14
Friday, August 31, 1984
F
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
RINGING
THOSE BELLS
IN CONGRESS
or many of us, the term "lob-
byist" conjures up the image
of a smooth, shrewd gladhan-
who talks in vague generalities, de-
fers only to the rich and powerful,
and lives very well indeed. The con-
ventional picture is one of power, af-
fluence and tainted influence.
None of these attributes apply
when you meet Tom Dine who heads
the American Israel Public Affairs
Committee. One is not prepared for
the open manner, the sincerity, the
unpretentious, almost Lincolnesque
appearance of the man.
Neither is it immediately appar-
ent that you are talking to a man
whom Washingtonian magazine once
listed among the 100 most influential
people in Washington. Or that
Thomas A. Dine, at 44 the executive
director of AIPAC, has been a Peace
Corps volunteer in the Philippines,
U.S. Peace Corps congressional
liaison, personal assistant to Ambas-
sador Chester Bowles in New Delhi,
deputy foreign policy adviser to Sen.
Edward M. Kennedy, SALT adviser
to Sen. Edmund Muskie, director of
the national security staff of the Se-
nate Budget Committee, legislative
assistant for foreign affairs to Sen.
Frank Church, a senior fellow at the
Brookings Institution, and a fellow at
Harvard's Kennedy Institute of Poli-
tics, the Center for International Af-
fairs, and the program for Science
and International Affairs.
Of course, the man's intelligence
comes across immediately. And one
cannot mistake Dine's grasp of is-
sues, his sense of humor, his unflapp-
able ability to organize thoughts and
actions quickly, his encyclopedic
memory for facts.
All of those attributes were
utilized in recent weeks as Dine and
AIPAC staff members lobbied at the
Democratic Party convention in San
Francisco and at the Republican con-
vention in Dallas for strong Middle
East Platform planks. AIPAC repre-
AIPAC chief Tom Dine,
respected by many as a
first-rate lobbyist and
derided by some as a
'Brooks Brothers Jew,' knows
the best, uses of power.
BY SHERWOOD D. KOHN
Special to The Jewish News
sentatives, led by Dine, attended
state caucuses and hosted several re-
ceptions for party leaders, Jewish
communal leaders and delegates.
Several congressional aides,
questioned about Dine's qualifica-
tions as a lobbyist, used such descrip-
tions as, "very capable, very articu-
late. He can play the game any way it
has to be played. Knows what makes
people tick. Likes to win and knows
how. An intellectual, but not ivory
tower. A good, effective witness. A
man who has had a strong impact,
and one with an impressive set of
principles. A strong liberal in the
best and broadest sense."
But not everyone is charmed. As
you might expect, the Arab lobby in
Washington regards Dine as an
anathema, albeit with considerable
respect for his influence and intellec-
tual abilities. But even among his
constituents there are those who look
upon the Cincinnati-born lobbyist as
a "Brooks Brothers Jew" and a
"Mandarin." And when he first took
over AIPAC from its second director,,
Morris Amitay, in 1980, there were
quite a few cries of "assimilationist."
"I don't get it any more," said
Dine, "but when I first got this job,
they wanted to know if I was Jewish.
'How can a guy who is head of AIPAC
have the last name of Dine? I never
heard of it.' I said that in Lithuania it
was 'Dion.'
"Number two, my definition of
assimilation is having good man-
ners."
Which is certainly the case. Dine
has class, the kind of class that comes
from being comfortable with power.
But it is a behind-the-scenes kind of
power. Why didn't Dine choose to run
for office, wield power in the fishbowl
of elected politics?
"I guess we're all different. I like
living in Washington, and you can't
get elected dog catcher there. I could
see living in Boston, New York, San
Francisco or Los Angeles, but I
wanted to live in Washington. I also
wanted to be in the forefront of
Jewish interests."
So he became a lobbyist for
which Dine feels the qualifications
are:
"First of all, a lobbyist for any
cause or issue has to be well in-
formed. The only way to persuade
people, to debate with them, to sit
down and reason together is the ex-
pression and sharing of accurate and
timely and relevant information.
"That's why Ph.D. dissertations,
to take an extreme case, are not per-
suasive. That kind of document may
be accurate, but it's probably not
timely and it's certainly not relevant
and useful to a legislator, to a public
policy person.
"Second, you've got to be able to
articulate confidently what it is you
think is in the best interests of the
United States.
"The reason that Israel does well
in Washington is that it is both a
democracy and a militarily capable
cou atry. Therefore, a strong Israel
strengthens America.
"What we do is put people to-
gether; form a coalition made up of
Americans who love the fact that Is-
rael is a functioning, dynamic, repre-
sentative government, an open
society. It's imperfect, but so are we.
"In that same group of people are
those who cannot forget the
Holocaust. And therefore Israel is a
moral issue for them. And finally in
this grouping are those people who
are deeply wedded to the Judeo-
Christian ethic.
"That's what I call the first major
part of the coalition. The second is the
Anti-Soviet Strategic Asset school,
who very much appreciate the fact
that Israel is so strong, capable and
on our side. And part of the Western
Alliance.
"The reason Israel does well is
that we put together those two forces
in this country.