Heading for the East Room of the White House: King Hussein, Yitzhak Rabin, President Clinton, Yassir Arafat and President Mubarak.
seem particularly upset about it.
American Jews, according to several ex-
perts, remain convinced that Syrian Pres-
ident Hafez Assad is a lost cause because
he believes he has little to gain by making
peace with Israel.
Many believe that the Syrian-Israel
talks are driven by Washington politics,
while the Israeli-Palestinian talks
stemmed from a real belief by Rabin and
Arafat that there was some common
ground between them.
If the Palestinian-Israeli peace process
continues to advance, the Jewish Ameri-
can "center" will support whatever Israel
decides to do in negotiations with Syria.
But since Assad seems more interested
in continuing his diplomatic dance for
Washington than negotiating with Jeru-
salem, the whole issue is strictly hypo-
thetical.
In fact, some Jewish leaders report that
each milestone in the peace process — the
opening of the Madrid talks in 1991, the
1993 Declaration of Principles and now
Oslo II — increases this American Jewish
detachment from Israel.
"There is a fading sense of urgency
about Israel," said Earl Raab, director-
emeritus of the Brandeis Institute for Jew-
ish Advocacy, "There's a growing feeling
that everything's OK for Israel. That could
increase if this latest agreement goes rel-
atively well."
Jewish leaders, he said, will have to do
a better job of reminding their constituents
that the peace process is far from complete,
and that Israel continues to need strong
American Jewish financial and political
support.
11. What does this mean for Jewish and pro-
Israel fund raising?
Nobody is sure whether Jewish fund-
10. Do American Jews really care about this
raising woes are related to the peace
process?
It's a question that haunts many Jew- process or to domestic factors, but they are
worried.
ish leaders.
AIPAC, the central address for pro-
While support for the peace process
remains high, many observers suggest it Israel lobbying, has experienced a few
is shallow — the result of a growing focus lean years; pro-Israel political action
on American domestic issues and a sense committees (PACs), which channel money
that Israel is no longer on the edge of to sympathetic House and Senate candi-
dates. have reported significant drops in
catastrophe.
contributions since the 1993 Israeli-PLO
accord.
At the same time, Federation cam-
paigns have been flat at a time when these
groups are being called on to do more on
the domestic front.
"Raising money to save Medicare, or to
create economic development projects in
Gaza, or simply to support the pro-peace
message doesn't really reach out and grab
people in the way that the idea of -a tiny
Israel facing off all these hostile neighbors
did," said a fund raiser for a major Jewish
group. "Jewish fund raising has always
been crisis driven. Put simply, many
people now see more of a domestic crisis
than a crisis for Israel."
12. What does the Israeli leadership think about
the growing division in the American Jewish
world?
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin
gave Jewish leaders a tongue lashing only
hours after the White House signing last
week — in part for insufficient support
of basic Israeli goals like aliyah and im-
migrant absorption, in part because of the
growing number of right-wing Jews who
have been lobbying Congress against the
policies of his government.
Israeli officials worry that the strong
U.S.-Israeli relationship is based heavil
on political support from a Jewish com-
munity that is unified on core Mideast is-
sues. That consensus, they believe, is being
fractured by angry right-wingers who have
stepped outside the informal limits of the
past to protest the peace process.
Those limits have included leaving pro-
Israel lobbying to the American Israel Pub-
lic Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
But in the past several years, groups op-
posed to the peace process have dramati-
cally increased their Capitol Hill presence,
often spurred by Israeli opposition politi-
cians — another source of fury for the Ra-
bin government.
13. Isn't that response unrealistic because
American Jews do care about Israel and be-
cause a significant minority do believe that Is-
rael is making dangerous mistakes in the peace
process?
Even some Rabin supporters in this
country worry that the government is over-
reacting to the specter of public dissension,
and that efforts to limit the debate only
make the opposition angrier.
"In reality, the genie is out of the bot-
tle," said Earl Raab. "It's been many years
since you could say to parts of the Jew-
ish community, 'Don't talk about these
things.' The war in Lebanon started this
b ack