Touted As Alternative to Aipac, New Lobby is Viewed Skeptically

Organizations and individuals on the Jewish left have never been shy about criticizing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the large and powerful lobbying force in Washington.

Its Jewish critics have accused AIPAC of being too closely aligned with conservatives in this country and unwilling to challenge the policies of a right-wing Israeli government.

But these same critics are skeptical of a newly formed group, the Jewish Peace Lobby, that is promoting itself as an alternative Jewish lobby.

Whether it is the purported pro-Palestine Liberation Organization philosophy of the new group or iti s assumption of turf already staked out by their own groups, leftists and other critics of AIPAC say the new group doesn’t deserve the kind of attention it has received in recent weeks.

The Jewish Peace Lobby is headed by Jerome Segal, a research scholar at the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy at the University of Maryland. The new lobby supports an independent, but demilitarized, Palestinian state.

Segal claims the group’s supporters include 125 rabbis and “several dozen prominent American Jews,” as well as coordinators in 50 congressional districts in 22 states.

Among those listed as endorsing the group are Robert Friedman, graduate dean of the Baltimore Hebrew University; sociologist Nathan Glazer of Harvard University; New York rabbis Balfour Brickner and Marshall Meyer; actor Edward Asner; and writers Anne Roiphe, Grace Paley and Gloria Steinem.

NOT IN CONFLICT

Toby Dershowitz, a spokeswoman for AIPAC, said her group has not commented on the Peace Lobby specifically. However, “AIPAC does not seek to quash any voices or any opinions,” she said.

Segal said that on some key issues, the Jewish Peace Lobby is not in conflict with AIPAC — specifically, it supports a “substantial flow of U.S. support for Israel” and opposes the sale of sophisticated weaponry to Arab states.

Where they differ, he said in a telephone interview, is in their views on the peace process.

Segal is already taking credit for a piece of congressional legislation, calling it the Peace Lobby’s first “victory.”

Last month, the House and Senate passed legislation praising Israel for reopening West Bank schools it had closed for security reasons and urged both sides not to use the schools for political purposes.

“This is the first time that the Congress had addressed the intifada and the Israeli approach to it,” said Segal.

But many groups that have taken on AIPAC, think Segal’s claims are exaggerated.

They point out that while Segal hopes to operate his lobby on a $500,000 annual budget, his current holdings are far less. AIPAC, by comparison, has an $8 million annual budget and 50,000 members.

“The Jewish Peace Lobby is a joke,” said Steven Silberger, Washington representative of the American Jewish Congress. “Jerome Segal is the PLO’s man in Washington from the Jewish community. He’s attached himself to the Arab lobby, which pound for pound is the weakest lobby in town.”

According to Silberger, a quartet of major American Jewish organizations already act as a counter to AIPAC: AJCongress, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith and the American Jewish Committee.

While not registered as lobbies, these groups can devote a portion of their resources to lobbying activity.

“We are a correcting mechanism to AIPAC’s excesses. When AIPAC screws up, it’s important that there be Jewish institutions that can clean up the mess,” said Silberger.

Going head to head against AIPAC, AJCongress and the UAHC lobbied strongly, and successfully, against the recent Helms amendment, which would have put strict and almost insurmountable restrictions on the U.S.-PLO dialogue.

LOOKING FOR STRATEGIES

In addition, there are other, smaller organizations on the left which “are looking for strategies which can help senators and congressmen create a critical position vis-a-vis the Israeli government’s policies and still be supportive of Israel,” said Gary Brenner, representative of the North American office of Mapam, the leftist Israeli party.

Friends of Peace Now, Project Nishma and Brenner’s group are not lobbies, but “educational” organizations that position themselves further to the left of mainstream groups like AJCongress.

But these and other smaller groups have their own problems with Segal.

One activist said Segal lacked “credentials” in the Jewish world, and more than one criticized Segal for coming initially to the Middle East debate not as a supporter of Israel but as a proponent of the PLO.

Segal has worked closely with Palestinians, having met PLO leader Yasir Arafat as a member of a delegation of American Jews who traveled to Tunis in June 1987.

Segal’s writings have appeared frequently in the Arabic press and include what many, including Segal, regard as a document that led the PLO to issue its declaration of Palestinian statehood.

REGARDS HIMSELF A ZIONIST

But Segal said that he regards himself as a Zionist. “I believe that the Jewish people have a right to a state in the Middle East. I never equivocate on that. Now, what I’ve argued for a long time is that Israel’s security as well as Jewish values can best be preserved by going back to the common sense of a two-state solution.”

And while his brochure for the Jewish Peace Lobby does not list any specific criticism of the PLO, Segal said he has called on the PLO leadership to renounce terrorism, disband the PLO and “take their covenant with them.”

It remains to be seen whether Segal can become a force in Washington. In the meantime, few of the best-known name on the Jewish left are rushing to join his lobby.

According to Leonard Fein, former editor of Moment magazine and a noted activist, “No single party in this incredibly complex situation has a monopoly on wisdom, and I’d not like to see a situation in which the debate that does go on is the exclusive domain of AIPAC on the one hand and peripheral actors on the other.”