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January 17, 2003/Shevat 14 5763, Vol. 55, No. 21
Activists absent
RACHEL POMERANCE
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
NEW YORK - Political consultant James Carville once remarked that campaigning in Israel wasn't unlike campaigning in America: It's still about Jewish money, he joked.
But the American consultants who have advised candidates in Israel's recent elections largely are absent this time around.
So, too, are American Jewish activists.
American Jews have gotten involved in Israeli elections for the last 20 years, and particularly in the last decade - helping candidates Yitzhak Rabin, Benjamin Netanyahu, Shimon Peres and Ehud Barak, according to Steve Rabinowitz, a former Clinton White House press aide and unpaid adviser to the Labor Party for nearly 10 years.
American involvement peaked in the Barak-Netanyahu contest of May 1999, Rabinowitz said. Clinton spin doctors Carville, Stanley Greenberg and Robert Shrum advised Barak's campaign, while Republican strategist Arthur Finkelstein devised Netanyahu's game plan.
But as scandals related to overseas donations have rocked this and the last election, Israeli candidates have become wary of soliciting foreign contributions - which are illegal under Israeli law once the election date has been determined.
Only Finkelstein, who has worked for Netanyahu in two campaigns and for Sharon in 2001, is involved in the campaign for the Jan. 28 elections, again helping Sharon.
Would-be contributors or activists from the United States have been discouraged by a combination of factors:
- Skittishness over scandals relating to foreign financial contributions
- Israel's return to a one-vote system from the direct election of the prime minster, obscuring the process for many
- A race that seemed like a foregone conclusion
One U.S. Jewish leader said American Jews are more willing to let Israelis determine their own political destiny.
"You have to be somewhat both respectful and a little humble about what Israelis are going through that we're not," the Jewish leader said.
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