THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, August 31, 1984 15
AIPAC's Tom Dine, left, talks with
Florida Congressman Larry Smith
during an AIPAC reception at the
Democratic National Convention
last month.
Ji ll Klau sner
about two months ago, and on my
walls were not 'Jewish' plaques, but
things like the Bill of Rights, the
Constitution, Declaration of Inde-
pendence, and the Virginia Bill of
"And third, a lobbyist has to be
presentable, speak clearly, dress well
and be as good or better than a
member of Congress."
In all of this, Dine's style is mar-
kedly different from Amitay's, or the
founder of AIPAC, I.L. Kenen. Under
Dine's administration, the lobbying
group has expanded, become more
highly organized and quietly effi-
cient, but not, according to Dine, rad-
ically changed. The emphasis, he
said, has always been on facts:
"AIPAC was noted for that years
before I came there. You've got to
deal in facts. Yes, I'm an advocate,
but your case has to be based on hard,
cold facts. Without them, it's all fluff.
"Power? You know what the
classical definition of power is? Indi-
vidual A gets individual B to do
something that B didn't want to do.
Information is the key. That and
arguments that ring bells in peoples'
heads. Everybody who comes to the
legislature has a perception of coun-
tries, and the perception of Israel is
different in everybody's head.
"nut," said Dine, "you've got to
ring those perceptual bells in some
way. That's why I got into this busi-
ness of taking a liberal philosophy
and a conservative philosophy and
putting them together to work for Is-
rael and the pro-Israel forces in this
country.
"And finally, you can't deal with
people in a slovenly or a belligerent
way. That's my real philosophy.
There are no friends or enemies in
politics. Only friends and potential
friends. That's the way I operate. Am
I a pragmatist? Sure. But if you see
the world full of enemies, you're
going to offend many people who
could be your friends tomorrow.
You've got to conduct yourself in the
morning so that you have more allies
in the afternoon.
"I see myself as a political or-
ganizer and as someone trying to
make public policy. I see AIPAC as a
political organization and a Jewish
organization. We try to combine the
two.
"I remember that Senator
Mathias (R-Md.) visited my office
•■ ••••• ■■•■•■ •••..
Rights, which gave religious freedom
to Jews for the first time. He was
taken aback because it was so Ameri-
can. That was the Brooks Brothers
part of me."
Which brought up the issue of
dual loyalty, a charge that is often
leveled at Dine. He has no problem
answering it.
"I think our strength in this
country has been the fact that we're
of the American soil. Our adversaries
are always claiming that we are
nothing but Israeli agents. Hubert
Humphrey once said. 'What an honor
it is to be both American and Jewish.'
We combine those things and express
it in a way that resonates within the
American context.
"Everything we do is done be-
cause it is in the best interest of the
United States. The way we practice
our citizenship in this country shows
how American we are. We partici-
pate in politics — civics — in a way
that far exceeds almost any other
identifiable group in this country.
"It's pretty impressive, and it's
different from the Weimar Republic
Jews and the imperial Spain Jews,
because we are involved not only in
maintaining our faith and in practic-
ing tzadukah, but because, we are
very much of the whole political
structure, which those other Jews are
not."
Is Dine impressed with his
Washingtonian canonization as one
of Washington's 100 most influential
people?
"When those jerky articles come
out," he said, "the thing you've got to
remember is that if they are going to
come out, get in them. But when I go
`home, my kids don't believe it and my
wife doesn't believe it, either."