Two ends of the Knesset political spectrum joined together last week to form an unusual coalition in a demand for a thorough discussion of the relations between Israel’s government and American Jewry.
Sheli Knesseter Arye Eliav said in a motion to the agenda that the government, by its failure to make progress on peace, was losing the support of American Jewry.
When Deputy Minister Yoran Aridor took to the podium to strike the motion off the agenda, he was faced with the unexpected opposition of his party colleague, Geula Cohen, who heads the Knesset Immigration and Absorption Committee. She suggested that the motion be discussed in her committee. “Just because the motion was raised by Eliav is not a good enough reason to strike it off,” she contended.
But Aridor quoted public opinion polls which showed that 83 per cent of U.S. Jews back the policy of Israel’s government. Premier Menachem Begin’s last visit to the U.S. also proved how completely American Jewry identifies itself with the government’s peace plan, he said.
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