Bookbinder Says There Was No Jewish ‘line’ on the Anti-pompidou Demonstrations

Hyman Bookbinder, the Washington representative of the American Jewish Committee, criticized critics of the anti-Pompidou demonstrations in the United States. Noting that “There is no unanimous Jewish ‘line’ in this country,” Mr. Bookbinder, in a letter published in today’s Washington Post, wrote: “There may possibly have been better ways to further the mutual interests of America and of Israel–there can be honest differences on this–but what was done does not justify the harsh and ominous analysis that some have made of it.” He singled out columns by Marquis Childs and by the Rowland Evans-Robert Novak team for describing the protests as “counter-productive” and “disastrous.” “I happen to believe,” Mr. Bookbinder observed, “that mass demonstrations, even orderly ones, to further public goals are no longer effective or appropriate. But there is nothing illegal or immoral or un-American about peaceful and orderly protest.” Asserting that the French jet sale to Libya was opposed by “the great majority” of Frenchmen, U.S. Congressmen and American citizens, including “most American Jews,” he continued: “It would be sad indeed if the hyper-sensitivity of the French President to American expressionism should in any way harm French-American relations.”