Jesse Jackson's Pilgrimage

...Instead, Jackson devoted the rest of his stay in Israel to visits with well-prepared and more appreciative Arabs...

...Later Phil Blazer, publisher of Israel Today magazine of Los Angeles and one of the Jews in the American group, told the press that Jackson had said the whole memorial was "irrelevant...

...The ecstatic chanting ended with the crowd roaring, "Jackson-Arafat...

...Jackson made it a point on several occasions to criticize terrorism in general—but he objected to defining the PLO as a terrorist organization: "Some would call them soldiers...

...Incessantly, he cited the political influence of the black community: The blacks have 15 million votes and American support for Israel should not be taken for granted...

...Tamar Eshel, women's leader and Knesset member...

...He was less outspoken on this point when he talked to Arab crowds during stopovers on the West Bank, which culminated in a revivalist style meeting at Nablus City Hall: "I am...

...He seemed to go out of his way to provoke even sympathetic Israelis...

...Jackson's extremist tone, his histrionics, his blatant bias, revolted even the most moderate Israelis...

...The wisdom of cold-shouldering Jackson and his group was questioned as well by a considerable number of Knesset members, including some mem-ers of the Cabinet...

...Nevertheless, Jackson insisted optimistically while taking an obvious swipe at Begin: "Each of us has the capacity to rise from the disgrace of terrorism to the grace of the Nobel Prize...

...and Meron Benvenisti, former Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem...

...Top officials in the Foreign Ministry and several of the Prime Minister's advisors strongly supported Evron's suggestions...

...But the long-range effect may be greater than is immediately apparent...

...The publisher said the break occurred because it had become clear Jackson only wanted to find supportive evidence for conclusions previously drawn...

...gives only $150 million to Arab relief (yet earlier he had been unmoved by Israeli arguments that the oil-rich Arab countries could have long ago solved the plight of their refugee brethren just as Israel solved the Jewish refugee problem...

...Upon emerging, Jackson remarked that he could better appreciate now "the persecution complex the Jewish people have...

...Only on the first evening of his three-day stay in Israel did Jackson seem to lose his cocky self-assurance...

...Jackson-Arafat...

...Jackson may not know it, but this is exactly the argument spread in Germany and elsewhere by neo-Nazis who deny the very fact of six million Jewish victims...

...Arafat he pronounced a moderate, flexible leader, the proof being his readiness to meet with President Carter...

...Looking back at Jackson's visit, most Israelis who thought he should have been received officially still feel that this might have lessened his hostility...

...We will be free, WE will be free, we will be FREE...

...For reasons wholly unrelated to the particular matter at hand, Begin accepted Dayan's position...

...Once across the border, Jackson was given a hero's welcome in Jordan and in Lebanon...

...He appeared as a prejudiced, arrogant, hypocritical figure...

...Their editorials warned against giving the impression of snubbing the American black community, urged that the challenge presented by the adverse reactions to the Andrew Young affair be met, and accused public relations officials of tending to preach only to the converted...

...Feelings were further exacerbated when Jackson announced the cancellation of two items on his schedule that might have challenged his preset ideas: He decided not to meet Joseph Tekoah, President of Beersheba University (and another former Israeli Ambassador to the UN...

...is a correspondent for Ha'aretz, one of Israel's leading newspapers...

...While they were bracing themselves to deal with the absurdities of this situation (for example, how to arrange an Army escort to Christian-held Southern Lebanon, where the visitors wanted to meet with Major Hadaad), Dayan during a U.S...

...Even if this was meant to be a sympathetic comment, Israelis felt it was condescendingly insulting...

...television interview changed his mind...

...Asked why he had undertaken his mission at this time, Jackson answered: "Winter is coming...

...And by giving an impression of irrational hostility, he tended to obscure the fact that Israel now has a genuine, though not insoluble, problem with the American black community...

...He recommended that the Prime Minister receive the black leader and that he be accorded red-carpet treatment, including the assignment of a high-level Foreign Ministry person to plan and coordinate his schedule...

...At PLO headquarters, where he was received by an honor guard of white-helmeted "guerrilla cubs," he chastised Washington for not dealing-in the Soviets in a Middle East settlement...

...We have heard much about how much Jews have given blacks...

...If I were going to America to bring some 'message' about white-black relations, I would at least read up on the subject," remarked an Israeli politician when he heard that Jackson had expected to meet the South Lebanese Christian militia commander, Major Saad Hadaad, at the Jordanian border...

...Quite an argument for a Christian preacher...

...The meeting was by and large a repeat performance of the round-table held at Jerusalem City Hall, except the gloves were taken off...

...Jackson started his last day in Israel by delivering a sermon that condemned terrorism to 150 mostly non-Arab worshipers at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in the Old City of Jerusalem...

...media representatives to correct some of Jackson's more glaring misstatements...

...he declared that Washington's pro-Israel attitude is endangering America's "vital interests" in the Arab opec countries...

...Zaroff raised the question of the Christians in Lebanon, observing that nobody seems interested in solving the dispute between them and the Moslems...

...In addition, it said, his remarks had not only bordered on the anti-Semitic, but he had personally insulted the Prime Minister by calling him a "racist" (a charge Jackson later denied...

...Jackson's message was quite clear: Since the United States is "utterly dependent" on opec, its commitment to Israel is gravely endangering basic American interests...

...That he would not succeed was predictable, for Arafat had just rejected an appeal voiced separately by the Reverend Joseph Lowry of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and several Israeli Leftists, urging the PLO to declare a six-month moratorium on terrorist acts to improve chances of negotiations...

...His Ministry, he said, would provide all necessary "technical assistance" to the group, but without giving it official status...

...On the plane to Israel, according to Blazer, Jackson had already declared that he was sick and tired of hearing constantly about the Holocaust: The Jews "do not have a monopoly on suffering and they merely want to put the Americans in a position of having to take a guilt trip...

...Surprised and confused, Jackson was overheard mumbling: "Well, I can understand them...

...Eliahii Salpeter, a regular NL conmlt-iilor...

...We have never resisted sending out tax money to Israel...

...I am somebody . . . protect me...

...should there be an oil embargo, "blacks would starve and freeze...

...WE can win, we ought to win, we must win...

...COURTING THE PLO Jesse Jacksonfc Pilgrimage BY ELIAHU SALPETER Tel Aviv Prime Minister MenachemBe-gin's unwillingness to receive American black leader Jesse Jackson during his recent Middle East "peace" pilgrimage stirred up one of the broadest waves of public criticism to be registered here in years...

...At Mayor Kollek's behest, he went to Hadassah hospital to talk to victims of a PLO bombing of a Jerusalem cafe two days earlier...

...I am somebody, I am God's child...

...He seemed to reinforce the view that it is useless to try to explain Israel's position to those who are strongly critical...

...The Foreign Minister indicated to his subordinates that they were not to extend any government assistance to the Jackson party...

...At the Kalandia refugee camp he said he was reminded of his Chicago childhood and applauded when one elderly man walked up to him to declare that the PLO was the refugees' representative...

...Jackson's visit belonged to the foreign policy domain...

...Eduard Zaroff, head of the Maronite Catholics in Israel...

...In the past year, he has increasingly treated his Cabinet members as heads of fief-doms, seeing his own role as some kind of spiritual leader or Chairman of the Board...

...Should war break out in the Middle East, "blacks would die...

...Benvenisti, the author of a proposal that would have Arabs and Jews share power in Jerusalem on a borough-system basis, noted that bringing the PLO into the picture would give the veto to those most opposed to the peace process...

...Blazer was one of the several Jews in the group who split with Jackson...

...In sharp contrast to his grim, morose manner in meeting with Israelis, he was all smiles with Arabs...

...Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek, however, decided both to receive Jackson and to hold a round-table discussion at City Hall for the group...

...Although the black leader claimed he "hardly knew" them, Blazer revealed at a press conference that he had been asked by Jackson to help plan the trip and had even footed part of the bill for the tour...

...and "Down with Zionism...

...Israelis will not forget that when confronted with this contradiction, Jackson replied glibly: "Morality is a strong argument but, let us face it, the ultimate argument is power...

...At every meeting he repeated half a dozen slogan-like statements that echoed well-known Palestinian and Arab lines: He attacked the "gag rule" against talking to the PLO "imposed" by Israel on the U.S...

...In fact, it was not related to any anti-black sentiment at all...

...This is not our job," Jackson replied, adding that "one should not forget the fact that the Palestinians have no homeland of their own...

...Among those he invited were Professor Shimon Shamir, one of Israel's leading Arab experts...

...We have given much, too...

...It also weakened Israeli moderates, reinforced Israeli extremists, and pushed a step further away the chances for closing the gap between Jew and Arab in Palestine...

...He repeatedly promised to try to convince Yasir Arafat to abandon terrorism the following week in Lebanon...

...Jackson also did great damage to the impression here of black leadership...

...The government's position was that Jackson had prejudged the issues and expressed his opinions long in advance of the trip...

...He claimed to speak for justice, compassion and moral persuasion—but his main argument, again and again, was that the Arabs have the oil America needs...

...On the other hand, in at least one respect Jackson appeared well briefed...

...and he insisted that the refusal to accord him an official welcome was a reflection of Israel's (or at least the government's) racism...

...This was an "extraneous issue," Jackson reportedly asserted...

...Newspapers ranging from the opposition Labor Party's Davar through the independent Hu'arelz to the usually right-of-center, mass circulation Ma'ariv all called on Begin to change his mind...

...Jackson equated Israel's fight for its survival with that of the PLO, and made such blatant attacks on the Prime Minister that the Labor spokesmen felt compelled to come to Begin's defense...

...Israel's Ambassador to Washington, Efraim Evron, had cabled earlier that Jackson was planning to visit Israel and wanted to meet Begin...

...Jackson's sensitivity about blacks, too, seemed somewhat selective: Blazer told the press that he was reproached for raising in public the matter of the Falashas, the persecuted black Jews of Ethiopia, some of whom have been traded as slaves by Sudan...

...Almost from the moment his plane landed in Israel, Jackson behaved as if he were determined to justify this policy...

...In part, this may have been due to his lacking an understanding of local sensitivities, not to mention geography...

...Shamir tried to explain why the Palestine Liberation Organization was not identical with the Palestine people...

...When Jackson remained unimpressed by assurances of Israeli sympathies for the cause of American blacks and continued complaining about Israel's relations with South Africa ("a threat to every black"), former Ambassador to the UN Chaim Herzog retorted: "What about African states' relations...

...and despite his specific request at the outset, he said he had "no time" to visit the Christian-held areas in South Lebanon that suffer daily shellings from PLO positions...

...Consequently, Foreign Ministry officials were present at the airport when the group arrived and went along on most of its tours in Israel, yet could neither try to influence its itinerary nor speak up to the accompanying U.S...

...Rather, it resulted from the internal malfunctioning of the government—which has, by the way, become the most criticized aspect of Begin's Administration and is a source of concern among his closest colleagues...

...The one common thread in his behavior was his eagerness to be photographed...

...foreign policy was Dayan's domain...

...On the second day of the visit Jackson and his group also were received by Labor Party Chairman Shimon Peres, former Foreign Minister Yigal Alton, and several other opposition leaders...

...He promised to do something about the fact that the U.S...

...He was politely received in most wards, but when he wanted to enter the intensive care unit where four of the victims were still fighting for their lives, their relatives angrily blocked his way...

...Perhaps the immediate harm to Israel's image in America has not been as great as people here feared...

...In sum, Jesse Jackson's "peace" mission discredited—even if unjustly —the people and the morality in whose name he claimed to speak...

...Begin would not overrule Dayan in his domain...

...But Dayan (reportedly after a conversation with World Jewish Congress President Philip Klutznik) decided that the visit was—and should be treated as—as a nonevent...

...I am .. . somebody, SOMEBODY...

...It seems the decision on handling Jackson's trip was taken virtually independently by Foreign Minister Mo-she Dayan at Lydda airport a few minutes before he was to depart for the United States...

...Next day, the group visited Yad Vashem, the somber memorial to the six million victims of the Holocaust...

...The no-talk policy prevailed...

...Nor did he have the time to meet the leaders of three-quarters of a million Jews who have fled to Israel from Arab countries, who wanted to explain to him that there exist not only Arab refugees from Israel but also Jewish refugees from Arab lands...

...Why don't you tell the Arabs to stop trading with South Africa and buying their gold...

...Simcha Din-itz, former Israeli Ambassador to Washington...

...There is no escaping the impression, however, that the visit has done a lot of damage...

...He hinted that he suspected Jackson was looking for Arab oil money to replenish his empty coffers, a suspicion subsequently confirmed by Christopher Swan of the Christian Science Monitor...

...he decried the "imbalance" of America's greater aid ("our tax money") to Israel than to the Arabs...