Shamir’s Solidarity Conference Winning Broad Backing in U.S.

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir has been largely successful in rallying leaders of American Jewish organizations behind his “Conference on Jewish Solidarity With Israel,” taking place in Jerusalem March 20 to 22.

But there is some ambivalence about the event, even among those who are participating. Some are wary that Shamir will use the gathering, which comes just weeks before his meetings in Washington with the Bush administration, as proof that American Jewry stands firmly behind the Likud leader’s political agenda.

Close to 1,000 hand-picked Jewish leaders from the United States and elsewhere are expected at the conference, described by Shamir’s office as an attempt to form a “united front” that will “solidify the bond between the Jewish people and the State of Israel.”

Participants, from youth group leaders to British press baron Robert Maxwell, will take part in three days of speeches and “working groups,” and are expected to signal their approval for a series of conference resolutions.

All 46 member organizations of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, an additional seven observer groups and 11 of its past chairmen signed a statement of support for the conference that appeared in Sunday’s New York Times.

“Whatever our individual points of view, we are unified in our commitment to Israel’s security, its independence, its economic vitality and the well-being of its citizenry,” read the ad.

‘A SENSE OF ISOLATION’

Those enthusiastic about the event see it as a reaffirmation of American Jewish support in the wake of recent tension, including the bitter Diaspora opposition to the proposed “Who Is a Jew” amendment to the Law of Return that alarmed Israeli leaders.

So did the American Jewish leadership’s tepid reaction to the U.S. decision in December to open a dialogue with the Palestine Liberation Organization.

“This is a time when Israel needs an expression of solidarity,” said Samuel Cohen, executive vice president of the Jewish National Fund of American.

“There’s a sense of isolation, especially in view of the difficult year Israel had this past year,” said Cohen. Israel “needs a show of solidarity for the people in government in Washington, that the Jews are with Israel, that we aren’t two communities.”

Criticism of the conference has been muted, because few can argue with any attempt to demonstrate their love of Israel.

“We have no problem with the conference, but would have a great problem if it were to be used inappropriately for the far narrower purpose that world Jewry supports the specifics of this government’s peace process,” said Henry Siegman, executive director of the American Jewish Congress.

AJCongress, a frequent critic of Shamir’s hard-line polices, will be represented by Siegman and its president, Robert Lifton.

Helping to allay fears that the conference will serve partisan Likud interests are key members of the Labor Party who took part in its planning.

Vice Premier Shimon Peres will address the conference, as will his party colleague, Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Mordechai Gur, a Labor minister without portfolio, was in the United States last week visiting communities to drum up support and participation.

AN UNCERTAIN CONSENSUS

“Solidarity could not be represented as something that could promote Likud,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.

Cooper claims the idea for the conference came out of discussions between Wiesenthal Center officials and Shamir.

“We’re trying to highlight again to ourselves and the world that there is a consensus on basic ideas,” he explained.

Cooper said these ideas include a unified Jerusalem and Israel’s “basic geo-military needs.”

But other leaders are less certain what that consensus embraces. Despite the fact that Likud has been given control over foreign policy, Israel’s national unity government is still divided along party lines over the best path toward a resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Both Likud and Labor officially oppose a Palestinian state and the Palestine Liberation Organization as a legitimate negotiating partner. And Shamir now supports positions once linked to Peres: a role for both the Soviets and Jordanians in the peace process.

But Labor leaders support trading land for peace, while Shamir sums up his views on territorial compromise by saying “not one inch.”

Rabbi Wolfe Kelman, executive vice president of the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly, said he is not attending the conference, mainly because of scheduling conflicts.

But Kelman termed the conference’s goals “a vague, amorphous idea of solidarity.”

SHAMIR ‘DESERVES A CHANCE’

On the other hand, Kelman said, “I hope many people will go. I have no desire to see it fail. I don’t know anybody who is staying away because they don’t agree with Shamir. They support the State of Israel, which Labor is as much involved in as Likud.”

Some who agree with the stated aims of the conference, but disagree with Shamir’s approach to the peace process, see it as an opportunity to tell him so.

Chuck Buxbaum, national secretary of Habonim Labor Zionist Youth and chairman of the American Zionist Youth Council, said he is going “to express solidarity with Israel, to express the commitment of Zionist youth to aliyah and Zionist education — but also to express the fact that many American Zionist youth are very troubled with Israel’s current policies.”

Another frequent critic of Shamir’s polices, Rabbi Alexander Schindler of the Reform movement’s Union of American Hebrew Congregations, said he will attend the conference because “my love of Israel transcends party policy to embrace an entire people.”

Shamir, he said, “deserves a chance to prove that he is a bona fide peacemaker. We will give him a fair and responsible hearing.”

(J.J. Goldberg, associate editor of The New York Jewish Week, contributed to this report.)