U.S. Jewish Leader Gives Bush High Marks on Middle East Policy

While President Bush’s first 100 days in office have been getting generally unenthusiastic reviews, a Jewish leader said Tuesday that the president should receive 98 percent approval for his policy toward the Middle East and Israel.

Seymour Reich, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said the reason he did not give the president a 100 percent rating is Bush’s public call for an end to Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which he issued during Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s visit to the White House last month.

While Bush’s remarks were “consistent with prior policy,” the context in which it was made “was harsh,” since the president did not provide historical background about why Israel administers the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Reich said.

His comments were made to reporters at a National Press Club breakfast on the eve of the 41st anniversary of the State of Israel.

“Israel occupies these territories, not because of aggression that it engaged in, but because of defensive actions that it had to take as a result of wars begun by neighboring Arab countries,” he said.

Reich, who is also president of B’nai B’rith International, praised Bush for having “reaffirmed the basic alliance that exists between the United States and Israel, militarily, culturally, strategically.”

The president was also lauded for telling Mubarak that he did not favor an international peace conference until there are “positive accomplishments” in the Middle East.

Reich was especially pleased that Bush supports a step-by-step approach in the Middle East and has embraced Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s proposal for elections in the territories.

The Jewish leader also gave high marks to Shamir and his election proposal.

“The overwhelming number of American Jews and Jewish organizational life is supportive of this election process,” he said, contending that “opponents are a distinct minority.”

Past divisions in the American Jewish community over Israel were the result of a situation in which the Israeli government spoke with two voices, that of Shamir and that of Shimon Peres. “It is now clear that Shamir speaks for the government of Israel,” Reich said.

U.S. JEWS NOW ‘BEHIND SHAMIR’

“I think that the American Jewish community is solidifying behind Shamir,” the Jewish leader said. “They are saying, ‘Give this man a chance.’ “

Reich also had high marks for the Bush administration’s warning that if the Palestine Liberation Organization is admitted to the World Health Organization, the United States will cut off funds to that international organization. “For the PLO to come into the United Nations through the back door does not enhance the cause of peace,” he said.

Reich gave low grades to PLO leader Yasir Arafat, whom he criticized for the confusion he caused by seemingly saying in Paris that the sections of the Palestine National Covenant calling for the destruction of Israel were “null and void,” and then later rejecting this view.

“Again we’ve seen an example of rhetoric rather than action,” Reich said. He said the sections can be repealed only by a two-thirds vote of the Palestine National Council. The PNC had that opportunity at its meeting in Algiers last fall and did not take it, he added.

Until this is done, the PLO position can only be seen as “first the West Bank and Gaza, and then Tel Aviv and Haifa.” he said.