Behind the Headlines: Solidarity Conference to Avoid Explicit Statements on Hot Issues

A proclamation of solidarity with Israel to be issued by some 700 Diaspora Jewish leaders in Jerusalem later this month will not deal specifically with the issues of talking to the Palestine Liberation Organization or accepting a Palestinian state.

Instead, the proclamation will express blanket solidarity with the government of national unity. Since the government is committed in its policy platform not to negotiate with the PLO, the proclamation will be able to be interpreted as implied rejection of talks to the PLO and of a Palestinian state.

Similarly, the proclamation will not specifically address the question of who is a Jew.

But Israeli officials involved in organizing the Jewish gathering hope it will constitute both a “celebration” of the fact that Israel has spurned attempts to legislate a restrictive, Orthodoxonly definition of conversion, and a reassurance that the “Who Is a Jew” issue will, in the words of one official here, “stay on the back-burner now for many years to come.”

“Celebration” is the term used by Minister-Without-Portfolio Ehud Olmert of Likud, who, along with Laborite Cabinet colleague Mordechai Gur, has been charged by the prime minister with organizing the assembly.

In an interview, Olmert acknowledged that “there was no great enthusiasm initially among Jewish leaders abroad” for the idea of a conference and a declaration of solidarity. But now, he said, “there is a momentum building up.”

NON-ESTABLISHMENT FIGURES, TOO

All the main Jewish organizational leaders will be in Jerusalem for the event, scheduled for March 20 to 23, said Olmert.

And Israeli embassies have invited such non-establishment Jewish luminaries as publishing tycoon Robert Maxwell and historian Martin Gilbert from Britain; French Jewish intellectual Marek Halter; Brandeis University President Evelyn Handler, writer Cynthia Ozick and media magnate Larry Tisch, all from the United States; and veteran diplomat Max Jacobson from Finland.

“I said to the Jewish leaders, ‘You should be celebrating an enormous victory regarding Who Is a Jew,’ ” said Olmert. “Your input plainly influenced Israel’s decision on this matter of deep concern for world Jewry.”

“Israel’s top leaders have never refused to meet with your various groups when you come here. Now Israel’s leaders are asking you to come, are seeking your support,” Olmert said he told the Diaspora leadership.

The assembly will precede Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s planned visit to Washington for talks with the new U.S. administration. But Olmert stressed that all the preparations, and the drafting of the proclamation, are going ahead under the joint aegis of Shamir and Vice Premier Shimon Peres.

Shamir’s media aide, Avi Pazner, says the “warning light” that prompted the premier to convene the assembly was the U.S. Jewish leadership’s generally passive reaction to the Reagan-Shultz decision in December to open an official dialogue with the PLO.

Pazner said Israeli representatives felt that passivity was in some way a consequence of the bruising battle over “Who Is a Jew,” when the Diaspora organizations, as well as individual Jews the world over, felt strongly and deeply that their views and sensitivities were in danger of being ignored by the Jewish state — on an issue of concern for the entire Jewish people.

NO EFFORT TO STIFLE DISSENT

After the inconclusive Now. 1 Knesset elections, both Shamir and Labor Party leader Shimon Peres came under heavy pressure from the ultra-Orthodox parties to agree to Orthodox-inspired legislation on “Who Is a Jew” as the price for the Orthodox parties joining in a coalition.

In the end, Likud and Labor reconstituted their government of national unity, thereby neutralizing the political power of the Orthodox parties as the balance-holders between the two big blocs.

The Orthodox-inspired amendment would have the Law of Return define a Jew as one born of a Jewish mother or converted according to halacha (religious law). Those last three words would, in effect, bar Reform and Conservative converts from automatic Israeli citizenship should they come to Israel and request it.

Pazner said that, although there would be no specific pledge by Premier Shamir, delegates to the assembly would “go away with the confident feeling that this matter is now on the back burner and will stay there for many years to come.”

Olmert said there would be no express effort made to stifle dissent among invitees to the assembly. “They can say what they think,” he said.

“But we will appeal to their sense of responsibility: Each one of them will have to decide if he or she wants to back anti-Israel propaganda” by deviating from the unity government’s rejection of the PLO and of a Palestinian state.

Olmert said the organizers had “never cited a specific number” of invitees. He said he was expecting “many hundreds.”

Senior diplomat Yaacov Cohen, who is heading a team of officials under Olmert and Gur, stressed the economic aspects of the assembly: There will be daylong panels and workshops on various areas of Israel’s industrial and commercial life, with some international business leaders in attendance.

“There has been a certain sense of sagging morale,” said Olmert. “We want to say to the Jewish world: Be proud of Israel — with all its problems. Don’t hide. Stand up and support us.”