Begin's American Bandwagon

Why Jewish leaders now support the superhawk

Jews like to say that when three of them get together they have four opinions, but last May many American Jews tended to agree on one point: the upset victory of Menachem Begin 's hard-line Likud coalition in Israel was bad news. Looking on the new Premier as a superhawk, they generally feared that his intransigence over Israel's borders and Palestinian demands for a homeland might bring on a break with Washington and a fifth war with the Arabs. Since Begin took office, however, there has been a remarkable change in opinion. Most American Jews now seem to admire him as a tough-minded patriot and support his government. What caused the change? Why did American Jews rally behind Begin so quickly? Searching for answers, TIME Correspondent Don Sider visited Jewish leaders and laymen in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington and Miami. His report:

Winning confidence for Menachem Begin among America's 6 million Jews, says Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, "happened in ways outside anyone's control." Yet the fact is that Jerusalem did all that it could--as any government would--to promote the new man. Begin, for example, dispatched a personal emissary, Shmuel Katz, on a month-long mission to the U.S. in early June. Working closely with the Israeli embassy in Washington, Katz met with National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, Congressmen and journalists, then traveled to New York and Chicago to confer with Jewish lay and religious leaders and more journalists. Says an Israeli diplomat who helped to arrange the trip: "He succeeded in dispelling the image of Begin as a wild man."

Still, neither Shmuel Katz nor any single organization can be wholly credited with the swift turnabout in attitudes toward Begin. Also responsible was a series of extemporaneous efforts by hundreds of Jewish groups and thousands of individual Jews who feared that any wavering of support for the Jerusalem government--however hawkish the Premier --might endanger Israel's survival.

Two things ensured the success of the effort: the hostile treatment of Begin by much of the American press, and Jimmy Carter's seeming tilt toward the Arabs starting last spring. Explains Leo Mindlin, associate editor of the Miami-based Jewish Floridian: "There has been a closing of the ranks because American Jews are horrified at the prospect of a series of one-sided compromises in which the Israelis will pay." With their acute sense of survival--a sense developed in the ghettos of the Diaspora and the horrors of the Holocaust--most U.S. Jews regard that threat as far more important than Israel's internal politics. Says Marjorie Merlin Cohen, executive director of the National

Council of Jewish Women: "We'll fight that out later. If Israel doesn't continue to exist, we'll have nothing to fight about."

Until the election, few American Jews knew much, if anything, about Begin despite his bloody record in the years before Israeli independence as leader of the anti-British, anti-Arab terrorist group Irgun Zvai Leumi. In 1946, on Begin's orders, the Irgun blew up Jerusalem's King David Hotel, then the British government headquarters, killing 90 people, including many Jews and Arabs. Two years later, Begin's men massacred more than 200 people, mostly old men, women and children, in the Arab village of Deir Yassin. News accounts of these and other incidents from Begin's past shocked and confused many American Jews. Recalls Los Angeles Rabbi Leonard Beerman: "There was a wave of fear." Adds Chicago Architect Raymond Epstein: "An appreciable number of people felt concern, even embarrassment. My wife said: 'He's like Yasser Arafat.' "

Thus many American Jews initially opposed Begin's Likud coalition. Explains Reform Rabbi Alexander Schindler, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations: "I don't think that he was anybody's first choice [as Israeli Premier]. You want to deal with a known. Besides, he represents a coalition of the political and religious right. That scared us."

To sound him out, Schindler met with Begin in Jerusalem a few days after the election and was favorably impressed. So too were other U.S. Jewish leaders who flew to Israel, as well as Senators Jacob Javits of New York and Richard Stone of Florida. The Americans said they found Begin willing to listen--and to talk in terms of relative moderation. On his return, Schindler called a meeting of Jewish leaders at his New York office, gave a press conference for the American Jewish press; and then met with senior State Department officials in Washington. Schindler's basic view, contained in a report circulated by the Union of American Hebrew Congregations: "The image of the man [Begin] as a stark, raving terrorist who will be unyielding is wrong. He's a statesman who wants to bring peace to his country. He ought not to be condemned before having a hearing." Stone and Javits, traveling to Israel several weeks apart, both reported to President Carter on their return--and then quietly defended Begin among reporters and colleagues.

Soon American Jewish publications began to take a friendly line. At a meeting in Denver in June, the editors of most of America's 130-odd Jewish weeklies adopted a resolution congratulating Begin on his election. The Los Angeles B'nai B'rith Messenger described him as "a worthy leader," while the Jewish Week & American Examiner, published in New York City, ran "Glimpses of Begin," a sympathetic report on his folksy personal side designed to counter the "terrorist" image. "We didn't feel any obligation to sell him," says Robert A. Cohn, editor of the biweekly St. Louis Jewish Light. But other editors put it differently. Says Herb Brin, editor of the Heritage and Southwest Jewish Press in Los Angeles: "We've done drumhammer support for him. We refuse to bend." The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the main Israel lobby in Washington, rushed out a two-page white paper claiming that Begin's reputation as a terrorist was a "myth." By A.l.P.A.C.'s considerably sanitized account, he was a freedom fighter and his men attacked only military targets, always trying to avoid civilian casualties.

Influential American Jews eagerly accepted this version. Argues Chicago Businessman Gary Ratner: "It wasn't terrorism for terrorism's sake. They were trying to create a country, not destroy it." Critics were rebuffed. Among them is Rabbi Arnold Wolf, Jewish chaplain at Yale and national chairman of Breira, the movement that wants Israel to return to the Arabs all the territory conquered in the 1967 war except for Jerusalem. Asks Wolf: "Why can't I call him a right-wing fanatic? I think it's outrageous that American Jews are supposed to suppress their feelings in the interests of the Jewish people."

Most Jewish leaders, however, sought to turn Jimmy Carter around--not Begin. Meeting with 53 Jewish leaders at the White House on July 6, Carter failed to convince his visitors that Israel could count on his complete support in a crunch. That made Begin look still better to many U.S. Jews. Says Robert Cohn: "He's provided the kind of firmness Israel needed when the Administration was putting pressure on."

Begin's visit to the U.S. last July erased many remaining apprehensions. In Washington, he got along well with Carter and congressional leaders; in New York, he impressed leaders of the Hasidic Lubavitcher sect, the Central Conference of American Rabbis and several other groups. Says Miamian Val Silberman, national vice chairman of the United Jewish Appeal: "Everyone went away feeling good about him." Israeli Defense Minister Ezer Weizman told TIME Jerusalem Correspondent David Halevy that Begin's main and "probably only real success in the U.S. was to unite American Jewry behind him and Israel."

But not entirely. Begin's recent moves to legalize three unauthorized Israeli settlements on the West Bank and to announce the creation of three brand new settlements have upset many U.S. Jews. Quite a few Reform and Conservative rabbis remain concerned, moreover, that Begin may impose an Orthodox religious tyranny in Israel at the expense of other branches of Judaism, not to mention other religions. In addition, says Leonard Beerman, "I'm frightened that the values of Judaism that have to do with civil rights and the rights of national minorities of small peoples to self-determination would be compromised if the West Bank were incorporated into Israel. That, to me, would be very destructive of the fundamental ideals of the Jewish people." Adds Los Angeles Rabbi Jacob Ott: "One successful visit with the President and one warmhearted week with the Jewish community are not conclusive. Begin is still in the testing stage."

Why is it, then, that so many American Jews also seem to approve of Menachem Begin--and are channeling contributions to Israel at a steady rate? For one thing, he is the only Premier Israel happens to have at the moment, and U.S. Jews do not want to weaken his position. Says Rabbi Schindler: "The American Jewish community isn't pledged to him or all his policies. We're pledged to the security of Israel." Moreover, many U.S. Jews may be impressed by the fact that liberal and moderate Israelis are themselves rapidly revising their once hostile views of the new Premier; some observers think that Begin's minority government could win an absolute majority in the Knesset (parliament) if a new election were held today.

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