Aipac Official Urges Functional Coalition in Support of a Strong American Policy Toward Israel

— Thomas Dine, executive director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), told more than 100 metropolitan area Jewish community leaders that there was “a new buoyancy in Washington today,” as well as “pains and problems” that must be overcome by forming “new functional coalitions in support of a strong American policy toward Israel.”

Dine and Julian Spirer, director of the Washington Office of the Mayor of the City of New York, addressed a meeting of the General Assembly of the Jewish Community Relations Council.

Pointing to the present instability in the Middle East, Dine deplored the fact that hatred for Israel was “the only unifying point” found by the leaders attending the Islamic summit conference in Taif, Saudi Arabia last week who renewed their call for “jihad” (holy war) against Israel to establish a separate Palestinian state. Dine urged the Jewish community to fight the propaganda myth that a $2 increase in the price of a barrel of oil was evidence of “OPEC moderation.” He declared that “greed, not moderation, keeps OPEC intact.”

Spirer, analyzing the domestic issues likely to be acted upon in the current congressional session and particularly those of concern to the Jewish community in the New York metropolitan area, emphasized that the economy will dominate the domestic agenda of the new Congress with no new program initiatives in sight. He forsaw a large increase in defense spending, though not to the level promised during the recent election campaign.

EVALUATION OF NEW CONGRESS

Dine cited the bi-partisan criticism of Illinois Republican Charles Percy’s Moscow statements calling for a Palestinian state as evidence that support for Israel in Congress cuts across party and ideological lines. “The results of the November 4th election,” Dine said, “must be seen in that perspective.” A majority of the Senate, he continued, considers the Palestine Liberation Organization to be “a military and political client of the Soviet Union, while Israel is seen as our only friend and ally in the Middle East.”

Turning to the composition of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Dine termed Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker (R. Tenn.), “helpful and friendly toward Israel,” while pointing out that Sen. Jesse Helms (R. N.C.) who has just been appointed to the Near East Subcommittee, has been a consistent critic. Dine predicted that Rudy Boschwitz (R. Minn.), the new chairman of this subcommittee, would play a key role in pressing his colleagues to maintain their support for Israel.

Dine stressed that the classic conservative stance against foreign aid must be altered if Israel is to continue to receive sufficient economic and military support. Sen. Robert Kasten (R. Wisc.), the new chairman of the Foreign Operations Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee, and 12 other conservative Republican Senators have consistently supported Israel in letters and statements, Dine said, but they have never voted for foreign aid programs.

Emphasis must be placed on the United States’ security interest in maintaining a strong Israel, he continued, in keeping with the new national mood that is bent on rewarding our friends and allies.