U.S. Jews’ View of Israel Shifts : They’ll Support Candidates Who Support Peace With Arabs

Except for Jesse Jackson, the presidential candidates largely have been silent about the ongoing reports of Israeli brutality in the West Bank and Gaza. At most, they utter vague statements of concern and promise a renewed commitment to the process begun at Camp David.

Perhaps this silence reflects a wholesome concern that any remarks critical of Israel might encourage an outpouring of latent anti-Semitism. More likely, it reflects a fear of being branded as “anti-Israel.”

The candidates seem to assume that there are only political negatives in daring to break ranks with the Israel lobby. This assumption reflects a lack of solid political information about the rapidly changing views of the American Jewish community.

Until the last few years, the impulse among Jews to protect Israel chilled any public airing of dissent over Israeli policies. By 1986, however, American Jews had come to reject, by a 63%-22% margin, the notion that they should not criticize Israel, according to a survey by the mainstream American Jewish Committee.

There is no question that American Jews take a special interest in Israel’s well-being and pride in its achievements. But Israel’s 1982 debacle in Lebanon, the Pollard spy affair, the Iran arms sales and the Orthodox Establishment’s stranglehold over religious affairs in Israel have estranged American Jews. The American Jewish Committee’s survey found that only among the Orthodox--approximately 10% of the American Jewish population--is attachment to Israel on the rise; among Reform and unaffiliated Jews--55% of the population--attachment to Israel is on the decline.

The harsh Israeli response to the Palestinian uprising has deepened American Jewish discontent with Israeli policies. As the president of the National Assembly of Conservative Rabbis, Kassel Abelson, recently put it: “You no longer find unanimity and confidence in Israel’s leaders.”

The American Jewish Committee survey also shows that a substantial plurality of Jews believe that Palestinians have a right to a homeland on the West Bank so long as it does not threaten Israel; that Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and his Likud party have been too unwilling to compromise to make peace, and that Foreign Minister Shimon Peres is far more popular than Shamir. Peres favors an international peace conference and a “territory-for-peace” formula to settle the conflict; Shamir opposes such a conference and rejects the idea of relinquishing the occupied territories in exchange for Arab recognition of Israel.

Not surprisingly, the U.S. presidential candidates hear a different story from the Israel lobby. Fund-raising for Israel among American Jews is up, the lobby claims, and support for the Jewish state remains solid.

Support for the Shamir government and military occupation, however, is not solid. There is growing recognition among American and Israeli Jews that the occupation is corroding Israel’s moral claim on the international community. As the former head of Israeli military intelligence, Yehoshafat Harkabi, recently observed, a “country that insists that it can exist only if this principle (of self-determination) is violated is destined to endanger the legitimacy of its own existence.”

American Jews know that the uprising is a watershed: Even Israel-lobby publicists acknowledge that major change is coming. Eric Rosenman, the editor of the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee’s Near East Report, predicted earlier this month the imminent establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, observing that events in the territories have advanced the Palestinian cause more than all the Arab-Israeli wars did.

The volatility of the situation in the territories and the ever-deepening crack in the once solid Jewish wall of support for Israeli policies present an unprecedented opportunity for presidential aspirants to demonstrate the quality of their statesmanship.

The candidate who can persuade American Jews that as President he will extricate Israel from ruling over an increasingly hostile Arab population, and in the process gain Arab recognition of Israel, will be pleasantly surprised by the response at the polls.