Jewish Groups Press Administration to Step Up Actions Against Boycott

Although satisfied overall with the Clinton administration’s efforts to push for an end to the Arab boycott of Israel, Jewish organizational leaders want the U.S. government to do more.

A group of Jewish officials met this week with high-level members of the administration, urging them to press U.S. allies to issue a strong anti-boycott statement at the upcoming meeting in Tokyo of the Group of Seven industrialized nations.

Jewish leaders were pleased with the results of their meetings Tuesday, first with Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and then with Peter Tarnoff, undersecretary of state for political affairs.

“Both meetings were quite successful,” said Walter Stern, chairman of the International Steering Committee on Freedom of Trade with Israel, which is coordinating the anti-boycott efforts of Jewish organizations.

“I believe that this administration has shown that it is willing to involve itself in a more positive way” on the issue, said Stern, who was not himself at the meetings.

Efforts to halt the boycott have been picking up steam here in recent months, and administration officials have pledged to make it a high-priority issue.

The Jewish officials, whose meetings were organized by Rep. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and the anti-boycott steering committee, had several items on their agenda.

First, they want the United States to press its allies at the July meeting of the G-7 nations to issue a strong, unified statement urging the League of Arab States to end the so-called secondary boycott of companies that do business with Israel, as well as the tertiary boycott of companies that do business with blacklisted firms.

FOCUS ON SECONDARY AND TERTIARY ELEMENTS

Jewish groups are urging the administration and the international community to focus on the secondary and tertiary clements of the boycott, rather than on the primary boycott by Arab countries of Israel itself.

Because the secondary and tertiary levels of the boycott affect American and European companies, they are viewed as a free trade issue.

Jewish officials emerged from their meetings with a sense that the administration was in accord with their views.

Mark Pelavin, Washington representative of the American Jewish Congress, said he walked away from the session with Tarnoff “feeling optimistic that the United States will push for a strong statement at the G-7 meeting in Tokyo.”

Previous G-7 statements have linked the boycott issue to Israeli policy in the administered territories, but Jewish leaders feel the Clinton administration is not in favor of such linkage.

On the substance of what has to be done at the G-7 meeting, the Jewish groups and the administration officials are “completely in accord,” said Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, who participated in the meetings.

The question now, he said, is what strategy to take.

Rep. Schumer, who heads a congressional task force on the boycott, is circulating a letter among his colleagues to be sent to President Clinton. The letter urges the administration to push for a strong anti-boycott statement at the G-7 meeting.

Jewish groups are also urging the individual G-7 nations to adopt laws cracking down on companies in their respective countries that comply with the Arab boycott.

They have applauded a new anti-boycott law, regarded as the strongest such measure in Europe, that went into effect last week in Germany.

Second on the agenda were the recently reported promises of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to stop enforcing the secondary and tertiary levels of the boycott against American companies.

The pledges were made to Secretary of State Warren Christopher during his visit to the Middle East in February.

But Jewish groups feel such promises are only worthwhile if backed up by actions. They urged the administration to continue pressuring the two Gulf states.

“Our government should not be fooled by anything,” said Jess Hordes, Washington representative of the Anti-Defamation League, who participated in the Tuesday meetings.

The ADL released a statement Tuesday expressing its “outrage” that the Arab League had recently added 13 companies to its blacklist, including two U.S. firms: Rubbermaid Inc. and General Dynamics.

Especially galling to the ADL was the reported presence of Kuwaiti and Saudi officials at the Arab League meeting.

Those taking part in Tuesday’s meeting at the Commerce Department said that Brown, who had recently discussed the boycott issue with King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, was surprised to learn of this new development.

Third on the agenda of Tuesday’s meetings, the Jewish groups discussed the administration’s efforts to crack down on American companies complying with the boycott.

Jewish groups have applauded recent actions taken by the Commerce Department’s Office of Anti-Boycott Compliance against companies complying with terms of the boycott. The government recently leveled a record penalty of over $6 million against Baxter International Inc., an Illinois-based medical supply firm.

Jewish organizations represented at Tuesday’s meetings also included the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, American Jewish Committee, National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council, New York Jewish Community Relations Council and World Jewish Congress.