ON

ELECT

ELECT I ON

I

n the heat of
state political party conven-
tions across the country,
Jewish and Arab groups have
been working together to
negotiate mutually accep-
table platform planks dealing
with Israel and Palestinian
rights.
While they squabble for
public opinion in the media

said the state adheres to the
national party platform in
gubernatorial election years,
only adopting international
planks during presidential
election years.
The Arab-American In-
stitute claims that this year
it reduced its level of state
activism from that of 1988,
when it succeeded in getting
a half-dozen or so pro-
Palestinian measures
adopted by state conven-

A mural of an Arab and a Jew holding hands atop a tree.

and the halls of Congress,
the pro-Israel and pro-Arab
groups are forced to work
together by state party
leaders who want to achieve
unity by keeping bruising
fights over largely symbolic
measures off the convention
floors.
Michigan's Democratic
and Republican leaders have
not adopted international
planks for their respective
Sept. 7 - 9 state conventions.
State Democrats will hold
their convention in Detroit
while the state GOP will
meet in Flint.
Steve Gools, a spokesman
for the Michigan Democratic
Party, said the state never
adopts an individual inter-
national platform. Rusty
Hills, a spokesman for the
Michigan Republican party,

tions. It decided that
building grassroots support
for Palestinian positions is
much more important in a
presidential election year
James Zogby, the in-
stitute's executive director,
charged that, by contrast,
the Jewish community
"poured in, from best we can
tell, major amounts of
money and staff to kind of
undo all of the (pro-
Palestinian) resolutions of
'88."
"The pro-Israel people
were mobilized at a much
earlier stage" this year, ac-
knowledged Martin Raffel,
director of the Israel Task
Force at the National Jewish
Community Relations Ad-
visory Council.
But he said he saw no
diminution in pro-

Palestinian activism at the
conventions.
Pro-Palestinian and pro-
Israel activists alike pay
more attention to state
Democratic Party conven-
tions, since state Republican
Party platforms, because of
their closed rules, are more
difficult to change from their
traditional pro-Israel tilt.
Zogby said, for example,
that no state Republican
platforms this year have
backed a proposal by Senate
Minority Leader Robert Dole
(R-Kan.) to cut foreign aid to
Israel and other top reci-
pients by five percent.
Because of the open rules
at Democratic Party conven-
tions, there is more potential
for free-wheeling debates on
Middle East issues, but also
more risk of upsetting party
unity.
To avoid destroying that
unity, pro-Israel groups do
not necessarily object to
language supporting basic
Palestinian -rights, as long
as there is no mention of a
Palestinian state.
For their part, the Arab-
American Institute does not
necessarily object to lang-
uage supporting "security
for Israel," Zogby said.
In Iowa and Texas, the in-
stitute and groups suppor-
ting its position negotiated
directly with the pro-Israel
community, including the
American Israel Public Af-
fairs Committee.
A pro-Israel source con-
firmed that there were "a
couple of negotiations"
directly between AAI and
AIPAC.
Continued on Page 28

Who Can
Vote?

Anyone age 18 or over who
registered to vote before or on
July 9 can vote in the
Michigan primary on Aug. 7.
You needn't be registered
with the Democratic' or
Republican party to vote in
the primary.

Jewish,
Arab
Groups
Negotiate
State
Platforms

HOWARD ROSENBERG

Special to The Jewish News

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