Press Releases

Ameinu Denounces AIPAC’s Hawkish Shift on Palestinians

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - March 14, 2007
CONTACT: Gidon D. Remba

MEDIA ADVISORY

Ameinu Denounces AIPAC’s Hawkish Shift on Palestinians

Washington, DC—AIPAC’S 2007 Action Agenda, approved earlier this week by AIPAC’s Executive Committee at the group’s annual national policy conference in Washington, adopts radical hawkish positions which would curtail current tentative Palestinian-Israeli peace efforts, a major policy change that is contrary to the national security interests of both the United States and Israel, according to Kenneth Bob, National President of Ameinu, the leading progressive Zionist organization in the U.S.

"AIPAC, which presents itself as 'THE pro-Israel lobby' representing the entire American Jewish community, has now adopted highly partisan new policies on the pursuit of Palestinian-Israeli peace. The new approach aligns AIPAC more closely with neoconservatives, placing it in sharp opposition both to the Bush Administration and the Israeli Government,” said Mr. Bob.

“Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh’s remarks at the AIPAC national conference testify to this clash,” added Ameinu Executive Director Gidon D. Remba. Ameinu, as a member of AIPAC’s Executive Committee, cast a vote against portions of the 2007 Agenda which are ill-advised, dangerous to Israel and unrepresentative of the American Jewish community, noted Mr. Remba.

AIPAC’s hawkish shift on US policy towards the Palestinians, which would cut off all US contact with moderate Palestinian leaders, is mirrored in a letter to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, initiated by Senators Bill Nelson (D-FL) and John Ensign (R-NV), which AIPAC is now urging senators to sign. AIPAC’s new demand is contained in “Talking Points” it has distributed to supporters who lobbied their Members of Congress yesterday on Capitol Hill as part of AIPAC’s annual conference.

Mr. Remba also stated that “the ‘Talking Points’ disguise AIPAC’s new position, leading many conference attendees to naively believe that in asking their senators to sign on to the Nelson-Ensign letter, they are merely “‘holding firm and insisting’ that no aid or recognition should be granted to the PA until it recognizes Israel, renounces violence and accepts previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements,” as the Talking Points memo claims. In fact, the Nelson-Ensign letter, and AIPAC’s new 2007 Agenda, go much further,” added Mr. Remba.

AIPAC’s new 2007 Agenda calls for:

• “Urging the US government to vigorously enforce the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act,” and “Urging the US government and other parties of the ‘Quartet’ to adhere to the position that they will not have contact with or provide funds to a Palestinian Authority that includes Hamas until Hamas” meets the three international conditions.

• The Nelson-Ensign letter which AIPAC supporters are calling on their senators to endorse also urges senators to “continue to hold firm and insist that these very basic international principles do not change—no direct aid and no contacts with any members of a Palestinian Authority that does not explicitly and unequivocally recognize Israel’s right to exist, renounce terror, and accept previous agreements.”

AMEINU RESPONSE:

• According to Mr. Bob, the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act does not bar the US from maintaining contact with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas until the PA meets the three international conditions. Both Israeli Prime Minister Olmert and US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice have conducted recent meetings with President Abbas, who supports a two-state solution recognizing Israel’s right to exist in peace and security, opposes violence and terror and accepts prior agreements between Israel and the PA.

• "As Israel's Deputy Defense Minister and Labor Knesset Member Ephraim Sneh stressed in his remarks to the AIPAC Plenary, strengthening President Abbas and other Palestinian moderates in the PA by providing them with political dividends and security assistance is critical to weakening Hamas and other rejectionists in Palestinian society," said Mr. Remba. Ameinu believes such steps are essential as well to building hope among Palestinians and Israelis for the success of any new peace initiative and reaching a comprehensive and durable cease-fire agreement.

• The new AIPAC policy of cutting off contact with all Palestinian Authority officials also contradicts AIPAC’s own promise in its 2007 Action Agenda to “build on the commitment of the [Bush] Administration and Congress…to a peace process predicated on direct negotiations between Israel and her neighbors.” It brings AIPAC full circle back to the extreme version of the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act it unsuccessfully sought to pass last year.

AIPAC's new agenda, relying solely on economic sanctions against the Palestinian Authority and Iran, along with the threat of possible preemptive military action against Iran in future, would now unwisely block all diplomatic bargaining between Israel and the Palestinians.

About Ameinu

Ameinu is dedicated to promoting a negotiated peace between Israel, the Palestinians and the Arab states, and to social and economic justice for all in Israel and America. Together with the Labor movement of Israel and other partners, Ameinu reinforces Jewish continuity through support for Habonim Dror, the Labor Zionist youth movement, and the Union for Progressive Zionists campus organization.

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