Jews, Like Other Democrats, Working to Keep Party Unity

Like other members of their party, Jewish Democrats appear determined this week to exploit the growing national hunger for change, paper over their differences and forge a united front to put Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton in the White House.

The fractiousness that plagued the Democrats in 1988, at its worst over a minority platform plank on the Middle East, was conspicuously absent this week as delegates gathered at Madison Square Garden.

In its stead are speeches with carefully coordinated themes, a Middle East platform slated to be approved without debate, and a dizzying array of receptions, briefings and tourist events for the delegates.

Those events include a pastrami party thrown by the New York Jewish Community Relations Council and a desert reception replete with belly dancers sponsored by Arab-Americans.

Not everyone was sanguine about the effort to squelch differences, however.

David Luchins, an aide to Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.), said a dull convention was too high a price to pay for party unity.

“We should have a debate on Israel; we should have a debate on abortion,” said Luchins, who is also vice president of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America’s Institute of Public Affairs. The pro-Israel and pro-choice position “would win, and we’d be the stronger for it.”

Perhaps the parties most aggrieved by the pressure for convention unity were former California Gov. Jerry Brown, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Arab-American delegates.

BROWN DELEGATES ANGRY

Brown delegates, angry their presidential candidate had been denied an opportunity to address the convention, drowned out Monday night’s speech by Sen. Bill Bradley (D-N.J.), with chanting and stomping that reverberated through the bleachers of Madison Square Garden.

On Tuesday, the party leadership agreed to let him address the convention Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Arab-American delegates were privately charging they had been shut out of the platform drafting process and criticized the platform for pandering to pro-Israel forces.

Among Jewish groups there is an unusual appearance of confluence. Eyebrows were raised, for instance, over the buttons distributed to delegates by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee that bore the words, “peace” and “Israel,” slogans that have belonged to groups like Americans for Peace Now.

It was a sign that AIPAC may be repositioning itself in the wake of the new Labor government in Israel.

Jews make up an estimated 10 percent of the delegates, and Jewish groups are never far from the center of the convention fray.

AIPAC, which maintains a well-stocked hospitality suite at the Ramada Inn, headquarters for the hordes of visiting press, hosted two crowded receptions. One was in an art gallery, the other at the South Street Seaport.

The pro-Israel lobby also held a briefing in a packed ballroom at the New York Hilton, headquarters of the Democratic National Committee.

All three events were well attended by members of Congress, as well as state and local leadership from around the country.

Americans for Peace Now, flush with the Labor victory in Israel, held a breakfast for a select group Tuesday on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, with actor Richard Dreyfuss giving the introductory remarks.

The crowd overflowed the spacious apartment of Victor and Sarah Kovner, requiring half the guests to go downstairs to the apartment of Peter Yarrow, member of the folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary.

PEACE NOW HOLDS OVERFLOW BREAKFAST

At the breakfast, Peace Now activists urged top Clinton foreign policy advisers to resist “mindless” attacks on the Bush administration for its Israel policies. They argued it was critical to make clear to all the Middle East parties that a Clinton administration would maintain a leadership role as a broker in the peace process.

Some activists said that effort already has been tainted by Clinton’s unequivocal declaration against a Palestinian state. Indeed, Hanan Ashrawi, spokeswoman for the Palestinian delegation to the peace talks, has accused the Democratic Party of a pro-Israel bias that would undermine its credibility as an honest broker in the talks.

On Wednesday, the liberal Jewish intellectual journal Tikkun had scheduled a delegates’ forum on the relationship between the Democrats under Clinton and Israel.

Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun, said the forum was intended to “educate the Democratic Party to the fact that there are two different voices in the Jewish community, not only those who supported (former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak) Shamir.”

“We want them to know being pro-Israel is doing anything to support peace,” said Lerner.

Pro-Israel delegates were not hard to find at the convention this week.

Among them were Sam Dubbin and Richard Allen of Miami, who ran together as a pro-Clinton slate in Florida’s 19th district. The two had never taken part before in the state’s caucus process, but decided to cast their lot with Clinton after hearing his positions on Israel and other issues of concern to them.

“We basically wanted to ensure there would be pro-Israel delegates” at the convention, said Dubbin.

PRO-ISRAEL DELEGATES VISIBLE

Bruce Yampolsky was on the convention floor Monday night, proudly displaying his pro-Israel leanings. The Democratic committeeman of St. Louis’ 28th ward wore one of the buttons printed up by AIPAC, as well as a button of the National Abortions Rights Action League.

Yampolsky served as a delegation whip for both groups. That meant, he explained, that if he saw anti-Israel activity, he would “notify the top.”

But Israel was not an issue in the delegation, unlike abortion, where his pro-choice stand offended some of the rural delegates.

As the only Jewish elected official in St. Louis, Yampolsky was recently approached to get involved with AIPAC. He said he is likely to accept the invitation.

(Contributing to this report were Cynthia Mann of States News Service and JTA staff writer Larry Yudelson.)