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October 23, 1992 - Image 34

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 1992-10-23

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

AI

.1:1‘,VER

whose pro-Israel contingent has been decimated by
retirements and primary defeats.
And if Rep. Lee Hamilton (D-Ind.) wins a cabinet
post in a Clinton administration, Mr. Gejdenson could
become foreign affairs chair — something that would
please Israel's friends on Capitol Hill.
Anti-Semitism has edged into two campaigns in-
volving Jewish candidates.
Alabama: Democratic Rep. Ben Erdreich is one of
only two Jewish representatives from the Deep South.
Mr. Erdreich is being opposed by Spencer Bacchus, a
former state GOP chair, who is running under the
"he's one of US" slogan — which has provoked sug-
gestions of veiled anti-Semitism.
California: The anti-Semitism has been less veiled
in California, where a Jewish candidate — Bob Filner
— is squaring off against a Hispanic Republican, Tony
Valencia, in a heavily Hispanic district.
In a recent campaign forum, Mr. Valencia made a
number of references to Mr. Filner's religion — and,
in responding to the furor over his comments, told re-
porters that Jewish people "tend to turn on each oth-
er"; as an example, he argued that junk bond king
Michael Milken was turned in by other Jews.
"The process is cyclical...Like Judas and Jesus
Christ," Mr. Valencia said, according to a report in
the Los Angeles Times.
Florida: The departure of Rep. Larry Smith and
Rep. Bill Lehman have left a big void in Jewish poli-
tics. Gwen Margolis, a prominent Democratic state
senator, is running against Republican Rep. E. Clay
Shaw in a redrawn district with a big Jewish popu-
lation in the North Miami area. And Peter Deutsch,
a Jewish Democrat, is a good prospect to replace the
retiring Rep. Larry Smith in a carved-up district.

43`

urprise!
Rabin May Not
are o ins

LARRY DERFNER/Israel Correspondent

erusalem — American Jews appear to be out of
sync with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin over
which presidential candidate is best for Israel.
For Jewish voters, here and in America, the an-
swer is Bill Clinton, overwhelmingly. For Mr.
Rabin, the answer is by no means so clear cut.
On the record, Mr. Rabin has no preference. If he's
said anything off the record, nobody is leaking it. So
all a person can do is speculate. But it's hard to find
anyone here who thinks Mr. Rabin sees the race like
most American Jews see it — that Mr. Clinton is the
"pro-Israel" candidate and that President Bush has
it in for this country.
The Likud and the Israeli right would endorse that
view. But they fell from power in June; since Mr. Ra-
bin took office, Mr. Bush has given Israel the loan
guarantees, the two countries are much closer together
on the peace process, and relations are no longer
strained.
It's generally understood that Mr. Bush favored Mr.
Rabin over former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir in
the Israeli elections. A number of commentators, al-
beit mainly on the right, believe the president's tough-
ness towards Mr. Shamir, politically and economically,
prepared the ground for Mr. Rabin's victory. So how
could Mr. Rabin agree with the American Jewish con-
sensus that Mr. Bush is bad for Israel?
Most political observers interviewed said the key
to Mr. Rabin's thinking about the U.S. election lay in
his attitude toward the peace talks with the Arabs.
The problem, though, is that they still don't know ex-

el

actly what his attitude is.
Amnon Levy, political correspondent for the daily
newspaperHadashot, said Israelis who favor the peace
process — the "doves" — tend to support Mr. Bush,
because the president (and Secretary of State James
Baker) got the talks going, and could maintain their -
momentum into a second term.
The "hawks," those who fear the peace negotiations
are leading Israel into dangerous, maybe fatal con-
cessions, are opposing Mr. Bush for his past efforts, L
said Mr. Levy. They prefer Mr. Clinton as president,
figuring he would need months, if not longer, to get
deeply involved in the Middle East, by which time the
peace process might wither, to their delight.
Having defined the two camps, Mr. Levy at first
could not even guess which one Mr. Rabin belonged
to.
Uzi Benziman, a political columnist for the daily
Ha'aretz, was similarly baffled. "If we assume that
Rabin really wants to make peace, and is willing to
pay the price (of territorial compromise) for peace,
then he prefers Bush. If not, he wants Clinton. But I
don't think anybody knows Rabin's deepest thoughts
on this issue; I don't even think Rabin knows them
himself."
Robert Rosenberg, an Israeli correspondent who
has written for Time, U.S. News and World Report,
and the Jerusalem Post, believes that although Mr. r
Rabin is now "resigned to a Clinton victory," the prime
minister would probably feel more comfortable if Mr. 11
Bush stayed around.

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