Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 45, No. 1, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 3, 1991 Page: 3 of 24
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IN OUR45TH YEAR!—THURSDAY, JANUARY 3, 1991, TEXAS JEWISH POST 3
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Rating the senators:
Lieberman in the middle
One measure of Sen. Joseph
I. Lieberman’s adroitness as a
politician is his ability to stick
close to the political center
while still managing to speak
his mind on issues of particu-
lar importance to him.
This is reflected in the rat-
ings systems used by a num-
ber of special interest groups
to evaluate legislators. Lieber-
man’s voting record wins
qualified support from both
liberals and conservatives.
In February, the liberal
Americans for Democratic Ac-
tion awarded him a score of 75
out of a possible 100. The rating
was based on 20 key Senate
votes, including 11 domestic
issues and 9 foreign policy and
military issues.
Lieberman’s rating was the
same as that given Sen. Daniel
Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y.
Sens. Barbara Mikulski and
Paul Sarbanes, both Maryland
Democrats, received scores of
90 and 85, respectively.
Arch-conservative Sen. Jesse
Helms, R.-N.C., came in with
a rating of 5.
The American Civil Liber-
ties Union was less enthusias-
tic about Lieberman. A 1989
preliminary rating showed that
Lieberman voted with’ the civil
liberties group on 5 of 10 is-
sues. Sen. Edward Kennedy,
D-Mass., voted the ACLU way
on 8 of 10 votes; Helms, the
group’s Senate nemesis, man-
aged to vote against the ACLU
on all 10 issues.
All the way on the other end
of the political spectrum, the
American Conservative Union
rated Lieberman near the top
of the Democratic heap, with
a score of 32 on a 100-point
scale — way ahead of Ken-
nedy, the benchmark against
which conservatives evaluate
liberal politicians. Kennedy
weighed in on the ACLU with
a mere 7 points. The average
score for Democratic senators
in the Northeast was 11.
“Our ratings show he voted
more like a Southern Demo-
crat,” said a spokesman for the
organization. “In fact, his rat-
ing was very close to the aver-
age for Southern Democrats.”
The ACLU score was based
on some 25 key issues, includ-
ing the vote to cut the capital
gains tax and death penalty
legislation.
Lieberman considers himself
an environmental activist, an
assessment supported by the
rating of the League of Con-
servation Voters. The environ-
mental group gave him a per-
fect 100 for the 1989 legisla-
tive year, based on 10 key votes.
Three of the 10 senators to
win perfect socres are Jewish
— Lieberman, Herb Kohl,
D-Wis., and Howard Metzen-
baum, D-Ohio. — J.B.
Senator
continued from page 2
phetic quality.
“In this period after the Cold
War, the greatest threat to
American society will come from
unstable Third World countries
and terrorists. So I see this as
an absolutely critical issue that
we have to confront,” Lieber-
man said.
One result of this interest is
an ongoing series of informal
Capitol Hill discussions on ter-
rorism among a number of
senators, administration officials
and outside experts in the field.
But his proudest achievement,
he said, was the “PLO compli-
ance act,” a measure that sought
to force the administration to
publicly report on its dialogue
with the Palestine Liberation
Organization.
When the attempted terrorist
raid on a Tel Aviv beach in May
revived the issue of whether
Yassir Arafat was living up to
his promises to Washington,
Lieberman introduced additional
legislation to immediately ter-
minate the U.S.-PLO dialogue.
The proposed legislation was one
factor in the administration’s
decision to cut off the talks.
Since his arrival in the Sen-
ate, Lieberman has seen signifi-
cant erosion in the level of
support for Israel. However, he
does not see a wholesale defec-
tion from Israel’s cause.
“I think about this a lot, and
I have had conversations wdth
others in the Senate,” he said.
“On the most objective level —
the question of votes, signatures
on letters, and this sort of thing
— I would say that support for
Israel remains strong. But
underneath I sense a certain
amount of uneasiness about what
is perceived as not enough open-
ness to negotiations by the Is-
raeli government.
“It’s something to be concerned
about. And yet, there still is much
more of a sense of common
history and common purpose
with Israel than with the Arab
countries. It seems to be that
the comfortable position for a
majority of members of the
Senate is to support Israel. It’s
culturally, historically, politically
comfortable. They’ve grumbled
lately because it hasn’t been as
easy to be there.”
The current U.S.-Iraq confron-
tation, he suggested has added
a new dimension to the already
unpredictable course of U.S.-
Israeli relations. One result of
the Gulf crisis will be enhanced
relations between Washington
and some “moderate” Arab
states.
“Clearly therp is a firmer sense
that we here in America have a
common interest with a substan-
tial part of the Arab world,” he
said. ‘That becomes more clear
through this dispute, and in a
sense moderates the earlier
sense that it was only Israel
and Egypt that were our allies.
So that makes it a more compli-
cated situation.”
But unlike most pro-Israel
voices in Washington, Lieber-
man suggests that this could be
a positive development for Is-,
rael.
“What has happened is that
the Arab world has been changed
in a way that will not be re-
paired for a long time,” he said.
“Egypt has proved that it is
possible to be an ally of the
United States, and still be a
strong force in the Arab world.
A whole group of Arab nations
has been forced to take sides
— which will raise the abil-
ity of this country to mediate
between the Arab nations and
Israel. That’s a positive out-
come of all this.”
It’s never easy to assess the
performance of a Senate new-
comer — especially not after less
than two years on the job.
But a wide range of Capitol
Hill observers suggest that
Lieberman has escaped the first-
term strait-jacket that confines
so many of his colleagues.
Lieberman’s Orthodoxy comes
naturally. His parents were both
observant and their home was
Orthodox. His wife, Hadassah,
with whom he has four children,
is also the product of an obser-
vant home.
In public life, he said, his
religious needs have posed few
problems.
‘There have been very few
conflicts,” Lieberman continued.
Occasionally, Lieberman has
slept over in the Senate’s gym
to avoid traveling on Shabbat.
He has voted on Saturdays -
but has has clearly defined the
limits of his activity.
“I made a judgment when I
came here — I talked to a couple
of rabbis about it — that since
my vote is something I cannot
delegate that I have a responsi-
bility to the people who elected
me to vote,” he said. “In reality,
we stay over on a Friday or
Saturday only if it’s something
important. So I vote ... that’s
the only conflict.”
“I don’t always see it explic-
itly,” he said. “But I know that
some of my Jewish upbringing,
my religious training, affects the
way I feel about certain issues.
I’m sure that this has some-
thing to do about my feelings
about the environment. If you
believe in God as the Creator,
you therefore see the natural
environment am God’s creation,
and it seems self-evident that
you should try to protect it.”
His Orthodoxy has also helped
shape his conservative approach
to law and order, he added.
“My sense of the imperfection
of the human species is part of
why I tend to be — I hate to use
the word because it’s pejorative
- more conservative. I tend to
believe in stern law enforcement,
because you have to make people
accountable. And I understand
that there’s a need for the use
of force in foreign relations;
otherwise, some nations will take
advantage of other nations.”
Martin Luther King and The Jews
Si
%
H
Jj
By Dr. Leonard
Winograd
COpyrighl I Ml, Jewish
Telegraphic Agency, Inc.
Future historians will
study the words of Martin
Luther King Jr. and
recognize that his death
ended a proud era of
American Jewish history.
In these days of Minister
Louis Farrakhan, Rever-
end Jesse Jackson and
Bishop Desmond Tutu,
younger people will find it
hard to believe that in the
heyday of the Civil Rights
movement, American rab-
bis had only two items on
their agenda: Israel and
Civil Rights.
Our congregations can
glory in the support they
gave their rabbis on this
moral issue, particularly
in the deep South, where
it took some courage to
do so. It was estimated
that at least 60 percent of
the northern college
students who traveled
south to demonstrate for
integration of bus depot
facilities, restaurants,
airline facilities and equal
voting rights were Jews.
Hillel rabbis chartered
buses to take the Jewish
and other students south,
where so many of the nor-
thern students wore yar-
mulkes that they came to
be known as “freedom
caps.”
And Martin Luther
King declared, “Anti-
Zionism is Anti-Semi-
tism.” He understood us
and we understood him.
How many rabbis put
themselves and their fami-
lies in jeopardy will never
be known, but to name
but a few: Arthur
Lelyveld was beaten by
hooligans for his part in
the struggle; Bernard
Bloom continued to
preach on Rosh Hashanah
despite the warning that
the building would be
bombed even as he spoke
to his Tennessee
congregation.
Emmet Frank told his
Virginia congregation that
“Segregation is sin,” and
in Hattiesburg, Miss.,
Charles Mantinband
defied those who tried to
silence him by preaching
on Yom Kippur—from a
wheelchair — that he
would yield to bigots only
after he was dead and not
one moment before.
Jack Rothschild in
Atlanta was outstanding
in the struggle; and 1, too,
placed my wife and
children at risk after 1 was
informed that if 1 con-
tinued to be so outspoken
on the subject, the temple
property would be endan-
gered. My favorite
mind’s-eye picture is that
of Abraham Heschel lead-
ing a civil rights march
with a Torah in his arms.
The special relationship
we had with Martin
Luther King’s movement
was a rare moment in
Jewish history, and like
the plantation, Tara, is
probably “Gond with the
Wind,” the product of a
special time in a special
place. We should try to
pass on the memory of
our very fine hour to our
children and gran-
dchildren, or they will
never know who we are or
where we have been.
This year Martin
Luther King made all the
sports pages when the
voters of Arizona turned
down a measure to make
Martin Luther King Day a
legal holiday, with state
employees receiving a
paid day off. As punish-
ment, the National Foot-
ball League has moved to
take away a future Super
Bowl game which was to
have been playedin
Phoenix. It will be in-
teresting to see if the op-
posite sides of the abor-
tion issue follow this
precedent to influence
voters in future locations
of the major bowl games
or the Olympic games.
Ur. Leonard H'inogrud is a
retired ruhhi who resides in
Pittsburgh.
And Martin Luther King
declared, “Anti-Zionism is
Anti-Semitism. ” He
understood us and we
understood him.
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Wisch, J. A. & Wisch, Rene. Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 45, No. 1, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 3, 1991, newspaper, January 3, 1991; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth834816/m1/3/: accessed July 10, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .