|
|
May 9, 2003/Iyar 7 5763, Vol. 55, No. 37
'Road map' highlights groups' divisions
RACHEL POMERANCE
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
NEW YORK - The "road map" toward Israeli-Palestinian peace has just gotten off the ground - but it's taking Jewish groups on divergent courses.
In the latest sign of the ferment the plan is causing in the Jewish community, several leaders of the national Jewish federation system endorsed it in a letter to Congressional leaders on April 29.
The action apparently came in response to letters expressing concern with aspects of the plan that were sent by many members of Congress to President Bush on April 30 in an effort backed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the main pro-Israel lobby.
The April 29 letter from 14 philanthropists illustrates the extent to which the road map has pressed Jewish buttons. Many of the signatories are philan-thropists who do not commonly enter the political fray and are current or former activists in the federation system, an institution that is deliberately nonpartisan.
The formal presentation of the road map on April 30 intensified the split in the Jewish community about the plan's merits and flaws, and the extent to which Jews should present a unified front on the issue.
The road map calls for a "final and comprehensive settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by 2005," which will include "an independent, democratic and viable Palestinian state living side-by-side in peace and security with Israel."
Left-leaning groups like Americans for Peace Now have sent letters to Congress supporting the road map, while mainstream ones have expressed concerns.
Meanwhile, the hawkish Zionist Organization of America has launched a grassroots campaign urging activists to write letters to President Bush opposing the road map.
For his part, James Tisch, chairman of the board of the United Jewish Communities federation umbrella and the man elected last week as the Presidents Conference's next chairman, distanced himself from the federation leaders' recent letter to Congress supporting the plan.
"That letter does not reflect in any way UJC policy," said Tisch.
Meanwhile, signatories of the letter backing the road map say the letter represents their personal positions, not the positions of their organizations.
"We are still all individuals, and we have our own thoughts and feelings," said Marvin Lender, former president of the United Jewish Appeal, who helped put together the letter.
"The people I know who really are passionately involved are people who tend to have positions in organizations," said signatory Karen Shapira, vice chairwoman of UJC.
|
