And so it often was. As it hap-
• pens, however, whatever its stylis-
• tic limitations and conceits, it led
to a peace with Israel's most
tent enemy, a peace that has en-
',lured until now. A Nobel
committee with a wretched track
record in its assessments (Henry
Kissinger? Le Duc Tho?) award-
ed the peace prize to Begin and
• Sadat; history will surely award
its honor to Mr. Carter.
But it's not only Mr. Carter who
•
apparently rankles the malcon-

OPINION

tents. As if he weren't bad enough,
the Jews close to the new admin-
>_istration are the wrong kind. Pe-
ter Edelman and Sarah Ehrman
and Eli Segal, two of whom (at
least) are likely to end up with jobs
in or near the new administration,
are "associated with liberal Jew-
ish groups like Americans for
Peace Now."
The fact that a bunch of Israel's
•
cabinet ministers are associated
with Peace Now, is, apparently,
irrelevant. It used to be that here
in America, we were not allowed
to dissent; now, one gathers, we're
not allowed to assent.
There's still more: It's not just
that there aren't enough main-
' stream pro-Israel types (yet, any-
_ way) to satisfy the critics that
Israel's interests will be protect-
> ed. It's also that there simply

-

aren't enough Jews in high places
— or so they imply. This is the way
one person — an anonymous "ex-
ecutive of a major Jewish organi-
zation" put it: "Why is it that when
it comes to women's issues, [Clin-
ton] didn't say Don't worry about
who is in the cabinet, Hillary will
be at my side to represent you'?
And why is it that when it came
to appointing blacks he didn't say,
Don't worry about cabinet posts.
I have a lifelong record of civil
rights activism'? But when it
comes to Jews in the cabinet that
is what we hear."
Yes and no. Robert Reich and
Zoe Baird are Jews and they are
in the cabinet. Indeed, in a cabi-
net that is meant to "look like
America," two positions qualifies
as over-representation. (Given
that we are less than three per-
cent of the population, even one is
a lot.) The point, of course, is that
the "look of America" thing is not,
cannot be, about seeing to it that
every group is represented; even
the Israeli cabinet isn't big enough
for that.
The people who serve in our
government are not, in any case,
ambassadors to a foreign country,
chosen to mirror the whole of the
American landscape.
Mr. Clinton may have com-
plained about "bean counters,"
but, as Ellen Goodman, the
Boston Globe columnist, has sage-
ly observed, we've always count-

ed beans in this country; what's
changed is which beans we choose
to count. Once upon a time, reli-
gion and ethnicity were critical,
along with geography; now it is
race and gender. One day, 10 or
50 years from now, the culture
will have shifted yet again, and
something else will matter.
It's not surprising that there
are those who've missed that
point in all America's current con-
fusion about multiculturalism
and such. There's another and
more troubling point, however,
that someone's missed: America's
Jews are inherently not repre-
sentable. We are simply too di-
verse. And that's okay, it really
is.
In any event, Mr. Reich and
Mr. Baird, as far as the critics are
concerned, don't count. We are in-
formed that "Jewish groups have
privately complained to Mr. Clin-
ton that neither has been iden-
tified with pro-Israel causes." So
it's not any old Jew who is miss-

let Us Solve
Our Own
Problems'

In Israel, officials want
Clinton to steer a middle
path, and not to apply
undo pressure.

LARRY DERFNER

Israel Correspondent

Warren Christopher, the new secretary of state. Cautious but capable.

ing, it's a certain kind of Jew.
(Say, for a not-so random exam-
ple, a repentant neo-conservative
Jew, the kind who thinks he's
owed for having come around to
Clinton's side during the cam-
paign.)
But adding a staunch Jewish
defender of Israel to the Clinton
cabinet is not the only or neces-
sarily the best way to promote Is-
rael's interests, not unless you
insist on counting very stale
beans. Wonder of wonders, you
don't have to be Jewish to care
passionately about Israel, and Al
Gore's already at the table, and
Les Aspin, and Ron Brown. And
yes, Bill Clinton, too.
They have other things to wor-
ry about as well. So, presumably,
would a Jewish secretary of this
or that. Nor is it irrelevant that
the lines of communication be-
tween virtually every element
and faction of the Jewish com-
munity and the new administra-
tion are in excellent shape. ❑

erusalem — With the Clin-
ton administration poised
to take office, top Israeli
government officials have
a remarkably unified
message for the newcomers re-
garding their role in the Mideast
peace negotiations: be an atten-
tive host, keep the party going, but
don't butt into the conversation.
Essentially, what Israel wants
from Clinton and Co. is more of
the same of what it got from the
Bush regime.
"The profile presented by the
Bush administration was to our
liking," said Itamar Rabinovitch,
the incoming ambassador to the
U.S. and head of the Israeli nego-
tiating team with Syria, during a

recent address in Jerusalem. 'The
(Bush) administration did not
cross the line between facilitation
and mediation."
Army Gen. Danny Rothchild,
the government's coordinator of
policy in the territories, and the
unofficial number two man (be-
hind Elyakim Rubenstein) in the
talks with the Palestinians, said
at a Tel Aviv press conference:
"The message we have for the new
administration is the same one we
had for the old one: to understand
that we are dealing with bilater-
al, face-to-face talks with the
Palestinians. We have to solve our
own problems, and that is not go-
ing to change."
Even Deputy Minister Yossi
Beilin, one of the most dovish
members of the government's for-
eign policy team, a man with ad-
venturous ideas about the peace
process, said that while the Clin-
ton administration's involvement
was crucial, any "pressure" would
be "a very big mistake." Moreover,

INTO THE FRAY page 28

"The message
we have for
the new
administration
is the same one
we had for
the old one."

Gen. Danny Rothchild