June 23, 2006
By James D. Besser

Washington - A congresswoman who got into public spat with the biggest pro-Israel lobby group was feted this week by a Jewish organization that says it wants to offer lawmakers a different slant on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), who said she was accused of being in league with terrorists by a lay leader of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) because of her no vote on an AIPAC-backed bill on aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, was a featured guest at a congressional reception sponsored by Brit Tzedek v’Shalom, the Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace.

The AIPAC leader denied linking McCollum to terrorists.

Despite her kiss-and-make-up session with AIPAC officials, McCollum wasn’t above taking a few pokes at the group.

“It is important that you are here,” she told the 100 or so Brit Tzedek leaders, adding that many of her colleagues believe that only the big pro-Israel lobby groups speak for the Jewish community.

“There is a perception that there is only one voice on behalf of how to work toward the goals of peace in the Middle East,” she said. “You are an important voice; it needs to be listened to, it needs to be respected and it needs to be counted.”

McCollum said she disagreed with the Hamas bill because “if you’re going to have peace, you’re going to have dialogue,” and that it would make it too “cumbersome” for nongovernmental organizations to deliver humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people.

“Forty-six percent of the population in the Palestinian areas are children,” she said. “We don’t need their first memory to be of how the United States didn’t let insulin get to their grandparents.”

But Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, criticized the group’s decision to feature McCollum.

“Of all the members of Congress, why pick her?” he said. “Was it just to take a swipe at AIPAC? I think that’s inappropriate.”

Diane Balser, the Brit Tzedek director, said that participants in the group’s lobby day had more than 50 Capitol Hill meetings. Top items on their agenda included opposition to all “punitive sanctions” on the Palestinians and support for “diplomatic engagement with moderate Palestinians, including Mahmoud Abbas. This may be the time to invite Abbas to the White House.”