrases have important shadings and nuances.”
The questions to be answered, he declared, are: An “undivided Jerusalem” under whose sovereignty?; and Will “security” be based upon adequate military and economic support, or the fragile foundation of treaties, or both?
WARNING ON GROUP RIGHTS
At an earlier session, Nathan Perlmutter, the ADL’s national director, said that the American democratic framework has shifted “from seeking the realization of individual rights to espousing group rights. “He said this shift represents “the difference between democracy, which cares for people, and a Balkanized society which pits group against group and renders the individual less and less significant. “He said it has resulted in “a cascading avalanche of reverse discrimination, often in the form of racial quotas, drafted and implemented by the federal government.”
He warned that with recession and a limited pie that is already shrinking, the “Cuban-black dynamics” in Miami may be a precursor of even greater intergroup tension.
Reporting on international concerns, Perlmutter said that “the bottom line issue in the Middle East is not so much Jews or Arabs, a Palestinian homeland or settlements, but the oil of Saudi Arabic and Iron–and who will have access and control of it, the United States or the Soviet Union.” Consequently, he said, there is need for increased U.S. expenditures for military defense.
Perlmutter said that Jewish interests are “inextricably related” to American security. He warned that “a Soviet Union that can–with impunity–insinuate itself into the Middle East directly, as in Afghanistan, or indirectly through surrogates like the PLO, threatens American democracy, threatens Israel, and consequently threatens each and every one of us.”
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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.
