PERSPECTIVE ON ISRAEL : Now Let Our Hawks Step Down : Pressures for American Jews to squelch peace sentiments were strong. Fortunately, some were heard.

This is a moment of rejoicing for liberal American Jews. For years we have been denounced by the conservative leadership of the American Jewish community because we publicly criticized the right-wing Israeli government of Yitzhak Shamir. Now, the Israeli public has elected a Knesset with a majority committed to an exchange of land for peace.

Polls have consistently indicated that a majority of American Jews would favor an exchange of land for peace under conditions that ensured Israeli security. But the pressures to keep these views quiet were so strong that even a majority of those who supported the peace position nevertheless felt intimidated into public silence.

Yet thousands of American Jews refused to be silent and helped forge a political climate in which George Bush felt that he could pressure Israel into peace negotiations without being labeled a Jew-hater. Many of us were shocked at the anti-Semitic overtones of his rhetoric last year, when he talked about undue Jewish influence. But the substance of his opposition to West Bank settlements was correct, and though we still opposed his domestic policies, many liberal Jews publicly supported his linking loan guarantees to a settlement freeze. It was this direct linkage that turned the Israeli electorate against Shamir. When forced to choose between an expansionist territorial policy of the right or the economic and political support of the United States, a majority of the Israeli electorate decided to vote for Labor and other peace parties. But the motivation was not entirely economic--many Israelis, including newly arrived Russian Jews, want Israel to live up to the proud ethical traditions of the Jewish people. In doing so, they have made many American Jews prouder than ever of our commitment to Zionism. And we shall fight for loan guarantees to Israel in exchange for the settlement freeze supported by a majority of Labor doves.

Of course, we have no illusions about Yitzhak Rabin. We remember that he gave the “break their bones” order to the Israeli army in the early days of the intifada. And the campaign assiduously avoided substantive issues, so Rabin is likely to believe that it is his hawkish personality, rather than Labor’s peace positions, that won votes. A younger generation of Knesset doves, both within Labor and Meretz (the peace party), may soon need our public support as they battle Rabin’s inclination to form a government with Likud or fundamentalist religious parties, or his tendency to offer the same meaningless “autonomy” agreement to Palestinians that was championed by Shamir.

Labor has blown it before by its indecisiveness--and they could do it again. If Labor refuses to push for a demilitarized Palestinian state, but instead tries cosmetic solutions, some Palestinians may once again resort to violence, and this will be used by the Israeli right to discredit the entire peace process. Palestinians have the same right to national self-determination that we Zionists correctly demanded for the Jewish people. If a Labor government offers less, it may end up appearing to “prove” the right-wing case that “nothing will satisfy those Palestinians.” Yet the peace forces, in Israel and the United States, will strongly support security guarantees for Israel that will reduce any risk in a peace agreement.

If there were democracy in the organized American Jewish community, the hawks would step down and allow a new generation, those who publicly supported the peace camp, to assume leadership. But unfortunately those with the most power are the fund-raisers and the large donors, and they are unlikely to understand how the kind of American Jewish world they created--all too often materialistic, conformist, suppressing dissent on Israel and lacking spiritual and ethical direction--has turned so many Jews away from their Jewishness. This election in Israel may help bring some of these Jews back--because it shows that the spirit of idealism and ethical concern has a majority constituency in Israel, so it should be given some space in the American Jewish world as well.

The most frequently repeated injunction of the Torah is: “When you come into your land, do not oppress the stranger. Remember that you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” The election in Israel may make possible this kind of Torah-true Jewish state.