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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Frida}i, November 1, 1985
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Continued from Page 42
congressional debate over
Israel.
"The genie is clearly out of
the bottle," said political scien-
tist Herbert Alexander of the
recent focus on pro-Israel PACs.
"No one in the Jewish commu-
nity was interested in making a
big splash with PACs. They
could have been very effective
by being more discrete and
quiet."
Initially, Jewish PACs did try
to deflect attention by adopting
such nondescript names as Citi-
zens Organized for the National
Interest or Georgia Citizens for
Good Government or Arizona
Politically Interested Citizens.
Their names could have been
inspired by randomly choosing a
phrase from a civics text.
"We did not say out loud that
we preferred not to have 'Israel'
or 'Jewish' in our name," said
Robert Golder of Delaware Val-
ley PAC. "But subconsciously,
we didn't want to draw any at-
tention. Jews have been afraid
of persecution for so many years
that we opted for not being os-
tentatious or too obvious."
The chief of one PAC dis-
missed these concerns. In an era
of Jewish political power, he
said Jews should be more forth-
right and less reticent about
how they wield that power. And
Richard Altman, head of Na-'
tional PAC, the wealthiest pro-
Israel,PAC, said. "We are in an
era, thankfully, when Jews are
fully American citizens. It's
quintessentially American and
quintessentially Jewish to be
politically involved. I don't
think that maintaining a profile
beneath our dignity is called
for."
More important than their
names are the guiding princi-
ples of Jewish PACs. They all
seek strong U.S. support for Is-
rael. The money they give to a
candidate is based on his pro-
Israel bias, his need for cam-
paign money and, if he is an in-
cumbent, whether he is on such
pivotal congressional commit-
tees as Foreign Affairs, Armed
Services or Appropriations.
But there is an on-going de-
bate over whether Jewish PACs
should focus on Israel to the exc-
lusion of other issues that have
traditionally been on the Jewish
agenda, such as civil rights and
liberties, equal opportunity and
economic advancement.
Single-issue PACs, said David
Saperstein, head of the Reli-
gious Action Center of the
Union of American Hebrew
Congregations, "skew the per-
ception of politicians of Jewish
concerns. The message that goes
to Congress is that Jews talk a
good line on apartheid and civil
rights and similar issues, but
when push comes to shove, they
only care about Israel. That's a
bad message for inter-group re-
lations."
Saperstein, who was one of
the founders of the Illinois-based
Multi-Issue Political Action
Committee, conceded that
"single-issue PACs show the
imporatance of Israel to Ameri-
can Jews. But to show the di-
versity of interests of Jews, both
ence
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single-issue and multi-issue
PACs are needed."
"Let's be honest about all
this," sniffled one Jewish Wash-
ington political consultant.
"Jews are more concerned about
Israel than any other issue.
When they hear that Israel
needs money, they raise a for-
tune. When they hear that the
Former
Illinois
Senator
Charles
Percy:
Jewish PACs #1
Target to be
unseated in 1984.
inner-city needs money, they
barely raise a cent. Jews who
needs to address many issues
through their PACs have a
neurotic need to demonstrate
their humanitarianism. Jewish
PACs are successful precisely
because they are narrowly fo-
cused. They give congressmen
an idea of U.S. Jews' passoin for
Israel.
Robert Golder of Delaware
Valley PAC was even more
blunt: "Frankly, I don't care
about anything other than Is-
rael's survival. I am not trying
to influence the make-up of
Congress. I am trying to assure
that Israel lives."
And Morris Amitay, head of
. Washingto PAC, dismissed the
entire debate over single-issue
versus multi-issue Jewish PACs
as "largely irrelevant ... If any-
thing, American Jews are over-
represented both in numbers
and financial support in the
civil rights, nuclear freeze and
similar movements, and cer-
tainly need not apologize to
anyone for their lack of in-
volvement. What has been lack-
ing, however, has been or-
ganized political activity specifi-
cally on Israel's behalf. This ac-
tivity is almost 100 percent
Jewish and there are no poten-
tial coalition partners who will
be willing to expend the requis-
ite energy or resources, simply
because they do not share the
same passionate commitment."
Political scientist Herbert
Alexander warned that the suc-
cess of single-issue Jewish PACs
has had a price: It makes them
appear too parochial, too
polarized, too absorbed with Is-
rael to the detriment of other is-
sues.
Not so, said Delaware Valley
PAC's Robert Golder. The
single-issue approach makes a
PAC politically powerful, not
politically myopic. "When mem-
bers of my PAC meet with a
senator for 20 minutes and give
him a check for his campaign,