June 22, 2007

WASHINGTON (JTA) ˆ The old saying "two Jews, three opinions" never rang
truer than at a meeting this week between Jewish organizational leaders
and Democratic senators.

They even argued a bit over whether the United States isolating the
Palestinian Authority while Hamas governed had served Israeli and U.S.
interests.

"It was a good place for the Jewish community to appear as what it is,
which is diverse," said Steve Gutow, the executive director of the Jewish
Council for Public Affairs, the umbrella body for community relations
groups. "This showed the Jewish community from the Orthodox to Reform,
which is really America."

The meeting, which lasted slightly more than an hour, was chaired by U.S.
Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) in her capacity as chairwoman of the Senate
Democratic Conference's outreach committee. The committee meets annually
with various constituencies, and this was the 2007 meeting with Jewish
representatives.

For the senators it was more about listening than speaking, according to
participants at the closed-door session.

It started with three presentations: Howard Kohr, executive director of
the pro-Israel lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, who
spoke about the threat that Iran and its nuclear program posed to the
region; David Harris, the American Jewish Committee executive director,
addressed the aftermath of the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip; and Gutow
spoke about climate change and reducing America's dependence on foreign
oil.

"We were really looking for some vision about reducing carbon emissions,"
Gutow said.

Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the majority leader, expressed concern about
last week's Gaza takeover by the Islamist group Hamas, saying the crisis
did not exist "in a vacuum." Participants said Reid noted the instability
in Iraq and Lebanon, as well as Iran's nuclear ambitions.

"It seemed that there was a great deal of convergence and harmony on the
main threat to Israel and the United States in the region," Harris said,
citing Iran and Hamas.

Steve Masters, the president-elect of Brit Tzedek ve'Shalom, expressed his
dovish pro-Israel organization's disagreement with the views on Hamas
offered by Harris and Kohr.

"This was an opportunity for the U.S. to examine whether its policies
toward Hamas have actually been effective or not, and others in the room
were talking about doing more of the same," said Masters, whose group
conducted a lobbying blitz Tuesday on Capitol Hill.

In more than 100 meetings on Capitol Hill, they voiced support for
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and aid to the Palestinians.

After the initial presentations, the meeting in the Capitol's vaulted
Manning Room was open to the floor, where again a range of issues was
discussed.

Representatives from the Reform movement raised concerns about the Iraq
war and what is seen as the politicization of the Justice Department
through partisan hirings and firings.

Dan Mariaschin, the executive vice president of B'nai B'rith
International, spoke about the resurgence of anti-Semitism overseas.

A representative of the Workmen's Circle raised immigration reform, and
embryonic stem-cell research was brought up ahead of President Bush's veto
Wednesday of a funding bill just passed by Congress.

Abba Cohen, who heads the Washington office of Agudath Israel of America,
addressed cuts in school safety programs.

"What we've seen in recent years is a dramatic cut in school safety and
security," he told JTA after the meeting, which was closed to the media.

Cohen said the emphasis in the national discussion on school safety is on
internal threats from armed students. He called for more focus on external
threats from terrorists and hate groups.

He noted that Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) last week salvaged a program
that directs Homeland Security Department funds to non-profit groups.

"The conversation should not be limited to internal threats," he said.
"Some schools, especially Jewish schools, have a unique threat facing
them."

Mark Levin, the executive director of NCSJ: Advocates on Behalf of Jews in
Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States and Eurasia, said those regions should
not be neglected in foreign policy considerations.

"With a reinvigorated, newly assertive Russia, it's important for the
United States to engage the Russian government on a whole host of foreign
policy concerns, which can hopefully lead to addressing the domestic side
of what's going on in Russia," Levin said, referring to crackdowns on the
media, minorities and dissident groups

Also participating in the meeting were the National Jewish Democratic
Council, the American Jewish Congress, Americans for Peace Now,
Chabad-Lubavitch, the Orthodox Union, United Synagogue of Conservative
Judaism, the Anti-Defamation League, United Jewish Communities and Hillel.

The meeting came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met with
the combined leadership of both parties in both houses of Congress. That
meeting focused on Iran and events in Gaza.

It also followed a meeting last week between representatives of the
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and Rep.
Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives,
after their meeting with President Bush.

The meeting with Pelosi was mostly friendly, but participants said that
Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), the Jewish chairman of the House Democratic
Caucus, rebuked the Jewish leadership for not confronting Bush more
forcefully for pushing Palestinian elections in 2006 over objections by
Israel and moderate Palestinians. Those elections brought Hamas into
power.