Behind the Headlines: in a Changed Middle East Landscape, Peace Now Takes Look at Its Mission

As members of the dovish group Americans for Peace Now gathered last week for their 1993 Advocacy Seminar, one of the main questions was where the group would go from here.

After all, one of its major goals, achieving some sort of dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians, had been more than fulfilled with last month’s historic ceremony between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization.

But APN leaders say the group still has an important mission in educating Americans about the peace process and in working to ensure that the Israeli-PLO agreement is implemented.

APN, which has been controversial among some in the organized Jewish community, is now poised to have a much stronger voice within the community than in the past, for several reasons.

Some positions long espoused by APN, such as mutual recognition between Israel and the PLO, have been embraced by the Clinton administration and Israel’s Labor government.

Several former APN board members are serving in high positions within the Clinton administration. For example, Sara Ehrman is an official at the Democratic National Committee, and Peter Edelman is a special assistant at the Department of Health and Human Services.

In addition, the group just hired Gary Rubin, director of national affairs for the centrist American Jewish Committee, to serve as APN’s chief executive officer beginning Nov. 1.

And APN — which is affiliated with the Israeli group Shalom Achshav — is now ensconced in the mainstream Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

“Our prospects are very bright,” Rubin said. “The majority of American Jews, and of the Israeli population, is on our side.”

At the advocacy seminar in Washington last week, APN leaders discussed the group’s future priorities.

Rubin said that Peace Now planned to focus on three major areas: explaining the peace agreement to Americans and Israelis, working to resolve future problems that could hinder the agreement’s implementation, and working with Shalom Achshav in Israel to prepare for peace.

MAJOR GROUPS OPPOSE AGREEMENT

On the first point, there are still “significant groups in the Jewish community” opposing the agreement, Rubin said. And even among those who support it, there are many who do not have a deep knowledge of its complex details.

In addition, Rubin said, it is important that American Jews demonstrate support for the agreement.

The vast majority of American Jews, according to recent polls, support the accord.

On the second point, Rubin said there will be many issues that could be difficult to resolve, including security arrangements, borders, refugees and the future of the Golan Heights. APN will be promoting ideas combining the concept of compromise with the concept of Israeli security, he said.

And on the third issue, APN and Shalom Achshav will be expanding dialogue programs between Israeli and Palestinian youths. They also will be working on new education programs that would change textbooks that promote hatred between the two groups, for example.

“Our bread and butter issue in this country,” said Gail Pressberg, “is to reflect the discussion that goes on in Israel and among Palestinians.”

Pressberg said the group would continue along those lines now that Israelis and Palestinians have signed an agreement. She has been directing APN and will head its Washington office when Rubin assumes his post.

“The ice was broken with the handshake,” she said. “Now is the time to talk about the details.”

The group has planned for Knesset members and for Israeli and Palestinian military and security experts to tour the United States, speaking to Jewish groups and synagogues.

And it is about to unveil a video presentation about the peace process, featuring Israeli and Palestinian officials and young people, and Israeli soldiers.

APN officials have set a broad agenda, and say that priorities will have to be assigned over the next few weeks.

“We recognize that we will have to pick and prioritize. But it’s just a few weeks after the landscape in which we work has been totally transformed,” said Shifra Bronznick, APN’s executive committee chair.