INSIDE WASHINGTON
JAMES D. BESSER
Washington Correspondent
Israel Aid Passes Test,
Seen As Safe For Now
Solarz Authors Bill
To Alter Peyote Verdict
or months, pro-Israel
activists concerned
about the growing
threat to Israel's $3 billion
in foreign aid have spent
sleepless nights worrying
about Rep. David Obey (D-
Wis.), the powerful figure in
the budget process who has
repeatedly complained about
the way aid is appropriated
to Israel and Egypt.
Last week, Obey made his
move. During the debate
over the $14.8 billion foreign
aid authorization bill, Obey
took aim at Israel's set-
tlements policies, and sug-
gested that in future
budgets, Israel's $3 billion in
aid might be reduced by the
amount spent on new set-
tlements in Gaza and the
West Bank.
This came after Obey had
helped defeat an earlier
amendment that would have
sliced 10 percent from the
total foreign aid budget —
with no exemptions for coun-
tries like Israel and Egypt.
Instead, the House passed a
modified two percent cut
that will not affect aid to a
number of protected coun-
tries, including Israel.
What issue unites groups
as diverse as the American
Jewish Congress and
Agudath Israel of America,
the American Civil Liberties
Union and the Family
Research Council — the
Washington arm of a con-
servative evangelical min-
istry?
The answer is the recent
Supreme Court decision in-
volving the use of peyote in
the religious rituals of some
Native American groups.
In a ground breaking deci-
sion several months ago, the
Supreme Court ruled
against a Native American's
claim that peyote use was an
essential part of his religious
practice.
But the decision affects
more than just the use of the
hallucinogenic drug. Until
the ruling, a state which re-
stricted or outlawed a re-
ligious practice had to prove
a "compelling state inter-
est" in such a restriction.
The High Court decision
removed that necessity.
"With this decision, the
whole area of free exercise
jurisprudence was radically
altered," said a spokesman
for Rep. Stephen Solarz
(D-N.Y.). "We saw this as a
very ominous, very
dangerous decision."
Last week, Solarz put the
final touches on the Re-
ligious Freedom Restoration
Act of 1990, legislation
designed to reverse the court
F
Artwork from Newsday by Anthony D'Adamo. Copyright 4, 1989. Newsday. Distributed by Los Angeles Times Syndicate.
"His timing was perfect,"
said one pro-Israel lobbyist.
"He had just help defeat the
cutting amendments; he
roundly criticized the PLO
for failing to condemn the
beach attack. He said that
Israel can count on the
United States during times
of genuine need — but he
made it very clear that they
need to consider the conse-
quences of their actions."
Despite strong grumbling
about foreign aid at the
grass roots level and grow-
ing congressional worries
over the projected course of
the new Israeli government,
there is little sentiment for
any immediate cuts in
Israel's aid allotment — a
sentiment not unrelated to
the fact that this is an elec-
tion year.
But Obey's "friendly war-
ning" to Israel was the first
time a major figure in the
congressional foreign aid
process directly linked
Israel's aid allotment to
specific policies in the ter-
ritories — a precedent that
worries pro-Israel activists.
'Emily's List' Helps
Elect Women To Office
A Baltimore, Md., woman
is the key player in a group
devoted to giving Democrat-
ic women added political
clout by helping finance the
campaigns of promising
candidates.
"Emily's List" is a
humorous cognomen based
on the group's founding
principles, according to
Wendy Sherman, the
group's executive director.
"One of the things the
founders of Emily's List
understood is that one of the
major reasons women were
not getting elected is that
they had no access to early
money," Sherman said.
"And early money is like
`yeast' — it makes the dough
rise. It was our little joke on
ourselves."
The group was founded in
1985 by a group of women
interested primarily in help-
ing elect a woman to the
Senate in her own right — a
quest that ultimately helped
propel Maryland's Barbara
Mikulski into the Senate. In
that campaign, Sherman
served as Mikulski's cam-
paign manager.
Since that time, the group
has expanded to assist wo-
men in House and guber-
natorial races.
"What we do is a very
thorough assessment of
Democratic women's cam-
paigns around the country,"
Sherman said. "Then we
recommend selected cam-
paigns to our members, who
then write checks directly to
those candidates."
Political action com-
mittees (PACs) are limited
in the amount they can give
to individual candidates;
Emily's List, by coor-
dinating private direct dona-
tions, avoids these limits.
In 1988, Emily's List rais-
ed $650,000 for nine House
candidates, a process that
helped elect three new Dem-
ocratic women to the House,
including Rep. Nita Lowey
(D-N.Y.), one of the new
breed of Jewish women
politicos. This year, the
group expects to raise and
distribute up to $1 million.
Candidates recommended
by Emily's List are
evaluated on a number of
issues. But on two issues, the
requirements are absolute.
"They have to be pro-
choice," Sherman said, "and
they have to be pro-equal
rights."
decision. The bill, according
to a Solarz spokesman,
would restore Americans'
right to practice their re-
ligions without government
Stephen Solarz:
"Ominous, dangerous decision."
restriction —unless the
government can prove a
compelling state interest in
applying restrictions to
those individuals.
In other words, the mea-
sure throws the burden of
proof back on the govern-
ment when it attempts to en-
force laws that have the
effect of limiting the free ex-
ercise of religion.
Solarz's legislation will be
formally introduced when
the House returns from its
Independence Day recess
next week.
Interns Get Feel
For Jewish Issues
Summertime in Washing-
ton means oppressive heat,
empty offices and the annual
influx of summer interns,
who provide cheap labor for
congressional offices and
public policy agencies — and
who get, in return, in-
valuable exposure to the
mechanisms of democracy.
Jewish organizations are
no exceptions in the annual
rush to sign up bright col-
lege students. And if the
past is any measure, today's
interns will comprise the
backbone of tomorrow's Jew-
ish activist community.
"They're tireless, bright,
energetic and enthusiastic,"
said Rabbi Lynn Landsberg,
associate director of the Re-
ligious Action Center of
Reform Judaism. "Without
the interns, the work of the
Center could not be done."
According to Landsberg,
interns at the Center take on
an unusual level of respon-
sibility.
"At any given time, we are
engaged in 30-35 issues,"
she said. "Each of the
legislative aides is assigned
five or six issues. They are
the eyes, ears, and legs of the
Center. Each is fully respon-
sible for the issues they are
assigned — basically, to
become our resident experts
on these issues."
The typical intern during
the summer, she said, works
an average of more than 55
hours per week.
Like many agencies, the
Religious Action Center uses
interns year-round.
"We use four or five per
cycle," Landsberg said. "It's
a very competitive applica-
tion process; this year, we
had 45 applications for 5
positions. They were real
drop- dead applications; we
had students from Harvard
and Yale, people with
tremendous credentials."
Every year, Landsberg
offers a three-day orienta-
tion for interns for a number
of Jewish agencies — in-
cluding the Council of Jew-
ish Federations, the Anti-
Defamation League, the
American Jewish Com-
mittee, the American Jewish
Congress and the National
Council of Jewish Women.
This summer, some 20
interns will be working for
the major Jewish agencies in
Washington.
In addition, the American
Israel Public Affairs Com-
mittee (AIPAC) will have
about 25 interns. AIPAC
interns of past years have
gone on to very active roles
in the pro-Israel community.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
31