Premier Yitzhak Shamir warned American Jewish leaders Wednesday that criticism by diaspora Jewish organizations of Israeli policies “does much more harm than any…violent demonstrations in Gaza and elsewhere.”
Addressing the closing of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations’ four-day mission to Israel, Shamir said, “It is inconceivable that, God forbid, any American Jews would permit themselves to be used in this campaign against us, even if they have criticism or doubts of their own with regard to some of Israel’s policies and practices.”
Shamir returned twice to the subject during questioning by conference delegates, who hosted him at a reception at the Hyatt Regency Hotel on Mount Scopus here.
Describing himself as “a firm believer in unity” and the American Jewish community as “a bastion in Israel’s defense,” Shamir said that Arab opponents of Israel were using disagreement among Jews in “driving a wedge between Israel and American Jewry and then between Israel and the United States.”
Several American Jewish organizations including Presidents Conference members the American Jewish Congress, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and the Central Conference of American Rabbis have publicly criticized reported indiscriminate beatings of Palestinian protestors by Israel Defense Force troops.
But they and 49 other U.S. Jewish organization signed a Feb. 4 statement in support of Israel coordinated by the conference.
Shamir made his remarks following a statement in which conference chairman Morris Abram reiterated that “Israel’s policy is to exercise restraint in responding to the acts of violence its soldiers face each day.”
The conference statement also called the Mideast diplomatic mission of U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz a “highly positive and hopeful new development” and the current situation in Israel “unacceptable” and resolvable only by political means.
‘TALK TO THE ISRAELIS DIRECTLY’
In an interview Thursday, Abram said, “I reject the idea that Jews don’t have a right” to speak out against Israeli policy, “but I strongly suggest that there are better ways, more effective ways and more prudential ways of doing it.
“The best way of doing it is to talk to the Israelis directly, “said Abram, maintaining that no American Jewish leader is denied access to the upper levels of Israeli government.
Abram, a lawyer and chairman of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, spoke in glowing terms of a briefing given delegates Wednesday at the IDF central command base in Samaria, north of Jerusalem.
The organization presidents heard Gen. Amram Mitzna and officers and soldiers stationed in the territories describe their roles in controlling the unrest.
Moved by their presentations, Abram said the conference emerged from that briefing with complete “confidence in the overall moral authority of the government in respect to its defense policy.”
As he noted in his closing statement, Abram said the protesters in the territories “are not moving in solid formations to demonstrate, They are not engaging in civil disobedience.”
Abram also referred during the interview to the walk Wednesday by mission participants from the Jaffa Gate of the old City of Jerusalem to the Western Wall inside, passing through the Arab market.
Shops in the usually teeming markets are open only between 3 and 6 p.m. due to a general strike by Arab merchants.
The walk, planned to demonstrate to prospective tourists the safety of East Jerusalem, was uneventful.
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