Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 47, No. 16, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 22, 1993 Page: 4 of 24
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Opinion 4
TEXAS JEWISH POST, THURSDA Y, APRIL 22, 1993-IN OUR 47TH YEAR!
Aid Debate Upsets Israeli
Officials:
Israeli politics may be a danger-
ous wild card in the effort to protect
that country’s $3.2 billion annual
aid allotment—or at least that’s the
perception of some top Israeli and
pro-Israel leaders here.
Specifically, the Israelis are
alarmed by suggestions by some
conservative columnists that Israel
should voluntarily accept a cut in
aid because cuts are inevitable, and
by a detectable undercurrent on
Capitol Hill suggesting that some
Jews might notactively oppose cuts.
A number of Israeli officials are
convinced that these signs of a break
in the traditional Jewish consensus
on aid are—at least in part—the
result of partisan efforts to bring
down the Rabin government.
“The debate on aid policy is not
just legitimate, but welcome,” said
an Israeli official here last week.
“But we are less sanguine about
criticism of Israel by American
Jews on partisan grounds. Raising
the issue of aid to Israel in this
particular context is harmful.”
Those rumblings from the Right
couldn’t come at a worse time;
with the administration fighting for
congressional support for its $1.6
billion Russian aid package, pro-
Israel activists were already wor-
ried that it could be difficult to beat
back across-the-board cuts to other
recipients when the foreign aid bill
comes to the House and Senate
floors.
According to sources here, the
Israeli government is fully aware
of the volatile political climate for
the aid debate.
But they do not want to create a
self-fulfilling prophecy by suggest-
ing that Israel would voluntarily
accept reductions in aid—and they
are worried that any effort to use
American aid as a weapon in Israel’s
partisan wars could ultimately harm
Israel’s security interests.
Pro-Israel groups here are re-
sponding by making the case that
any reductions in aid this year would
only make Rabin’s situation more
precarious—and therefore jeopar-
dize the fragile Middle East peace
process.
But they concede that the under-
tow from the Right is just one more
factor in a very unstable political
situation that could pose some real
problems when Congress digs its
teeth into the aid debate.
Washington Watch
Revived Jackson Vanik Debate:
The battle over the J ackson V anik
amendment may be about to boil
over again on Capitol Hill.
Currently, Russia is receiving
year-by-year waivers from provi-
sions linking “most favored na-
tion” status to improvements in its
human rights performance, and its
emigration procedures in particu-
lar.
But Moscow is engaged in a full
court press to convince Congress
and the administration to remove
Russia from the amendment’s pro-
visions entirely—a symbolic as
well as an economic issue for the
beleaguered Yeltsin government.
During the Yeltsin-Clinton sum-
mit in Vancouver several weeks
ago, the Russian leader made a
strong pitch for ending all Jackson
Vanik restrictions.
But the White House has not yet
made up its mind what to do about
Jackson Vanik. In recent days, ad-
ministration officials have been
active in sounding out Congress;
legislators, for their part, seem to
be waiting for the administration to
make a move.
Sen. Joe Lieberman
Speaking to the Conference of
Presidents ofMajor American Jew-
ish Organizations last week, Sen.
Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) set out
what appears to be the growing
consensus of mainstream Soviet
Jewry groups—that Yeltsin should
be offered a multi-year waiver, but
that Russia should not be “gradu-
ated” from Jackson Vanik—and
that the J ackson-Vanik mechanism
should remain in place.
“It’s a difficult balance,” said
Mark Levin, executive director of
the National Conference on Soviet
Jewry. “We believe it is critical to
strengthen pro-democratic forces,
including Mr.Yeltsin’s.Atthe same
time, there are still some outstand-
ing issues that need to be resolved.
By James David Besser
TJP Washington Correspondent
And we’re so close.”
One of those issues involves the
incomplete Russian law making
permanent the lifting of the restric-
tive emigration policy of the former
Soviet Union, said Micah Naftalin,
national director of the Union of
Councils for Soviet Jews.
“Until they pass the emigration
law, saying that they’re in compli-
ance with J ackson Vanik is a signal
to the right wing that they were
right all along,” he said. “Why
worry about genuine reform, when
you can get the benefit without
actually going through with it?”
Fight for Holocaust Council
Leadership:
Bud Meyerhoff
As workers put the final touches
on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial
Museum on Washington’s Mall, a
quiet but furious battle was under-
way over the issue of who will
replace Baltimore businessman
Harvey “Bud” Meyerhoff as chair
of the Holocaust Council, the panel
that brought the museum into be-
ing.
Miles Lerman
Several weeks ago, Meyerhoff
was ungraciously told to step down
by the administration. Reportedly,
the president was infuriated by the
fact that Israeli president Chaim
Herzog had not been invited to
speak at this week’s opening cer-
emonies, and by Meyerhoff s plans
for a White House reception favor-
ing big contributors.
It also didn’t help that the chair-
man was a Republican appointee.
Initially, the leading candidate to
replace Meyerhoff was Miles
Lerman, a Holocaust survivor who
played a major role in negotiating
agreements with a number of coun-
tries to provide information and
artifacts to the museum.
Enter here Elie Wiesel, the Nobel
laureate and Holocaust survivor
who headed the Commission dur-
Elie Wiesel
ing its first critical years.
Supporters of Wiesel have been
flooding the White House with re-
quests for his appointment to the
position he gave up in 1986, Wiesel
supporters have been actively work-
ing Capitol Hill on his behalf.
But there are powerful forces
opposed to Wiesel—whose stature
as a spokesman for survivors is
unimpeachable, but who is not re-
nowned for his organizational and
fund-raising expertise.
And Lerman has some powerful
backers in Congress, which could
make a difference in the complex
politics of the Holocaust Council
decision.
First Museum Visitor:
In a related story, the Holocaust
Museum opens to the public next
week after a week of ceremonial
events marking its completion—
and the first visitor through the
doors will not exactly be some
plaid-clad tourist who just hopped
see WASH WATCH p. 21
Texas Jewish Post
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Typography Stan Cumberledge Circulation Director Sheri Bames
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Wisch, J. A. & Wisch, Rene. Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 47, No. 16, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 22, 1993, newspaper, April 22, 1993; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth754087/m1/4/: accessed July 10, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .