December 1989, Page 23

Seeing the Light

20 Years of Learning

By T.P. Ellsworth, Jr.

Everyone knows that the Six Day War of June, 1967 was a pivotal point in Middle East history. It also happened to be a pivotal period in my personal and professional life. That was the month I started work as an intern in the office of then-Congressman George Bush. My fellow intern was Chase Untermeyer, now director of White House personnel.

Even more important, however, was my marriage, which took place during the Six Day War. My bride was of Turkish and Syrian background, and our first "marital discourse" was over the causes of that war in which Israel defeated Egypt, Syria and Jordan and occupied the lands which the US now hopes it will exchange for peace with all of its Arab neighbors.

As a WASP, whose middle class family has lived in the same Connecticut River valley community since 1789, with a distant forebear, Oliver Ellsworth, who was the third chief justice of the Supreme Court, and a Yale and Texas Law School education, I was a typical, pro-Israel American. Unless one had direct contact with people who had lived in the Middle East, and was therefore not solely dependent upon the US media for information, I realize now, there was little opportunity to be anything else.

Like most Americans of my generation, my opinions about the Arabs and sympathies for the Israelis had been shaped largely by the film "Exodus," based upon the novel by Leon Uris and produced by Otto Preminger. Years later, I learned that Uris had actually been employed by a Zionist organization to write the book, and Preminger certainly had no objection to turning out a clever and manipulative propaganda film which sold Israel, and a lot of tickets, to Americans who, like me, accepted the film as history and became emotionally involved with Israel. Leon Uris and Otto Preminger were probably laughing all the way to the bank.

Between 1967 and 1980, however, my education was no longer based solely upon Zionist mythology and Hollywood history. I began reading about the area and I met many Arabs, including Palestinian Americans. One branch of my wife's family had roots in Palestine, and she has cousins living, or at least existing, on the West Bank.

Only half jokingly, they described themselves as the "Jews of the Arab World." I found them to be tough, bright and creative, with a reverence for education that resulted in a proliferation of Palestinians in the professions in the US, as well as in the Middle East. I began to understand that fear of competition is one of the elements in the Israeli determination to keep the Muslim and Christian Palestinians within their borders in a permanently subservient state.

Americans have realized that this sort of disregard of US interests, values and even our laws must be stopped.

My historical reading provided my first exposure to the Deir Yassin massacre, carried out in April, 1948 by Jewish underground fighters of the Irgun Zvai Leumi and the Stern Gang. Menachem Begin was commander of the Irgun, and one of the top three commanders of the Stern Gang was Yitzhak Shamir. It's time the world learns, and then never forgets, that this massacre of the men, women and children of a Palestinian village near Jerusalem was carried out under the direction of two future prime ministers of Israel, both of whom have subsequently refused to deal with the Palestine Liberation Organization on the grounds that it is a "terrorist" organization.

My internship in Congress and many campaign experiences pointed me after 1980 toward professional lobbying. As I organized a legislative coalition called the "Small Business Superfund Alliance" and grassroots supporting networks, my education on the Middle East continued. I could hardly fail to note how Tome Dine, who in 1980 became executive director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Israel's lobby in Washington, frequently was quoted in the press describing how powerful his group is. It struck me that the heads of most other lobbies would want to avoid such publicity, particularly if it were true, as seems to be the case with AIPAC.

By now, however, it is the Palestinian intifada that has moved me, and many like me, from concern to activity. I've put my knowledge of Congress and how it interacts with the executive branch to work at the newly created Council for the National Interest, organized by retired diplomats and three former members of the House of Representatives: Paul Findley (R-IL), Paul N. (Pete) McCloskey (R-CA) and David Bowen (D-MS). Like hundreds of other Americans, they have decided that continued US subsidization of Israel's brutal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is truly an affront to American values.

Two peoples, two states. I hope for the day when Israel can finally live with itself and its neighbors; when Israeli leaders are more interested in a real place than forcibly annexing occupied Palestine to fulfill dreams of "Greater Israel"; when Israeli leaders are willing to sit down with genuine Palestinian leaders to negotiate that peace in good faith.

Americans want the threat of war stopped, and so, I am ultimately persuaded, does President George Bush. I know that my first boss on the Hill does have deeply humane values. From 20 years of intermittent contact, I believe he will not remain inclined much longer to have our government continue to finance Israel's crushing of Palestinian rights, aspirations and lives. I believe that Americans in every congressional district must help organize support for a US policy in the Middle East that reflects American values and serves American interests.

That way is the only way I know of to ensure that our government's policies reflect the interests of all of its citizens, not just the wishes of narrow special interest groups. For example, such groups, coordinated by AIPAC, have for several years blocked most major sales of even defensive arms to moderate Arab states, costing our economy billions of dollars and over half a million jobs. Likewise, the same special interest lobby persuaded Congress to increase military aid to Israel, even after it broke American laws by using American arms supplied for defensive purposes in its failed and misguided invasion of Lebanon.

By now, I think a lot of Americans have realized that this sort of disregard of American interests, values and even our laws must be stopped. That's what I'm helping to do with the Council for the National Interest. I hope some of the people who read this article will decide to participate. If enough of us do, I suspect that many more members of Congress will also soon be "seeing the light."

T.P. (Terry) Ellsworth, Jr. is managing director of the Council for the National Interest, P.O. Box 53048, Washington, DC 20009; (202) 265-4530.