Doldrums
sending 100 teens, compared with
450-650 before the intifada. The
movement's Camp Ramah is sending
70, compared with 230 in previous
years.
• The Orthodox Union is sending
80 teens — most of them day school
students who will be studying, rather
than touring most of the summer. It
worry that even if the situation in
. has cancelled its Israel touring pro-
Israel improves, it will take a long
gram — which used to send more
time to rebuild their infrastructure
than 100 each year — for public
and convince American Jews that
school students. Before the intifada,
Israel trips are an important rite of
400 teens went on the study programs
passage.
and the touring programs attracted
For summer programs, most of
which depart in late June and last more than 200.
• Birthright Israel sent 5,700 young
five or six weeks, the situation
adults
age 18-26 from all over the
has never looked bleaker:
world
—
with the United States send-
• Most community-wide, Jewish
ing
the
largest
contingent — on free
federation-sponsored teen trips
10-day trips to Israel last summer.
have been canceled, as have the
This year, officials are declining to give
Zionist youth movement's
specific registration numbers, saying
Habonim Dror program in Israel.
they are still accepting applications.
Habonim is offering a summer
However, a spokesperson said any-
camp program in upstate New
where from 1,000 to 5,000 Americans
York for kids who would have
are expected to participate.
gone to Israel.
• The Reform movement, once
Some Bright Spots
the largest single provider of teen
Despite the small- numbers, most
trips to Israel, is sending only 10-
groups say they are pleased to be send-
20 kids this summer. "It's a far cry
ing anyone at all this summer, given a
from the 1,391 kids we had two
steady spate of terrorist attacks.
years ago," said Paul Reichenbach,
Most programs had heavy security
director of youth programs for the
and almost no unstructured free time
Union of American Hebrew
last summer, and are taking additional
Congregations. Last summer, the
precautions this year.
UAHC canceled its teen programs in
For example, USY will house teens
Israel altogether.
on campuses in the suburbs of
• The Conservative movement's
Jerusalem, rather than in hotels in the
United Synagogue Youth (USY) is
Lack of teen participants perils travel to Israel.
JULIE WIENER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
New York City
ast summer was a bad year for
providers of teen touring
programs in Israel. This
summer will be consid-
erably worse.
Providers say that the sharp
declines in the number of
young adults traveling to Israel
is threatening the long-term
viability of Israel-experience
programs.
Israel trips boomed in the
1990s amid widespread
optimism about the
prospects for Middle East
peace, backing from promi-
nent philanthropists and
research indicating that trips to
Israel were one of the most power-
ful ways to boost the Jewish identi-
ty of North Americans.
But this summer, the number of
North American young adults visiting
the Jewish state is down 50-90 percent
from 2000, the last- summer before the
violent Palestinian intifada (uprising)
began driving away tourists.
Advocates for such programs
L
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2002
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dor-designate to Washington.
Sharon and his advisers also seem to
have more stringent demands for
Palestinian reform than the United States.
On reform of the Palestinian securi-
ty services, Sharon says that unifying
the services under a single command is
meaningless unless the various militias
— such as Tanzim, Hamas and Islamic
Jihad — are disarmed.
On political reform, Sharon's advis-
ers talk about separation of powers,
not merely new elections.
But the biggest difference is over the
relationship between reform and
peacemaking. For Sharon, reform is a
condition for bilateral peace talks with
the Palestinians, while the United
States says reform and peace talks
should proceed simultaneously.
The legitimate demand for reform,
the Americans say, must not be used
to delay the peacemaking process.
Sharon and the Americans also have
very different notions of what the inter-
national Middle East peace conference
should be about. According to Ayalon,
Sharon views the conference as a kind of
open-ended "peace club" in which mem-
bers with peace credentials like Egypt,
Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel discuss
ways of promoting regional stability.
"We see the conference as a means of
establishing a peace coalition of Middle
Eastern moderates as a counterweight to
the war, coalition which we see with Iran,
Iraq and Syria," Ayalon says. "But it is
not meant to be a substitute for bilateral
negotiations with the•Palestinians."
The Americans, however, see the
conference as a major tool for Israel-
Palestinian dialogue on a final peace
deal, with a clear timetable for
Palestinian statehood.
American Plan
To balance Israeli, Arab, American and
European positions on the conference,
the Americans reportedly are consider-
ing crafting a letter of invitation stipu-
lating that a key goal of the process
initiated by the conference is the
establishment of a Palestinian state.
That would make it clear to the
Palestinians that the conference puts
final-status negotiations back on the
negotiating agenda and reassure Israel
that the conference won't issue a dic-
tate.
The Americans also are urging
Sharon to come out with a substantive
Israeli peace plan as a counterweight to
the Saudi and Egyptian plans on which
the conference would in part be based.
Sharon argues that for Israel to issue
a peace plan while Arafat remains at
the helm would be seen as a reward
for terror and would erode the pres-
sure he has so painstakingly built up
on the Palestinian leader.
The Americans warn that unless
there is an Israeli plan, Bush or