Objections Raised to State Dept. Post for Christopher

WASHINGTON —  Several leaders of the American Jewish community have launched a quiet campaign to dissuade President-elect Bill Clinton from naming Los Angeles lawyer Warren Christopher as secretary of state, warning that the choice might alienate an important part of Clinton’s constituency.

Christopher, who was the State Department’s second-ranking official under President Jimmy Carter, has been a key Clinton adviser during the presidential campaign. A highly respected lawyer and tough negotiator who helped gain the release of 52 U.S. hostages from Iran in the closing days of the Carter Administration, he has frequently been mentioned as a prime candidate for the top diplomatic post.

But leading figures in several major Jewish organizations said they have contacted Clinton aides to warn that they will be unhappy if Christopher gets the job, preferring someone who they can be assured will be squarely on the side of Israel in ongoing Middle East peace talks.

“He was one of Carter’s guys, and Carter was no friend of Israel,” one Jewish organizer said. “(Christopher’s) bad medicine. It’ll be considered a slap in the face.” Carter angered many Jews during his Administration by pressing for Israeli concessions to reach a Middle East peace agreement.

Christopher “doesn’t have much of a profile as a friend of Israel,” another said. “We think we can do better.”

At the same time, Jewish leaders said that they want to avoid an open break with Clinton over the issue and added that they would learn to live with Christopher if he becomes secretary of state.

“If he gets appointed, we’ll all say he’s a wonderful guy,” one source said with a laugh.

He said that Jewish leaders were trying to keep their complaints private because they suspect Clinton may go ahead and nominate Christopher anyway. “It’s all sub rosa; nobody wants to be in the position of alienating the guy before he’s even appointed.”

Thus the issue could turn out to be an unexpected early test of Clinton’s willingness to cross any of the traditional Democratic constituencies that helped him win. Jewish voters make up only 4% of the electorate, but they provided important support for Clinton in his race for the Democratic nomination and are an important part of the Democrats’ organizing and fund-raising structure.

One leading Los Angeles Jewish activist, Stanley Sheinbaum, a member of the city’s Police Commission, came to Christopher’s defense. “I have come to admire and respect him (Christopher) enormously,” Sheinbaum said Thursday night. “He approaches issues with tremendous clarity and intellect. . . . I’m confident that he would do a job that would satisfy a lot of people.

“He’s certainly less dovish than I am,” added Sheinbaum, who has worked to arrange contacts between Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

Jewish organizers gave varying accounts of their qualms about Christopher, including concerns that he was “too dovish” at the outset of the Persian Gulf War in 1990, although the Californian later praised President Bush’s handling of the war.

But the Jewish leaders’ complaint appeared based largely on the Carter Administration’s record.

As Carter’s deputy secretary of state, Christopher frequently dealt with Arab leaders and managed the Algerian-mediated negotiations with Iran that led to the release in 1981 of 52 American hostages who had been held in Tehran for more than a year.

Christopher, 67, also served as deputy attorney general under President Lyndon B. Johnson. He is a longtime partner in the Los Angeles law firm of O’Melveny & Myers, and he was co-chairman of a commission that investigated the operations of the Los Angeles Police Department and called on Police Chief Daryl F. Gates to retire this year.

According to two sources, several Jewish leaders have pressed their case in recent days with Samuel Berger, a Washington lawyer who is one of Clinton’s principal foreign policy advisers.

Berger had lunch with Christopher on Thursday in the dining room of a Little Rock hotel, where both are working on Clinton’s presidential transition. “I’m sure they discussed the issue,” one source said.

Neither Christopher nor Berger responded to a request for comment.

One source said that some Jewish leaders even proposed alternative candidates for secretary of state, including former Vice President Walter F. Mondale and Sen. Bill Bradley (D-N.J.), but he added that they received no response from Clinton’s aides.

Clinton took strongly pro-Israel positions during his campaign and criticized the Bush Administration for its rocky relationship with the American Jewish community.

After Bush complained of the power of pro-Israel groups in Washington, Clinton denounced his remarks as “an affront to the basic rights of all Americans to speak freely.”

“The Administration has sometimes treated the conflict between Israel and the Arab states as just another quarrel between religions and nations, rather than one in which the survival of a democratic ally, Israel, has been at stake,” Clinton said in a speech last month.

American Jewish groups have sought to influence presidential choices for secretary of state before. In 1982, they complained bitterly when President Ronald Reagan chose George P. Shultz for the job because Shultz had warm relations with leaders in Saudi Arabia and other Arab states. But Reagan ignored the complaints, and in time Shultz turned out to be more sympathetic to Israel than many of his predecessors.

Times staff writers Norman Kempster and Jack Nelson contributed to this story.