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i'AIVIERICAN
SOCIETY
CANCER'

c

ever is there a Rabin visit
to the United States, even
a visit for peace, without a
declaration of war," Yediot
Aharonot political analyst
Nachum Barnea noted wryly this
week. "(This time) he declared
war on the organized American
Jewish community."
The -200 American Jewish
leaders who- gathered to hear the
prime minister at .a special ses-
sion in Washington- heard him
lash into the community for
focusing on marginal political is-
sues and not donating enough for
aliyah. But Israelis were also
treated a wealth of quotes from
Rabin's address to a closed din-
ner for Israeli diplomats, in New
York, where his remarks were
even less circumspect.
"We are partners (with Amer-
ican Jewry) in one thing," the
prime minister told his compa-
triots, "saving Jews and absorb-
ing them in Israel, nothing
more...It's time we began speak-
ing truthfully with the Jews: less
activity on Capitol Hill and more
partnership in aliyah and ab-
sorption."
Though Rabin again directed
his sharpest barbs at the Ameri-
can Jews lobbying against peace
process — calling them "pariahs"
and recommending they be ig-
nored — the sense conveyed in
the Israeli press was that he had
trained in guns on the Jewish
community as a whole.
Fearful that the prime minis-
ter might be jamming his wheels
just when he was anticipating an
increase in Diaspora donations,
Jewish Agency Chairman Avra-
ham Burg issued a statement
calling the attack "on all Ameri-
can Jews" an "historic error."
"Cutting, derogatory, defama-
tory, and alienating remarks" are
hardly what will draw Jews back
into the fold, he warned, adding
that "some of the detachment be-
tween (Israel and the American
Jewish community) is our own
fault because of the way we ex-
press ourselves, our alienation,
and our lack of understanding of
what is happening there."
Burg also took issue with the
substance of Rabin's remarks,
commenting that it would be "a
major mistake to express Amer-
ican Jewry's role solely in terms
of immigration and absorption
assistance."
Rabin's remarks naturally
raised the question of whether
American Jews have every right
to lobby against Israel's policies,
just as they have lobbied for
them. And on this issue, views
understandably differ.

"American Jewry has always
been entitled to express its opin-
ion on Israeli affairs," says Pro-
fessor Shlomo Avineri, a political
scientist at the Hebrew Univer-
sity and author of "The Making
of Modern Zionism."
But the Israeli-Diaspora rela-
tionship has never been an equal
one, he stresses, "because there's
a great difference between some-
one who's making an offshore in-
vestment and someone who's
investing his whole life in a place:
paying its taxes, serving in its
army, living with the conse-
quences of political decisions."
Considered from that stand-
point, Avineri argues, "the issue
is not just whether it's legitimate
to use one's clout in Congress to
undermine the policy of Israel's
elected government, but even
whether it's legitimate for a Jew
living in Beverly Hills or in New
York to call the prime minister of
Israel a traitor."
Harry Wall, director of the
ADL Office in Israel and a keen
observer of the Israeli-American
dynamic, views the matter from
a pragmatic political prospective.
"Of course American Jews have

The prime minister
expressed Israeli
views.

the right to get involved in Israeli
affairs on their own political turf,"
he says. "But it's not a question
of rights, it's a question of wis-
dom."
The problem, he says, is that
rather than present a coherent
message to Congress to support
Israel's aims and policies, as
American Jewry has done for
decades, "a vocal and passionate
minority is presenting an alto-
gether different agenda, and in
the short run that can confuse the
Congress."
Thus the deeper problem posed
by the opposition forces in Wash-
ington is that "they're taking a
mechanism that's been in place
and worked successfully — for
both political blocs in Israel —
and threatening to do irrevoca-
ble damage to it."
At the same time, Wall argues
that Prime Minister Rabin has
been equally short sighted in
viewing American Jews only in
terms of the aliyah effort.
In calculating American Jew-
ish support, he counts not just the
$400 million from the fund-rais-
ing drives, but a "significant part"

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