The National Executive Committee of the Labor Zionist Alliance issued a statement here today warning that bipartisan support for Israel must not become “a political football” during the Presidential election campaign. The statement presented by Prof. Leo Diesendruck of City University, NY, at a meeting presided over by LZA president Dr. Judah J, Shapiro, noted that the “platforms of both major political parties in the US reflect positive commitments to the security of Israel and a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.”
The LZA statement stressed that no one leader or group of leaders could presume to deliver a monolithic Jewish vote even though one cannot deny the existence of a Jewish voting pattern or deplore the introduction of Jewish dimensions in the election campaign. “An accurate assessment would reveal consistent Jewish voting patterns deeply rooted in our culture, tradition and the diaspora experience,” the statement said.
According to the LZA “there are a number of critical issues which are of serious concern to the Jewish community,” many of them “directly related to the urban crisis in America.” The LZA statement urged that priority be given to the solution of the problems of unemployment, education, crime and tax reform. “Expansion of employment opportunities for all citizens is essential,” the statement said, but warned that “systems involving quotas, negative or positive, will never solve this problem. Indeed, they will only serve to exacerbate it. The imposition of quotas will inevitably harm all ethnic minorities and holds particular danger for Jews.” The statement noted that “both candidates and parties have specifically rejected quotas as a method of redressing past injustices.”
The statement said that in the area of equal education, school busing should be recognized as only one of many available tools for improved integrated education and should not be exploited for political gain. “A massive effort must be undertaken to reduce crime, particularly those crimes of violence which are making many of our cities uninhabitable,” the LZA statement said. It also called for “action…to relieve the disproportionate economic burdens of the middle class,” to stem inflation and reform the tax system.
According to the LZA, “attacks on civil liberties and the setbacks in civil rights should be of serious concern to all citizens” and especially to Jews since Jewish freedom has consistently been maintained only in free and open societies.”
The LZA statement welcomed “the continuation of the traditional American policy of bi-partisan support of Israel” and warned that “this support must not be compromised by attempts to portray one political party as favorable to Israel’s interests and the other as unfavorable.” The statement expressed gratification that the cause of Soviet Jewry has received recognition in the platforms of both major parties.
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.
