Israel’s Days as Senate Race Issue Seem Numbered

Israel’s days as a political football in California’s U. S. Senate race appeared to be numbered Monday as Republican nominee Ed Zschau did his best to put the matter behind him with a report on his recent trip to Israel, while Democratic Sen. Alan Cranston indicated that the controversy had served his purposes and he was interested in attacking Zschau on other issues.

Zschau, a two-term congressman from Los Altos, has been criticized by some supporters of Israel for, among other things, recently voting to sell arms to Saudi Arabia and proposing budget cuts that would have reduced supplemental aid to Israel.

Talking to reporters at a Los Angeles press conference about a fact-finding trip to Israel that ended Friday, Zschau said, “My experience . . . reinforced my position toward Israel, as well as providing me with some new insights about what our actions might be in the future. . . .

“The fundamental focus of our policy toward Israel should be a commitment to its permanence,” Zschau continued. “. . . We have to make sure Israel can defend itself against any combination of its Arab neighbors.”

In addition, he said, he wants to help Israel find new sources of investment for its industries, wants to speed up the Middle East peace process by encouraging Jordan to play a more active role on the West Bank and wants to encourage Egypt to improve its relations with Israel.

Zschau was surrounded at the press conference by a number of supporters who are Jewish, including Richard Stephens, president of the California Republican League, a moderate activist group.

Cranston, meanwhile, held his own press conference and said, “I presume Ed Zschau went to Israel because he is embarrassed by positions he has taken in the past. But I don’t see how his positions have been changed fundamentally.”

The senator, long one of Israel’s strongest supporters, said he thought his attack on Zschau’s record on Israel had helped him raise more money among Jewish contributors, although he could not specify an amount.

But with Zschau back from Israel, Cranston seemed eager to move on to other issues, saying he wants to send his opponent on new fact-finding trips.

“I suggested to Ed Zschau that he might well take another trip,” Cranston said. “He should go to South Africa to learn about apartheid and the abomination of racial hatred; to Central America, where he voted to let (U.S.) troops go right up to the (Nicaraguan) border. . . . to Hiroshima to see the horrors of nuclear war because he’s against . . . action to cope with the arms race, and to San Diego to see the sewage in the bay there because he has voted against efforts to clean that up. I suggested he get back here about Nov. 4 in time to vote.”

Although Cranston clearly put Zschau on the defensive with the Israel issue, Zschau manager Ron Smith insisted that the candidate’s trip had accomplished what it was designed to do.

“When Ed Zschau is elected to the Senate in November,” Smith said, “we want to make sure there is no group of Californians who feel that they will not be represented by him. I think any objective observer on the subject of Israel will feel comfortable now with Ed after this trip.”

However, Rabbi Allen Freehling, president of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California, said in an interview that he did not think Zschau accomplished much beyond educating himself on Israel’s problems.

“I’m not sure how much it helps him politically,” Freehling said, “unless he can point to some serious mistakes that Alan Cranston has made regarding Israel--and I don’t think he can do that. . . . What he is up against is a strong bond between the Jewish community and Alan Cranston, not just on support for Israel but also on such issues as civil rights and human rights.”

Zschau seemed to acknowledge as much during a campaign trip to Northern California over the weekend, when he said in an interview, “Maybe I’m not as good (a supporter of Israel as is Cranston), but we both qualify as supporters of Israel.”