Percy Still Under Fire

Speaking for Chicago’s Jewish community, the Public Affairs Committee of the Jewish United Fund representing 36 Jewish organizations in the area publicly told Sen. Charles H. Percy (R.III.) yesterday that it was “deeply troubled” by his recent comments on U.S.-Israel relations. Reading an open letter which the PAC sent to the Senator, Maynard I. Wishner, chairman, told a press conference that, though the issues raised by Percy were legitimate and important issues for debate, the tone and timing of those comments are “deeply disturbing to wide segments of the Jewish community” and are perceived as a shift by Percy away from his previously consistent pro-Israel record.

Wishner referred specifically to Percy’s use of the terms “relative moderate” to describe PLO leader Yasir Arafat and “intransigence” to characterize the Israeli negotiating posture toward Arab states. He called these terms “propaganda devices designed to create and spread confusion and hostility rather than the understanding of Israel’s true position.” Wishner was particularly critical of Percy for announcing his position–that Israel should withdraw to “essentially” its 1967 borders, accept a divided Jerusalem and deal with the PLO–on the eve of Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger’s negotiating trip to the Middle East.

“What service does it do when a Senator closely identified with the present administration, subject to being viewed, whether rightly or wrongly as a spokesman for the government of the U.S. creates the impression that the United States has already predetermined its position in the matter? Is it wrong for us to be concerned where this seems to establish the minimum negotiating posture of the Arab side?” Wishner asked. He also questioned whether it is in the United States’ interest for the Israelis to talk to Arafat, as Percy has maintained.