Newspaper Page Text
After Israel trip
Siegel reaffirms
Carter support
by Judy Siegel
(In its November IS, 1977, issue,
The Southern Israelite carried a
story on Mark Siegel, who serves
as liaison between the White
House and the American Jewish
community. That story expressed
Siegel's hope to visit Israel "soon."
Here is a report from Israel on that
trip which Just look place —
Editor)
Mark Siegel
“Israel has many friends in the
White House," asserts Mark
Siegel, an assistant to the U.S.
President who is Carter’s political
liaison officer to the Jewish
community. "Someday soon,” he
adds, “people will realize that
Jimmy Carter is one of them."
Siegel, completing his first trip
!c Israel, conceded in Jerusalem
that Carter has, “to some extent,
had problems with support from
American Jews. Many are
disappointed with him since he
took office."
But, adds the presidential
assistant. Carter's heart is “in the
right place and he fervently
believes in a strong Israel...The
disappointment comes from
Carter’s desire to find a
comprehensive Middle East
settlement, Ho deal with
troublesome issues that no one
wants to talk about.”
The 3 l-year-old Siegel, who was
born to Orthodox Jewish parents
in Brooklyn, N.Y., is viewed
as “the address” for complaints
about Administration policy on
Israel. The days immediately
following the U.S.-Soviet
communique on the Middle East
were “the worst, the hardest" in his
life, he said Angry Jewish leaders
cajled him, accusing him of
disloyalty to his people for
working with a President wH^ e
policy, they said i ',»as deleterious
to liiaei.
Last month's communique did
not “introduce the Russians into
the Middle East,” Siegel
maintained, “because the Russians
were already in and served as co-
chairmen of the Geneva
conference.” Issuing the joint
statement was not a mistake of
policy, according to Siegel, but did
harm Carter politically.
Carter has no intention of
juDporting the PLO, says his
assistant. : n f the PLO accepted UN
Resolution 242 and recog."!? e d the
existence of the State of Israel,
*>»n the government would talk to
■* that’s all." A solution to
them, bu.
•Man problem”
the “Palestii,.
according to Carter’s H . F
could be settled only in
conjunction with Jordan, and not
through a separate political and
military entity.
Siegel also discounts oft-heard
theories that Carter is trying to
divide the U.S. Jewish leadership
in order to conquer them. If the
White House has invited
prominent Jews who are not
members of the “Presidents’
Conference” to chat with Carter or
Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, he
said, it is only because the
Administration wants to get to
know grass-roots Jewry as well.
The assistant says he hopes that
some of the distrust of Carter in the
American Jewish community will
disappear as a result of the visit of
Egyptian President Sadat to
Jerusalem. He believes that
“without his (Carter’s) efforts over
the last 11 months, there would not
have been a climate to make the
visit possible."
The U.S. President, according
to Siegel, does not feel “left out” of
the momentum towards peace that
was reportedly the result of the
Sadat visit. “Carter wants the
problem to be settled at Geneva,
and he thinks the Jerusalem visit
might have increased the chances
of reconvening the conference
soon.”
There was no cooling of
relations between Prime Minister
Begin and Carter after Begin
returned home from his
triumphant and warm reception in
the Whit? House and approved the
esitabUslupefltflj^m^re settlements
in the administered*'femtorie*
“They value their relationship and
became very close," Siegel
maintains
Siegel’s rise to power and
responsibility was nearly as
meteoric as that of Jimmy Carter.
The boy from East Flat bush got
his B.A. at Brooklyn College, his
M.A. and Ph D. at Northwestern
University near Chicago, and
worked in the short-lived
presidential campaign of Hubert
Humphrey after joing the senator’s
staff in 1971 as a congressional
fellowship winner. The then-
chairman of the Democratic
National Committee, Robert
Strauss, asked Siegel to be in
charge of party reform, and in
1974, he was named executive
director of the committee
In the late months of iv/3 and
early par* G j 1974 he toured
America with Carter. Siegel helped
Carter get elected by putting pro-
Carter electors on state ballots and
keeping his opponents off as many
ballots as possible. Siegel also
helped plan campaign strategy.
In his current job, Siegel
maintains contacts with the Jewish
community, prepares the
President’s weekly Jewish neU’S
summary (which includes cuttings
from American-Jewish papers and
The Jerusalem Post) and is
regarded, along with domestic-
policy chief Stuart Eizenstat, as
one of the chief supporters of Israel
among White House aides. He secs
Carter aoGu.’ .”*0 or three times a
week.
Siegel was accompanied by his
wife Judy on his just-completed
10-dav swing through Israel.
\ kruMlcm Pom
A Malta's ForwMSt ^
Italian
Continental
Restaurant
]\[ino’s
Smriaj Diaatr
Mon.-Thurs. 5:30-11 p.m.
Fri.-Sat. 5:30-11:30 p.m.
Sunday 5:00-10 p.m.
(404) 874-6505
All Major Credit Cards
1631 CHESHIRE
er’
I T«W»bo»i*
I Antwomy
’ StrvKt *M4f
I WMfm
4ft fr*
'crJ Rb
■'kAten You Gon't Anewvr.We Gori'
Desk or Prfvore Office Space
Moiling oddness on
Famous Peachtree
Call Us First
266-0400
24 HOURS 7 DAYS A WEEK
Free Porting on FYemises
CORRESPONDENCE. Inc
&
3224 Peachtree
Road, N.V.
MARY (j JIM GRAHAM
OWNERS 6 MANAGERS
r
KRASKIN GALLERY
Presents
The Works of
SHALOM OFSAFED
dV V w V Ww
»/,//> * Jtr + M jr + w m*
(M
M '* a) -■* .« j lilLalLta
Moses on Sinai and the Feast of Shavuoth'
rite joyous worts 0< Shalom, the "Grandpa Moms of Israol," as exhibited at
Neiman Marcus, now available for private acquisition
Hours: Tuesdays • Saturdays. 10 a m. to 6 p.m. / Sundays 12 noon to 5 p.m
Other Times By Appointment
KRASKIN GALLERY
414 East Paces Ferry Rd. • 261-8198
ORIGINAL FINE ART • CUSTOM FRAMING
Unless you’re raising ^more electricity for
orchids all over the house, heating. And that can
you don’t need your thermostat set really add up.To the point, for ex-
at 78° this winter And you certainly ample, where a setting of 73° me;ins
don’t need the extra burden on your v< >u use about 25” . more electricity
budget such a setting would mean, fc
Especially now that electric rates
have gone up.
Instead, set your tliermostat
at 68.° You'll be amifortable enough
in that environment, and a lot mr>re
comfortable when your power bills
.A IK/t 1 ' if IfiUI
Pi r heating than you w< >uld with a set
ting just five degrees lower.
So dial o8° for savings this
winter That’s the single most impor-
t; int thing you Gin do to keep down
your energy costs.
Well be telling you about
;irrive. Because it’s a f;ict: if you heat other ways yew can save from time
with electricity, every siijgle degree to time. Watch fix’ them,
warmer than 68°onyour Thi$ ^them.Then
therm* *ult t^es about 5”. jgtfjlg Up fr ° m well all be better off.
GeotgiarSlver A
***** 9 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE December 14, 1977