Black-jewish Coalition is a ‘two-way Street,’ Black Lawmaker Says

A coalition is “a two-way street,” and the Jewish-Black coalition in America can be bolstered through increased support from American Jews on issues important to the Black community.

This was the message of Mickey Leland (D. Texas), chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, who addressed the 27th Annual Public Policy Conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Monday. He spoke at a luncheon dedicated to the theme of building coalitions.

“I don’t help Israel because I want you to help us. I would help Israel whether you help me or not,” Leland said, stressing that his appeal was not a question of “quid pro quo.”

Recalling the active role played by many Jews in the civil rights movement of the 1960s, Leland urged greater Jewish input in the remaining battles that concern American Blacks. “I find it comforting to know that the majority of the Jewish members of Congress support us to the hilt on almost every social program that we fight for,” he said.

But he called on Jewish individuals and groups to play a larger role, by contacting those members of Congress “who don’t understand our plight necessarily, who don’t have the empathy that you have for our plight.”

ISRAEL AND SOUTH AFRICA

The former student militant who has visited Israel several times — once touring on a bicycle — and who sponsors a summer program there for Black and Hispanic American youth, also called on the Jewish State to end its dealings with South Africa.

“I’m not one who stands as a Black leader in this country to say that Israel ought to be condemned because it’s doing business with South Africa,” he said, adding that some African nations and the United States itself also maintain trade relations with that country. “But allow me to create the dialogue inside Israel that will bring about a campaign against apartheid.”

Here at home, the foundations for a strong Black-Jewish coalition may well have been strengthened, Leland suggested, by the anti-Semitic “hate mongering” of the Black Muslim leader Louis Farrakhan, and the tensions it cause between the Black and Jewish communities.

“We can’t be responsible for Minister Farrakhan any more than you can be responsible for Rabbi (Meir) Kahane,” the extremist Jewish leader who emigrated to Israel from the U.S. But the positive outcome of the tensions over Farrakhan’s emergence, he said, was that it reinvigorated a Black-Jewish dialogue that had remained dormant for many years.

GROWING GOP SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL

Also addressing the luncheon was Vin Weber (R. Minn.), Assistant Minority Whip for the Midwest States and a consistently pro-Israel leader among the New Right. He maintained that support for Israel is no longer to be found exclusively in the Democratic liberal camp as was once the case.

“Within the Republican Party, there’s always been some support, but mainly there’s been opposition — specifically, in aid to Israel,” Weber observed, attributing this to the party’s fiscal conservatism and the isolationist trend that used to characterize its orientation to foreign affairs.

But the pattern is changing, he stressed, as the party’s deep concern for national security interests and the struggle against Communism leads it increasingly to realize the importance of supporting the Jewish State in every way. Weber noted that more and more legislators “from my side of the aisle” have also been “willing to oppose arms sales to states hostile to Israel’s existence.”

Weber said that despite differences on other issues close to the heart of many, particularly the evangelical, conservatives–such as school prayer — the coalition for support of Israel must be broadened to take into account these new trends, focusing exclusively on “what can potentially unite us.”

“The end result of all of this is a stronger coalition, not one that begins to shift away from liberals, but broadened to include more members of both parties,” he concluded.