U.S. Jewish Leaders Support Bush on Anti-Terror Drive

American Jewish leaders Friday expressed broad backing for the Bush administration’s global campaign to end terrorism even as they took exception with fine points of the strategy.

In a letter delivered to the White House, more than 60 prominent Jewish American figures declared their “steadfast support in this historic struggle.”

At the same time, leading Jewish organizers sought to downplay a clash between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the administration over support for a future Palestinian state.

“I want the president to know that people like myself, and the lion’s share of the American Jewish community, are behind him,” said Marvin Lender, who signed the letter and is vice chairman of United Jewish Communities, a fund-raiser for Israel and supports Jewish federations in North America.

The expressions of support reflected unusual unanimity in a faith commonly split along religious and political fault lines.

At the same time, Jewish leaders voiced concerns about the U.S. courting Syria, Iran or other countries known to sponsor terrorism to be part of an international coalition. And they fretted privately over the administration pursuing relationships with other Islamic countries hostile toward Israel.

Many also questioned why the White House excluded Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah--three groups responsible for attacks upon Israelis--from its list of 27 terrorist organizations or individuals whose U.S. assets have been seized.

“There’s no such thing as good terrorism versus bad terrorism,” said Steven Bayme, director of the American Jewish Committee’s Institute on American Jewish Israeli Relations in New York. “Whatever reason the administration may have for not putting those three on the list, it must repudiate all terrorism.”

Administration officials have said the White House list was directed at groups and individuals tied to Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and at the Pentagon.

Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah were included on a separate list of “foreign terrorist organizations” released Friday by the State Department.

That list, issued every two years, contained the names of 25 groups, including six believed to have links to Bin Laden.

The development that drew the most attention from Jewish leaders was the clash between Sharon and the Bush administration, in which Bush said he supported creation of an independent Palestinian state as a final step in the Arab-Israeli peace process. Sharon then accused the Bush administration of appeasing Palestinians in a bid to bolster Arab support for counter-terrorism. He accused Washington of giving into the Palestinians the way Britain appeased Hitler in the years before World War II.

American Jewish leaders said they understood Sharon’s frustration and the isolation that Israel is experiencing in the wake of the terrorist attacks.

But those with close ties to the Israeli and American governments viewed the heated exchanges merely as a blip in an enduring relationship.

“This is a spat between lovers as opposed to the very shallow relationships being formed with these new allies,” said Israel Singer, secretary general of the World Jewish Congress in New York.