Jewish Groups Pressure Clinton on Nominee

Some Jewish groups are urging President Clinton to withdraw Strobe Talbott as his nominee for the No. 2 spot at the State Department, citing what they say are his anti-Israel writings when he was a Time magazine reporter.

Talbott will face tough questions on his Mideast views at confirmation hearings beginning Tuesday, sources on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said.

Talbott, the State Department’s senior adviser on Russia and Clinton’s friend since they were roommates at Oxford as Rhodes scholars 25 years ago, has generally won high marks for his work in shaping the Administration’s Russian policy.

House Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.) said Clinton’s decision in December to nominate Talbott as was “an inspired choice.”

If confirmed as deputy secretary of state, he would replace Clifton Wharton Jr., who resigned after only eight months in office.

Even before the anti-Israel allegations, there were indications Talbott’s nomination might not be approved as easily as last spring, when 89 senators supported his appointment as ambassador at large to Russia and the other former Soviet republics.

Sentiment is growing on Capitol Hill that the Russian policy that Talbott crafted depends too much on the success of one man, Boris N. Yeltsin, and that State Department planners were unprepared for the conservative backlash of last December’s parliamentary elections in Russia.

Morton A. Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, said Clinton should withdraw the nomination because “he has, over many years, demonstrated a lack of understanding of the threats that Israel faces, and tends to view Israel as the prime source of most problems in the Middle East.”

Klein compiled references to Israel in Talbott’s writing for Time from 1981 to 1991, saying Talbott consistently attacked the Jewish state. In 1981, Klein found, Talbott wrote that “Israel is well on its way to becoming not just a dubious asset but an outright liability to American security interests.”

Klein also cited an article written after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, titled “How Israel Is Like Iraq,” in which Talbott compared Israel’s claims to the occupied West Bank to Saddam Hussein’s claims to Kuwait.

The National Jewish Coalition, which has ties to the Republican Party, also called for Clinton to withdraw Talbott’s name, saying his writings are “very, very troubling and should be of concern not just to the Jewish community but to America as a whole.”

Neither Talbott nor the State Department press office had any comment on the anti-Israel charges.

American Israel Public Affairs Committee President Steve Grossman said his group has “every confidence that Ambassador Talbott will be fully supportive of the policies of the Clinton administration that have strengthened the U.S.-Israel relationship.” But he added that the pro-Israel lobbying group was “going to look to the confirmation process for him to publicly articulate his views.”

Mark Pelavin, spokesman for the American Jewish Congress, agreed: “We have no reason to doubt that Strobe Talbott would work to uphold the administration’s policy of strong and consistent support for Israel.”