American Jewish organizational leaders have welcomed Israel’s conditional acceptance of an invitation to a Middle East peace conference, and are eager to ensure that the concessions Israel has already made are not overlooked as negotiations on the composition of the Palestinian delegation continue.
“Israel is the only party to the talks that is putting its life and security on the line,” said Malcolm Hoenlein, executive director of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
“Palestinian representation is a vital issue for Israel, and the prime minister wants to be sure agreement with the United States still exists, and previous assurances still obtain,” he added.
Alfred Moses and David Harris, president and executive vice president, respectively, of the American Jewish Committee, urged that Israel’s refusal to negotiate with Palestinians from East Jerusalem or from outside the West Bank or Gaza, or with PLO members, “be fully appreciated.”
They explained, in a joint statement, that if a Palestinian from East Jerusalem were to be included it “could put into question Israel’s eternal sovereignty over united Jerusalem.”
Diaspora Palestinians should be excluded “since Israel is dealing only with Palestinians in the territories, not with those whose claims are to Israel proper.” P.L.O. members, too, should be excluded, “since this is a group whose very covenant calls for Israel’s destruction.”
At the World Jewish Congress, executive director Elan Steinberg said that “our chief concern is that Palestinian inflexibility may sabotage the talks.
“Painful concessions have already been made by Israel procedurally, on the presence of a U.N. observer and the whole notion that bilateral talks will not begin until after a conference. Even surrounding Arab states have made concessions.”
It would be “tragic if the Palestinians were again to miss an opportunity by derailing the progress that has already been made,” Steinberg added.
Concern over Israel’s security was foremost in the minds of many, “especially in light of the historical record of Arab attacks against Israel and her civilian population,” said Arden Shenker, chairman of the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council.
The lone voice not welcoming of Shamir’s commitment to Secretary of State James Baker was Herbert Zweibon, chairman of Americans for a Safe Israel, a right-wing group which supports Israel’s claims to territory in all of “Western Palestine.”
Zweibon expressed doubt that any Palestinians at a Middle East peace conference would be anything but “P.L.O.- controlled.”
“They will be controlled by the reality of the P.L.O.’s ability to eliminate someone with whom they’re unhappy,” he said, suggesting that if a Palestinian representative without ties to the P.L.O. were to step forward, he or she would be a likely assassination target.
Zweibon likened the proposed Middle East peace conference to “a kangaroo court, or gang rape.”
At Americans for Peace Now, Mark Rosenblum, the political director, warned against what he called “Shamir’s terrible misconception” that he can conduct bilateral negotiations with Syria.
“Shamir wants his cake and to eat it too,” Rosenblum said. He wants to “get to talks with Syrians and the Arab states, and is doing everything he can to do an end run around the Palestinian question.
“Assad is less openly driven by getting the Golan Heights back than by being the patron of the Palestinians, realizing ‘Greater Syria,’ and helping control whatever Palestinian homeland or entity emerges,” Rosenblum offered.
He suggested that the Bush administration offer the Palestinians an incentive not to insist on representation from East Jerusalem by issuing “some kind of Balfour statement about Palestinian national rights,” coupled with “a commitment to Israel’s ongoing security needs.”
Rosenblum also urged Baker and President Bush “to play to Israeli public opinion, which is exceedingly more flexible than the current elected government.
“It’s good news that we’re so close” to negotiations, he said “and it would be a tragedy of enormous proportions if the door couldn’t finally be opened.”
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