ANALYSIS Losing Clout? Continued from Page 22 always depend heavily on its ability to, work effectively with other minorities. The Intifada Effect Silver's it It's our store-wide sale with savings of 20 - 70% in every department.. . Including office and residential furnishings, office products, leather goods, business machines, writing instruments, paper goods, gifts and accessories, house- wares, candies and coffees— plus a whole lot more. GIFTS ❑ OFFICE PRODUCTS ❑ FURNITURE 151 W. Fort at Shelby, Detroit Tel-Twelve Mall, Sfld. Briarwood Mall, Ann Arbor Intermediate markdowns on some merchandise may have been taken. Does not include Instant Office® furniture except floor samples,or specially priced merchandise. VALENTINE'S DAY AT TRUE FAUX® Oriental Rugs Today's Pleasure Tomorrow's Treasure 251 Merrill Birmingham (313) 644-7311 2915 Breton Grand Rapids (1.800-622-RM) BARRY'S LETS RENT IT Pearl Necklace TRUE }AUX® $112.00. Pearl Earring $167.00 Estate Reproduction Bracelet JEWELRY In the Great American Bldg. next to Crowley's Downtown Birmingham $206.00 • 1 , 433-1150 • , • PARTY RENTALS AND PAPER GOODS 4393 ORCHARD LAKE RD. N. OF LONE PINE IN CROSSWINDS (OUR NEW LOCATION) I 855-0480 I Finally, the wild card in this high-stakes game is the ongoing Intifada in Israel, a crisis that has shaken some of the foundations of Jewish political life. In the executive branch of the government, the intifada has contributed significantly to official impatience with Israel, and with the pro-Israel cause. This frustration was a fac- tor in George Shultz's recent decision to open a dialogue with the PLO, and in the muted response from Capitol Hill to the startling turn of events. It will be a factor — how much of one is far from clear — in upcoming discus- sions about the new foreign aid budget. "I don't see a turning away from Israel in Congress," said one aide to a strongly pro- Israel legislator. "But neither do I see the same automatic support for Israel's policies that we saw a year ago from a core group of senators and congressmen." The intifada has sowed doubts among many of Israel's supporters; the disorders, and the Jerusalem government's uncompromis- ing response, has tarnished Israel's image as a bastion of democracy in a very un- democratic part of the world. United States decision makers have also been frustrated by Israel's internal divisions — including the November election which resulted in another coalition government, and the raucous debate over the best way to handle the disorders in the oc- cupied territories. Israel's crisis has not resulted in any wholesale desertion of Israel in American public opinion. In fact, polling data on the Mid- dle East situation has been ambiguous. But there are warning signals everywhere; a recent New York Times poll, for ex- ample, showed little dif- ference between the propor- tion of Americans who feel the PLO is unwilling to make the concessions necessary to a Middle East peace — and those who say the same thing about Israel. "I think support for Israel is not so much the result of the power of the Jewish com- munity as it is the result of the sympathy most Americans had for a beleag- uered Western state, a democracy," says Steve Silbiger, Washington representative for the American Jewish Congress. "The Intifada has chipped away at that image — but how much is not clear to us now." Political professionals like B'nai B'rith's Dan Mariaschin point out that support for Israel remains strong, both in the govern- ment and among the American people. "But it's brought us a real challenge to us," Mariaschin says. "We have to deal with the images that are coming across the television screen every night. It puts a special responsibility on us to try to keep current, to try to explain the context of what's happen- ing." More significantly, the In- tifada has cut a wide swath through the American Jewish community, whose unity on the question of Israel has always been one of the bedrocks of Jewish political power. In the past, even American Jews with very different views on the best • route to a Middle East peace were able to coalesce around direct threats to Israel's existence, like the 1967 and 1973 inva- sions by her Arab neighbors. But the intifada has produc- ed a different kind of crisis; solutions are hard to envi- sion, the proper response of the U.S. government is not clear to many Jews. - And a sizable proportion of American Jews lay at least some of the blame at Israel's own doorstep. The disunity factor was on- ly intensified with the re- emergence of the "Who is a Jew" issue. "It's obvious that this came at a very bad time," says Allan Lichtman, the American University political historian. "lb the rest of the country, it conveys a very negative image; here we have Jews squabbling over a ques- tion of ethnic identity that other people have a hard time grasping. "But more important is the question of Jewish unity. In the past, one of the real foun- dations of Jewish political power has been the almost monolithic support for certain things — most notably, for Israel. Now, we see much more debate on these issues. We see more uncertainty — which has a direct affect on the political power of the Jewish community." Despite these problems, even the pessimists insist that the Jewish community remains a strong.