Jewish opponents of the Middle East peace process, both Israeli and American, appear to be increasingly voicing their concerns to U.S. officials.
This week, a small delegation of activists on the right wing of the American Jewish political spectrum met at the State Department with Thomas Miller, the head of the Israel desk.
Last month, former members of the Shamir government met with officials in the capital.
Herbert Zweibon, one of seven Jewish leaders who met Tuesday with Miller, said the delegation’s goal was to tell the U.S. government that not all American Jews back the peace process.
“There is opposition within the Jewish community to the so-called peace process, which is really more of a murder process,” said Zweibon, who is national chairman of the group Americans for a Safe Israel.
The meeting took place as Secretary of State Warren Christopher was in the Middle East, attempting to unblock the stalled talks between Israel and Syria and to assist Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in implementing their peace accord.
Surveys taken just after the Israeli-Palestinian accord showed that most American Jews backed the peace process and the Rabin government’s handling of it.
But opponents of the peace process call it misguided and dangerous.
The delegation told Miller its concerns about the Jewish communities in the West Bank and Gaza.
“Settlers’ lives are not expendable in the name of an illusory peace agreement with terrorists of the PLO,” Raphael Rothstein, a member of the delegation, said Tuesday after the meeting.
Harry Taubenfeld, another member of the delegation, said that the group sought a meeting at the State Department after reading an October article from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency about Christopher’s meetings with various Jewish officials to discuss the peace process.
The delegation wanted to present its positions to the department about the peace process and the settlers, said Taubenfeld, who serves on the board of a group called the Israeli Community Development Fund, which deals with settler needs.
The State Department had no comment.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
