Over strong opposition that surprised Jewish students at the convention, the Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) last night approved by a voice vote a resolution that urged the U.S.govemment to use “appropriate diplomatic and economic sanctions” against nations that “harbor” or “give encouragement” to “Marxist Oriented Palestinian terrorist groups.”
The resolution was presented by Joel Cassman, 18, a member of Temple Israel in Omaha, Neb., who will enter Brown University as a freshman next month to study international relations. Cassman, a member of the platform committee in the conservative student political organization, said that about 70 percent of the approximately 500 delegates voting approved his resolution.
However, Richard Petrucci, 18, of Stamford, Conn., who led the opposition, said about 15 percent sided with him. Naming the Irgun and Haganah, Petrucci, a political science sophomore at Marquette University, charged that Israel was “just as guilty as the Palestinians in terrorist activities.” His charges brought a sharp rejoinder from David Grossack, 17, of Boston, who is entering Brandeis University next month to major in economics. Grossack, who is Jewish, said that the opposition argument had “a definite anti-Semitic content.”
The four-day YAF convention, which ended today at the Sheraton Park Hotel, adopted without dissent a “right to leave” resolution which called on the United States not to support with trade benefits any country that does not permit its citizens to emigrate. However, it did not specifically mention the Jackson-Mills-Vanik proposal to that effect which is pending in Congress.
ISRAEL HAD TO BE ESTABLISHED
YAF, founded in 1960, claims it is the country’s largest national student group with 58,000 members in 550 chapters. National public relations chairman Dan Rae, a Boston University law student, said about five to seven percent of the approximately 1000 delegates attending the convention are Jewish.
Cassman, Grossack and Thomas Morton, 19, of Cincinnati, a Miami (Ohio) sophomore major in English and who is not Jewish, said they organized picketing and distributed leaflets at the Sudanese Embassy in protest against the Black September movement members who murdered two American diplomats in Khartoum. About 40 YAF members participated in the demonstration.
Outside the convention hall following the heated discussion on the terrorism resolution, Grossack offered his hand to Petracca saying, “I hope there is no hard feeling.” This came at a time when Petrucci coincidentally was telling the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reporter that he was going to talk with Grossack. When Petrucci accepted Grossack’s handshake Grossack said, “I wish it could be done this way at the Security Council.” Petrucci replied, “I wish everything could be done this way.”
Petrucci told JTA that he agreed Israel should be an “independent Jewish state” and that “it was a good thing for Israel to be established. The Jews need a home.” But, he added, he wanted “the Palestinian refugees to go back to their homes.” Observing that the “Arab governments are trying to keep them (the refugees) in the camps,” Petrucci declared. “We definitely should tell the Arab nations to invite the refugees to live in their countries.” But, he continued, “Israel has driven the Arabs from their homes” and “if Israel says they can’t go back to their homes, we should intervene and let them go back.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
