ized th growing political and reli-
gious conflicts that threaten the fab-
ric of Israeli society.
"People here talk about the techni-
calities of the peace process, but they
do not see the deeper problem —
that this is a society in an advanced
state of fragmentation," said Ben-
Ami, a top Sephardi leader. "The
eadership of Netanyahu is a leader-
ship that manipulates differences
among the Israel people instead of
healing them."

BAUME & MERCIER

GENEVE

Labor Leaders And AIPAC

Another underlying theme of the visit
— that mainstream American Jewish
groups have done too little to support
the faltering peace process or to
encourage the administration to
remain actively involved — pre-
dictably produced an explosive
encounter with staff of AIPAC, the
pro-Israel lobby.
At a Monday morning meeting,
Barak's Labor colleagues tore into the
group, which they accused of reflect-
ing a strong pro-Likud bias.
"I didn't want to waste the meet-
ing on niceties," said Beilin, a persis-
tent AIPAC critic. "I thanked them
for helping us in the past, I acknowl-
edged that they are dedicated to the
right causes. But what is happening
now is that AIPAC is becoming an
extreme right-wing organization.
Directly or indirectly, they are harm-
ing the security interests of Israel."
The Labor leaders blasted AIPAC
for efforts to limit administration
flexibility in its mediation role,
including the AIPAC-organized letter
in April, signed by 81 senators, stern-
ly warning the White House not to
pressure Israel.
"The message I wanted AIPAC to
hear is that if you don't want the
Americans to be involved, there will
be no peace process," Beilin said.
"And without a peace process, there
will be no security for Israel."
AIPAC officials countered that
they were simply supporting the duly
elected government of Israel, as they
have done in the past regardless of
who was in power.
A spokesperson for the organiza-
tion said it was an "excellent, produc-
tive meeting.
"Barak laid out his vision of peace
in a comprehensive way," the
spokesperson said, and we laid out
the situation on Capitol Hill. We
were pleased that the delegation
chose to spend in excess of two hours
with us." 111

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1998

Detroit Jewish News

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