MIDEAST page 103

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104

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Jess Hordes, Washington di-
rector for the Anti-Defamation
League, said that "most of the
community is quite supportive of
the administration's initiative be-
cause of its emphasis on securi-
ty issues as a prerequisite for
further movement."
And, he said, most Jewish
groups support the administra-
tion's decision to press for an ac-
celeration of the final-status talks
— a proposal Mr. Netanyahu
made earlier in the year.
"But once you get to the actu-
al implementation, we have to
wait and see. Having set the
standard of progress on security,
is the administration going to
wink at security progress by the
Palestinians, or will they gen-
uinely require it? That will be a
key element in determining Jew-
ish support in the long run."
Some Jewish groups, led by
the Israel Policy Forum, were sig-
naling that they support the new
initiative — modest pressure and
all.
"There's a sense of relief be-
cause of the feeling that finally
there might be some answers to
what has been a very frightening
situation," said the group's exec-
utive director, Jonathan Jacoby.
"What it means is that American
Jews are going to give the ad-
ministration a lot of slack; even
those who would have policy dif-
ferences with what they may do
will publicly give them slack."
But other groups, while pub-
licly praising elements of the new
effort, are privately warning of a
U.S.-Israel confrontation just
around the bend, and trying to
marshal political opposition.
"There is a strong sense of
alarm," said a long-time pro-Is-
rael leader active in several
groups. "The best safety net we
have is that Al Gore is running
in 2000; there's a strong effort un-
der way to reach out to him. And
people are already seeking to gen-
erate opposition in Congress,
where Arafat's low standing will
make the job easier."

Spotlight On
Hate Crimes

Washington may be in the midst
of the summer doldrums, but
over at the Justice Department,
there's been a flurry of activity on
the issue of hate crimes.
Spurring the government
lawyers is a November summit
on the topic announced by the
White House several months ago.
"Justice now has dozens of peo-
ple working on policy and on pro-
grammatic options," said Michael
Lieberman, counsel to the Wash-
ington office of the Anti-Defama-
tion League. 'There's a task force
on data collection, on legislation,
on policy. Attorney General
[Janet] Reno has stepped up her
personal focus on the issue."

Data collected through the
Hate Crimes Statistics Act,
passed in 1990 after strong lob-
bying by the ADL, also is moti-
vating the federal bureaucrats,
he said.

Janet Reno:
A personal focus.

That higher profile for the
problem of hate crimes is exact-
ly what the Jewish group is af-
ter.
"We're not necessarily looking
for sweeping new legislation,"
Mr. Lieberman said. 'What we
want is for the president and the
attorney general to use the bul-
ly pulpit on the issue. And we
want to see fine-tuning in areas
like anti-bias education, preju-
dice awareness initiatives and
law enforcement."
The recent activity at the Jus-
tice Department, he said, shows
that the hate crimes issue "has
reached a critical mass. We're
starting to see the institutional-
ization of a world view that in-
cludes strong federal government
involvement in the fight against
hate crimes."

Kosher
Foods Flap

Eternal vigilance is the price of

kashrut advocacy, a maxim that

was confirmed recently when
Jewish activists in Washington
learned of provisions in a Food
and Drug Administration reform
bill that could hurt kosher con-
sumers.
The proposed changes in the
Drug and Biological Products
Modernization Act of 1997, pend-
ing in the House, are designed to
ensure uniformity in regulating
food and drug safety and label-
ing.
But by barring states from en-
acting their own safety laws, the
measure would undercut the
movement for stronger state reg-
ulations protecting consumers
from fraud, deception and mis-
information in the marketplace.
"The intent of the legislation
is uniformity in regulation," said
Abba Cohen, Washington direc-
tor for Agudath Israel of Ameri-
ca, an Orthodox group. 'The goal
was not to wipe out the ability of

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