A group of opposition Knesset members departed Sunday for the United States, on a mission “to inform the American public that there is a majority in Israel for the land-for-peace principle.”
Right-wing politicians charged their true purpose was to persuade the U.S. government to tear away parts of the Land of Israel from the Jewish state.
And even some sympathizers had doubts.
Two prominent Laborites, Moshe Shahal, a former energy minister, and Uzi Baram, former secretary-general of the Labor Party, dropped out at the last minute.
Baram said he agreed with the positions articulated by the group but felt the timing was inappropriate because U.S. Secretary of State James Baker is still pursuing his peace efforts.
But left-wing Knesset members making the trip think differently. Baker’s ongoing efforts make their mission more timely and important, they said.
The group consists of Arieh (Lova) Eliav and Yossi Beilin of Labor, Dedi Zucker of the Citizens Rights Movement, Yair Tsaban of Mapam and Avraham Poraz of the Center-Shinui Movement.
They plan to hold public and private meetings with congressional and administration figures and with Jewish and non-Jewish groups all over the United States.
They say their purpose is to convince American officialdom and the public that the Likud government’s policy of no territorial concessions does not reflect majority opinion in Israel.
Meanwhile, hundreds of members of the dovish Peace Now movement hiked through Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Saturday chanting, “This is the place where they have buried the peace and where they have buried the money.”
According to Peace Now, about 20 percent of the Housing Ministry’s budget is spent in the administered territories.
But Peace Now efforts to expose fiscal favoritism may have backfired. Settlement leaders in the Gaza Strip said they are getting more inquiries from potential settlers since Peace Now spread the word that housing loans are easier to get in the territories.
The mayor of the burgeoning West Bank settlement of Ariel thanked the protesters for drawing attention to the settlers “success.”
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.
