Jewish groups opposed to the peace talks joined forces this week with Christian pro-Israel organizations to launch a pre-emptive strike against any Israeli-Syrian peace accord that would involve Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights.
With a proposed amendment to the defense authorization bill in hand, the groups have been feverishly trying to persuade members of Congress to enact legislation that would prevent the deployment of American soldiers unless burdensome requirements are met.
The troop issue is the first step in an effort by a new right-wing coalition to combat “the risk to Israel’s survival posed by (Israeli) government policy” regarding the peace process, according to a statement issued by the new group that calls itself the Coalition for A Secure U.S.-Israel Friendship.
The coalition includes such groups as Americans for A Safe Israel, Rabbinical Alliance of America, Jewish War Veterans, Christians’ Israel Public Action Campaign, Center for Security Policy, World Committee for Israel, and Christians United for Israel.
At a news conference in New York on Monday announcing the group’s formation, members of the coalition said that stationing U.S. troops in the Golan could harm Israeli-U.S. relations if they are fired upon; that they would be targets for terrorists; and that they would impede Israel’s ability for a pre-emptive strike against Syria.
On Tuesday, the coalition sponsored a full-page advertisement in The New York Times, featuring a photograph of the mutilated body of an American soldier in Somalia.
“Have we forgotten the 18 U.S. servicemen murdered in Somalia? Have we forgotten the 241 U.S. Marines killed by Arab extremists in Beirut?” the advertisement asks.
The Israeli government sees the coalition as a Likud-inspired attempt to derail the peace process in general, according to Israeli officials.
Israeli officials said it is premature to comment on the need for U.S. forces on the Golan since talks with Syria have been stalled over the past several months.
The talks have been stymied by Syria’s insistence that Israel declare its willingness to fully withdraw from the Golan before Syria states its willingness to pursue full peace with Israel.
However, the Israelis are quick to emphasize that any presence on the Golan Heights would not involve peacekeepers, but rather observers, such as those that have been serving in a multilateral force in the Sinai under the Camp David Accords.
‘AN ATTEMPT TO CHEAT THE AMERICAN PUBLIC’
The Sinai observers, known officially as the Multinational Force and Observers, include a sizeable U.S. contingent. Although the Israelis generally are hesitant to become publicly entangled in internal American Jewish organizational affairs, Israeli officials emphasized that the effort to equate the Golan with Somalia is, as one official said, a “travesty of the truth.”
“This is an attempt to cheat the American public by using the unrelated American experience in Somalia and Bosnia, while completely hiding the related experience of the MFO in the Sinai,” said a senior Israeli official, referring to the observers in the Sinai.
Some Jewish organizational leaders criticized the right-wing groups for meddling in Israeli policy matters that should be left to the Israelis to decide.
Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, attacked the coalition, accusing it of exporting Israeli politics to the United States in “a crude, irresponsible and possibly counterproductive manner.”
For these groups to “camouflage and pervert” their opposition to an accord with Syria “into an issue of U.S. troops in the Middle East is cynical, counterproductive and may be hurtful in the future,” he said.
“Because there may be a need, and the United States may be the only party acceptable. So to use this as a weapon abroad, to undermine the current policy of the government, I think is shameful,” Foxman said.
By mid-week, members of the coalition were trying in vain to find a senator to introduce their one-page amendment, which would prevent the White House from using any taxpayer money to deploy U.S. peacekeepers on the Golan Heights.
The proposal also would require the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to report to Congress on the risk to U.S. forces from terrorism, the cost estimates, the impact on the readiness of the U.S. armed forces elsewhere, the effect on Israel’s strategic intelligence and warning capabilities and the duration of the mission.
The Senate Armed Services Committee is scheduled to finish its work on the authorization bill this week.
Members said that if the Senate Armed Services Committee does not include the amendment, the group will try to find a senator to sponsor an amendment when the bill reaches the Senate floor.
Herb Zweibon, executive director of AFSI, said at the news conference in New York on Monday that he believes an Israeli-Syrian “deal will go forward whether American troops are on the Golan or not.” But, he said, he wants to tell the Israeli people not to rely on an American umbrella to protect them.
Ernest Bloch, president of Pro-Israel, another member of the coalition, defended the group’s right to oppose the Israeli government’s policies in the peace talks.
“If the Israeli government is embarked on policies that we believe will lead to the destruction of Israel, a policy of national suicide, then we are morally obligated to speak out,” he said.
In addition, Bloch said, since “the Land of Israel is not only the possession of those Jews living in Israel, the Israelis, but of Jews living throughout the world,” all Jews have a right to speak out against giving up parts of the Land of Israel.
(Contributing to this report was Larry Yudelson in New York)
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.
