Secretary of State Cyrus Vance has issued invitations to 90 Jewish communal leaders and 73 representatives of the Jewish press across the country to meet with him in two separate two-hour sessions today and Friday at the State Department for discussions on the U.S. Middle East policy. The latest figures given to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency by a State Department source associated with the meetings is that some 60 communal leaders have accepted the invitations for this afternoon’s meeting and 19 press representatives have accepted for Friday’s meeting.
According to the source, the meetings will bring together what is believed will be the largest number of Jews and the widest cross-section to official Washington meetings ever recorded. The communal leaders include the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the chairmen of the area-wide councils in the 20 most populous American cities, and the heads of welfare funds and fund-raising groups. Invitations to the media included newspapers, magazines and the JTA.
The scope and purpose of the two meetings was seen as the latest and most aggressive attempt by the Carter Administration to stem the tide of uneasiness and opposition within the Jewish community to the Administration’s trends toward reconvening a Geneva conference and the substantive measures for a settlement that the U.S. seems intent on bringing about.
The meetings parallel the burgeoning spread of attention in the form of “debate” which the Administration has been advised to make to bring the Jewish community closer to the Administration’s thinking and not to be as steadfast in supporting the views of the Israeli government which sees the U.S. policy actions jeopardizing both its negotiating ability and the means open to it for negotiating a fair and just settlement.
MASSIVE CAMPAIGN SEEN
(In Israel today, the press highlighted stories that the Carter Administration appears to be preparing a campaign to win back American Jews to its side and to try to pressure the largest possible segment of American Jewry to accept Carter’s Mideast approach for a settlement.
(According to an editorial in Maariv, the meetings this week and others in the last few weeks, as well as Carter’s scheduled appearance at the World Jewish Congress General Council meeting next week has a three-fold aim: to develop a cleavage between American Jewry and Israel if it turns out that an Israeli-American confrontation is inevitable to try and split American Jewry to prevent a unified support of Israel; and to try to save American Jews from themselves, namely, to hint at the danger of being labeled as disloyal to the U.S. by preferring the interests of Israel.
(The Maariv editorial noted that such attempts were made in the past, without success, and that the American Jews will not surrender the defense of Israel even under the pretext of saving themselves from themselves. The White House, Israeli media reported today, recognizes that on at least two points American Jewry is solidly united: the question of Palestine Liberation Organization representation at Geneva and the establishment of a PLO state.)
Meanwhile, discontent with the arrangements on the way the meetings are to be conducted have been indicated. Vance’s invitations have pointed out that they will be on “background.” Thus, attribution of statements to the officials and other speakers, even their identity, is prohibited. This “ground rule,” a Department source stressed, means “no cameras, no recorders, and no transcripts.”
In the case of the meeting today, recording is “absolutely zero,” the source said. It is “off the record.” However, the rule may be relaxed somewhat for the meeting with the media. State Department public affairs officers understand that failure to provide transcripts or allow tape recordings of the proceedings may result in reports that may be embarrassing to the Department and create misunderstanding.
More importantly, however, there is strong feeling among some of the invited media personnel that the proceedings should be “on the record” so that the views expressed by Vance and his principal aides at the meetings will be fully known to all Americans. This, it is noted, would be in keeping with Carter’s asserted policy of “openness in government.”
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