| Continuing
and Urgent
Middle East Arms
Race
Actual
sales of conventional arms to Middle East countries have slowed
down over the past year. Nevertheless, the balance of military capabilities
in the Middle East is changing, as countries begin to absorb the
delivery of vast quantities of arms previously purchased and now
being delivered to the region. The Middle East continues to receive
over one-fifth of the world's international arms deliveries. Russia,
Ukraine, a number of Eastern European countries, France, Britain,
Germany, China, and the United States are still the predominant
suppliers of arms to the region.
North
Korea's cooperation with Arab states remains an ongoing concern.
With funding from Iran, the North Koreans have developed the intermediate
range Rodang ballistic missile system. The Rodang missile, which
is likely to be tested and eventually deployed in Iran, is thought
to be capable of reaching Israel from that distance. In addition,
the two countries are jointly conducting nuclear research. Syria
also imported new missile launcher vehicles from North Korea and
continued to expand its ground forces and its arsenal of weapons
of mass destruction. These developments pose serious problems for
Israel.
Progress
towards implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC)
has been slow. (For details on CWC see Joint Program Plan for
1993-1994, p. 30.) Except for Iran, which has signed the treaty,
a number of Israel's traditional enemies, in particular Syria and
Libya, continue to reject it.
The military
threat to Israel has not disappeared with the signing of the Declaration
of Principles on September 13, 1993. The U.S. sale to Israel of
one of its most sophisticated weapons, the F15-E fighter, which
represents the first transfer of such high-tech equipment to an
ally, and recurrent obstacles in the peace process, serve as reminders
that Israel's security situation has yet to be fundamentally changed.
President Clinton has pledged to grant Israel status equal to that
of NATO members with regard to defense technology transfers. The
Jewish community relations field strongly supports the Clinton Administration's
continuing commitment to preserve Israel's qualitative edge.
With
regard to the multilateral talks on regional security and arms control,
a striking development was Qatar's hosting of the talks in May 1994,
and the participation of the Israeli delegation. Israel continues
to view the multilaterals as an integral part of the peace process
while recognizing that progress in the bilateral negotiations is
the key to making more dramatic progress in the multilateral frameworks.
The Jewish
community relations field continues to oppose arms sales to any
Arab state until it renounces the state of war and establishes full
normalized relations with Israel; how and when this policy is implemented
should be determined through the normal joint consultative process
of the NJCRAC Israel Task Force.
Arab
Economic Boycott
The Clinton
Administration has continued its vigorous efforts to end the Arab
economic boycott of Israel, particularly the secondary and tertiary
aspects. Senior Administration officials, especially Secretary of
State Warren Christopher, Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and U.S.
Trade Representative Mickey Kantor, consistently have called upon
the Arab states to cease immediately and unconditionally any discriminatory
practices against American companies. Recent Commerce Department
statistics show that there continues to be significant boycott-related
activity. At the same time, the Arab boycott, even the primary boycott
against Israel and Israeli companies, has shown clear signs of weakening.
Nevertheless,
the Jewish community relations field continues to press for a formal
policy change, announced publicly, by the member states of the Arab
League abandoning the primary boycott of Israel and the secondary
boycott of commercial firms doing business in Israel.
For some
time now, senior Administration officials have conveyed assurances
from Arab leaders that the secondary boycott was no longer operational
and that the Arab League would take action to formalize this situation.
More recently, Arab League Secretary General Esmat Abdel Meguid
promised U.S. Commerce Secretary Ron Brown that he would seek to
have the League's summit meeting of foreign ministers in late March,
1994, address the secondary and tertiary boycotts. Unfortunately,
the Arab leaders failed to use this opportunity to terminate these
boycotts.
The Administration
also has sought to galvanize the opposition of the international
community to the boycott. At the urging of the United States, the
seven leading industrialized nations (Group of Seven or G-7) called
for an end to the Arab boycott at their summit in Tokyo in July
1993. It is hoped that the G-7 will act again on this issue, even
more forcefully, at the July 1994 summit.
As in
past years, the U.S. Congress is playing an important role in the
anti-boycott efforts. Of particular significance is legislation
adopted in the second session of the 103rd Congress that prohibits
U.S. arms sales to any country that enforces the secondary or tertiary
boycotts. Also under discussion in the second session is a resolution
calling upon the Administration to veto Saudi Arabia's application
to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) unless the
Saudis end their participation in the secondary and tertiary boycotts.
In addition, the Export Administration Act (EAA) will likely be
amended in 1994 to increase the penalty for each boycott violation
by an American company from $10,000 to $50,000. Also under consideration
is an amendment to the EAA to create a private right of action for
individuals and companies in the U.S. so that they can bring suit
to recover boycott-related damages.
Since
the signing of the Israel-PLO Declaration of Principles a major
international focus has been the effort to stimulate Palestinian
economic development in the territories. This activity is predicated
on the belief that raising the Palestinians' standard of living
will create a more stable and conducive environment for peacemaking.
Administration officials, members of Congress and others have pointed
out that the Arab boycott represents a significant obstacle to Palestinian
economic development.
Teaching
About the Middle East
Since
the September 1993 signing of the Israel-PLO agreement on mutual
recognition and the Declaration of Principles, there has been a
noticeable shift in the attitudes of participants in the Middle
East Studies Association (MESA), the primary professional association
of Middle East scholars. While many associated with MESA remain
unsympathetic to Israel, the organization's most recent conference
was generally freer of the extreme hostility that had characterized
its previous gatherings.
The Jewish
community relations field continues to identify problems with respect
to anti-Israel bias in curriculum materials for primary and secondary
schools and teacher training programs on the Middle East. A number
of NJCRAC national member agencies, especially Hadassah and the
Anti-Defamation League, have responded by working with school officials
and textbook companies in correcting inaccurate and unbalanced material.
New curricular materials on the Middle East that are accurate and
balanced have been developed by independent education organizations
and by NJCRAC member agencies, including a major work by the San
Francisco JCRC entitled "Israel and Syria: Windows on Nationalism."
The field
is encouraged to work with local school officials to promote programs
and materials that create a better understanding of Israel and the
challenges it faces.
Democracy
and Pluralism in Israel
The Israeli
Arab community welcomed the agreements reached between the Rabin
government and the PLO in September 1993. In the wake of those historic
agreements, some concern was expressed that the commitment by Israel
and the international community to stimulate Palestinian economic
development in the territories might detract from ongoing efforts
to improve the social and economic conditions of Israel's Arab citizens.
The massacre of Moslem worshippers by a Jewish extremist at a Hebron
mosque in February 1994 led to heightened tension and, in a few
instances, violence by some Israeli Arabs. These developments prompted
government officials and private organizations working on behalf
of equal status and benefits for Israeli Arabs to accelerate their
efforts.
The draft
Basic Law on Fundamental Human Rights that would codify basic human
rights principles in Israel's emerging constitution continues to
be stalled in the Knesset. Women's groups, civil liberties organizations,
and religious groups have sought unsuccessfully to incorporate language
in the draft that they believe would provide adequately for personal
status freedoms.
Government
and private initiatives to educate new immigrants from the former
Soviet Union and Ethiopia about functioning effectively as citizens
in Israel's democratic system have grown in recent years.
The field
continues to support initiatives, especially educational programs,
that seek to promote mutual respect among all of Israel's citizens
as well as democracy and pluralism in Israel.
Dissent:
The Union of Orthodox
Jewish Congregations of America has never joined in the Joint
Program Plan section on "Democracy and Pluralism in Israel. "
We consider this topic to be outside the appropriate purview of
the NJCRAC. We have long believed that public debate among North
American Jews on questions of Israeli foreign policy, domestic
political structure and religious integrity are divisive both
to our own community and the people of the sovereign state of
Israel. North American Jews do neither themselves nor the people
of Israel a service by such involvement on this issue.
Israel-Diaspora
Relations
Since
1948, the American Jewish community has channeled most of its efforts
to secure U.S. political, strategic, and economic support for the
State of Israel. Now that Israel appears to be entering a period
of active peacemaking that, hopefully, will lead to normalized relations
with its neighbors as well as economic growth, attention is turning
to the impact these developments will have on the Israel-Diaspora
relationship. Israeli and American Jewish leaders are asserting
the need to begin formulating a new agenda for this partnership
and new structures for interaction between the two communities.
Israeli President Ezer Weizman hosted in June 1994 in Jerusalem
a consultation with leaders of Jewish communities around the world
to discuss a range of issues related to Israel-Diaspora relations,
including Jewish continuity
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