Last update - 02:24 09/04/2003
The voice of right-wing American Jewry
Heads of Jewish organizations in the U.S. can't understand why Morton Klein is becoming so popular.
NEW YORK - At a Jewish event in Detroit last Sunday Morton Klein received an enthusiastic welcome of the kind reserved for an American politician who has wound up a primary with an impressive victory.
"It's amazing," Klein told his audience, "that in both the American administration and the Israeli government there are those who relate to Holocaust denier Abu Mazen as a serious negotiation partner."
Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), is not exactly the image of a speaker who can enthuse the masses. He has a nasal voice, the result of a congenital defect, and he has difficulty finishing a long sentence without pausing for a deep breath. But the crowd in Detroit loved what he said about the "road map."
"It is a worse initiative than the first Oslo accord," he declared. "In Oslo, the Palestinians were not guaranteed a Palestinian state and Israel was not ordered to stop building settlements."
A local journalist noted this week that the enthusiasm of the audience reached a climax when Klein ridiculed the Jewish leaders who are afraid to openly express their opinions against the road map and publicly denounce Abu Mazen.
"The heads of the organizations are afraid to speak out against Abu Mazen because they do not want to annoy President [George W.] Bush and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon," said Klein. "I am very disappointed with Sharon, who expressed willingness to negotiate with Abu Mazen. Jewish leaders were also afraid to shake off the first Oslo accord because they were afraid to annoy president [Bill] Clinton and prime minister Yitzhak Rabin."
The warm welcomes that Klein is receiving at his appearances before the Jewish public in the United States stand in direct contrast to the reactions he elicits from the Jewish establishment. A few leaders and heads of Jewish organizations blatantly shy away from Klein and are openly derisive of his statements. When Klein gets up to speak at sessions of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, those present do not hide their contempt for the man and his views.
At a meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) last week, Klein suggested 10 amendments to the organization's declaration of principles. Nine of the amendments were rejected outright and one was discussed briefly. In a conversation with Klein he said that even the White House is avoiding him thanks to his statements denouncing Bush's policies toward the Middle East. Klein was not invited to a Hanukkah event at the White House, to which other heads of Jewish organizations were invited. He says White House aides explicitly told him, "We won't be nice to you if you are not nice to us."
Ammunition for anti-Semites
The list of things that Klein has done that irk the Jewish establishment includes his appearance at a recent demonstration in Times Square in support of the war in Iraq. Klein is the first president of a Jewish organization that has so far publicly expressed support for the war. What angered major Jewish figures in New York was that the demonstration was organized by the coalition of the Christian right.
"I received angry phone calls from Jewish leaders, denouncing me for participating in the demonstration," Klein recalled Sunday. "They claimed that the participation of Jews in the demonstration would provide ammunition for the anti-Semites who claim that the Jews and Israel pushed America into the war," Klein chuckled. "Nonsense. And before the war did the anti-Semites not accuse us of any trouble? My father lost his whole family in the Holocaust, including eight brothers and sisters, and I vowed I would never be afraid of expressing my opinion in public."
Jewish leaders are visibly uncomfortable when asked to talk about Klein and respond to his statements. "Klein has no support among the Jewish leadership in America," declared one senior Jewish official in New York Sunday. "He is alone and evokes alienation." Even so, the official admitted that Klein "arouses sympathy and even enthusiasm during his public appearances because he gives expression to the right-wing public in the community. Without him they would have no voice."
Abraham Foxman, director of the Anti-Defamation League is perhaps Klein's sharpest critic in the Jewish establishment. A few years ago Foxman coined a definition of Klein that Jewish officials love to repeat. In response to Klein's negative remarks against the league Foxman called him the "attack dog of the Jewish thought police."
Foxman says the worst thing about Klein's behavior is that he lashes out against people and organizations that express opinions opposing his. Foxman also feels that it is the "height of arrogance [for Klein] to sit in Philadelphia and tell Sharon, `Don't speak to Abu Mazen.' Is that the new Zionism that Klein is preaching?"
Klein himself is unfazed by those who ridicule him. "Their activities and statements are motivated by prestige," he says. "They are interested in invitations to the White House while my activities are anchored in my care for Israel and Jews."
Klein celebrated his sweet revenge on the Jewish establishment when he recently won the most coveted recognition in the eyes of Jewish leaders and heads of Jewish organizations - his picture and an editorial about him in The New York Times. "Mortimer Zuckerman just finished serving two years as chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, but it was Morton Klein who got an article about him in The New York Times," lamented the head of one large American Jewish organization.
Klein noted Sunday that none of his colleagues in the conference bothered to phone and congratulate him on the article. "Only one senior member of the conference phoned and asked me to tell him how I managed to get into that prestigious publication," he said. What surprised Jewish officials most was that this liberal newspaper portrayed the right-wing symbol of the Jewish community in a favorable light.
One Jewish leader suggested that perhaps the motive for the positive article about Klein was that the paper, which opposes the war in Iraq, wanted to present a Jewish official who supports the war and is viewed as a controversial and embarrassing figure and to let the readers draw the conclusion that Jewish support for the war is also not so broad.
Promising young scientist
The continuing polemic surrounding Klein and his activities overshadows his fascinating life story. He was born in a displaced persons camp in Germany in the early 1950s and immigrated to the U.S. with his family, settling in Florida. As the son of a rabbi and Torah scribe, Klein delved into Judaic studies as well as secular studies. He particularly excelled in mathematics and chemistry and was heralded as a promising young scientist destined for greatness. For 20 years he worked as a close associate of Linus Pauling, who twice won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Klein also served as a senior economist in the administrations of presidents Nixon and Ford.
In the 1980s, Klein published a series of innovative studies linking nutrition to heart disease, winning him national recognition. Along with his colleagues at Los Angeles University, Klein conducted research that scientifically proved for the first time that vitamin C reduces the risk of heart attack by 40 percent. At the time Discovery magazine called Klein's research "one of the 50 most important studies published in the U.S. in 1992."
Klein says he began his public activities in the 1980s in response to the hostile attitude of the media toward Israel. He began to follow articles published about Israel and responded to them in articles in the Jewish press, attracting the attention of some of the leaders of the ZOA, who invited him to run for president of the organization. He was elected to this post nine years ago and to this day some people claim his takeover of the organization was not completely above board.
The ZOA was founded in 1897 and Klein likes to present the organization as "the oldest pro-Israel organization in America." Until the 1940s, the ZOA was considered one of the most influential organizations in the community. It gained acclaim thanks to the people who stood at its helm, including U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, Stephen Wise and Abba Hillel Silver. There is no disputing that Klein, who was elected president of the organization when it had hit a low point had brought the diminished ZOA back into the Jewish arena and turned it into an organization whose presence is felt in the community.
"Morton Klein owes his notoriety to Yasser Arafat," said a New York public relations expert. "Ever since the signing of the first Oslo accord Klein has been focusing on one goal - the exposure of Arafat as enemy number one of Israel and the Jewish people. He has also become a familiar figure among lawmakers on Capitol Hill, especially among republicans."
"Senators and congressmen cannot fathom how or why there are leaders and politicians in Israel who are discussing a Palestinian state," says Klein. "I know some senators who are simply in shock."
Few leaders of the Jewish establishment can belittle Klein's ability to stack up obstacles in Abu Mazen's path to the hearts (and pockets) of senior lawmakers in Washington.
"It was Klein who ruined Arafat's image in Washington and Abu Mazen can expect trouble too," said a senior Jewish official in New York. Klein disclosed that he is already planning his response to Abu Mazen's visit to the White House - a demonstration opposite the White House with the demonstrators wearing striped concentration camp garb and yellow Stars of David. "Such a visit will not go over quietly," promised Klein.
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