NEW YORK — Labor Party leader Ehud Barak ended his weeklong visit to the United States having learned a hard lesson: On issues of security, American Jewish groups will not publicly criticize Israel’s elected government.
“The majority of Americans, Jewish and otherwise, are not willing to take the responsibility of what is and what isn’t security,” noted Abraham Foxman, director of the Anti-Defamation League.
In the company of three Knesset members from his Labor Party last week, Barak came to lay out his strategy for advancing the deadlocked peace process and to detail the dangers he sees in protracted negotiations with the Palestinians.
But the impassioned speeches of the Israeli opposition leader neither roused enthusiasm nor provoked fear among the Jewish leaders, who historically shy away from questioning the Israeli government’s position on security or from interfering in the country’s political infighting.
The Labor delegation’s visit to Washington and New York came at the start of the month — just days after the Knesset gave preliminary approval to a bill to dissolve itself and hold new elections.
The Labor delegation caused some controversy at an Aug. 3 meeting with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington, when Knesset member Yossi Beilin called the pro-Israel lobby “an extreme right-wing organization.”
By the time the Labor group arrived in New York, however, Barak distanced himself from the insults, while maintaining the charge that AIPAC does not go far enough to represent the spectrum of political views in what he called Israel’s “vibrant democracy.”
So far, the organized Jewish community — including factions that historically have formed a vocal opposition to some Israeli government actions — has maintained a seemingly united front, holding out for Netanyahu to reach an agreement with the Palestinians on a further redeployment from the West Bank.
In speeches delivered to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and to lay leaders from the ADL, the American Jewish Committee and the American Jewish Congress, Barak painted what one participant in the meeting described as a “bleak picture of Israel’s current regional and international situation.”
With the peace talks now deadlocked for almost 1-1/2 years, Israel has become isolated in the world, Barak said, and relations with the United States have been damaged.
And while Netanyahu has hinged the entire peace process on issues of security with the Palestinians, Barak focused his addresses to Jewish leaders on threats from Iraqi and Iranian weapons development programs and from Hamas and other extremist Palestinian groups.
David Harris, the executive director of the AJCommittee, said that Barak told an assembly of lay leaders from the AJCommittee, the AJCongress and the ADL: “I fear we’re headed for a prescription for disaster if we continue down this road. If you join me in this conclusion, I hope you will act accordingly.”
So long as Israel and the Palestinians maintain diplomatic ties “and America is playing a useful facilitating role, you’re less likely to hear vocal static,” Harris said.
Beilin was even more pointed in his remarks to the group on Friday of last week — the last day of the American tour. Speaking with Jewish reporters after the meeting, Beilin said he told the lay leaders, “The majority of you are more open, moderate and dovish than what seems to be. The only thing you can do to help us is to express yourself.”
But it will take more than predictions of woe to move the American Jewish community as a whole.
Phil Baum, the executive director of the left-leaning AJCongress, said that only if Israel were on the brink of “an overwhelming disaster” would there be a reconsideration of unified support for Israel’s elected leadership.
At the present time, Baum suggested, “there is not a sufficiently imminent danger to force the American Jewish community” to tell Israel what to do.
Stressing his group’s eagerness to see a revitalized peace process, the AJCommittee’s Harris said, “I think the American Jewish community’s role is important, but frankly it is not a role that can avert catastrophe. We have to be realistic about the role we can play and the claims we make about our own work.”
Some Jewish leaders faulted the Labor Party itself for failing to deliver a clear message to American Jews.
“Why haven’t you seen a more active American Jewish community, especially among those who have been on the liberal side of the spectrum?” said Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Reform movement’s Union of American Hebrew Congregations.
“Part of it has to do with the ineptness of the opposition in Israel. When there are alternative voices emerging from the Israeli political scene, clearly outlining issues and suggesting alternatives, that tends to mobilize the American Jewish community,” he said.
Even those groups that are strong supporters of the Oslo Accords, including the Israel Policy Forum, say it is too soon to speak out against the Netanyahu government.
“Everyone agrees on one thing: to give the negotiations every possible chance to work,” said Tom Smerling, the Israel Policy Forum’s Washington director.
“Everybody across the board in our community, I believe, will applaud the Netanyahu government if they reach an agreement” on a redeployment, he said.
Furthermore, with the longevity of Israel’s government now in question due to calls for early elections, few American leaders are eager to join the fray.