The American Zionist Movement is coming under fire for being supportive of the Israeli government.
The American arm of the right-wing Tsomet party this week announced its “temporary suspension” from the umbrella Zionist group to protest AZM’s strong support for the peace process.
“As an umbrella organization covering 21 Zionist groups with diverse political philosophies, (the AZM) should not be taking political positions,” wrote Tsomet USA’s Howard Weber, resigning his membership in the AZM’s Cabinet.
Weber has long objected, both inside and outside of AZM Cabinet meetings, to the political statements being made by AZM President Seymour Reich.
His objections go back to AZM’s initial endorsement of the peace accord between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization.
An AZM statement at the time, criticized by Weber, said that the group “stood shoulder to shoulder with the government of Israel.”
Wrote Weber to Reich this week: “You knew then, full well, that at least a half-dozen of the AZM member groups took issue with the Rabin-Peres-Arafat handshake and yet your view became the official AZM view.”
Weber referred to the agreement entered into by Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat on the White House lawn in September 1993.
Reich defended his group’s actions. Positions the AZM takes, he said, are based on “consensus,” as opposed to unanimity.
“While we want to be sensitive to the needs of our constituents, there are certain positions we adhere to. One is support of the peace process and the government of Israel,” said Reich.
Weber “has raised these issues before, at the Cabinet, and he has not been sustained in his views,” he added.
In contrast to statements of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, which reflect a consensus of that body’s member organizations, AZM decisions are made by the Cabinet, where members serve as individuals, not as representative of organizations.
STAUNCH SUPPORTER OF PEACE PROCESS
Under Reich’s leadership, the AZM has stood out as one of the staunchest supporters of the peace process and the Rabin government policies.
It was a recent article by Reich, attacking a position taken by the Zionist Organization of America and its president, Morton Klein, that triggered Tsomet’s move this week.
Klein had spoken out against American funding for the PLO, in the wake of PLO violations of its accord with Israel.
In his article, which was sent to newspapers as an op-ed piece, Reich countered that given Israel’s commitment to continue the peace process with the PLO, it was in Israel’s interest that the PLO receive funding.
In this, Reich was echoing the views of Israeli diplomats in Washington.
The ZOA announced its own suspension from AZM membership earlier this year.
It charged that Reich had made “inappropriate public comments” about ZOA activities, which Reich had criticized, again in lines similar to those of Israeli government officials.
Some of the edge was taken off the ZOA’s protest, however, by the fact that it had been notified six weeks earlier that it was facing suspension for failure to pay its dues.
“It is regrettable that the ZOA has to be suspended because of non-payment of its dues, but it is equally regrettable that Mort Klein tried to preempt the suspension by suggesting that there was an ideological problem,” said Reich at the time.
The only other non-religious Zionist group clearly on the political right, Likud U.S.A., has also not paid its dues in over a year and has been suspended from AZM, as well.
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.
