Black leaders lash out at Jews, and Jews lash back
Despite Andrew Young's own earnest pleas that his abrupt departure from Carter's Cabinet not be used to fuel black-Jewish divisions, inevitably it has. Though the two groups, once so closely and warmly allied in the early civil rights struggle, have been drifting apart for years, the spectacle of such open animosity and barbed exchanges as took place last week was dismaying.
Declared a group of 200 black leaders, who assembled at the N.A.A.C.P. headquarters in New York City to discuss the split: "Some Jewish organizations and intellectuals who were previously identified with the aspirations of black Americans . . . became apologists for the racial status quo. They asserted that further attempts to remedy the present forms of discrimination were violative of the civil rights laws . . . Jews must show more sensitivity and be prepared for more consultation before taking positions contrary to the best interests of the black community."
Retorted a group of eleven Jewish organizations: "It is with sorrow and anger that we note these statements. We cannot work with those who resort to half-truths, lies and bigotry in any guise or from any source. . . We cannot work with those who would succumb to Arab blackmail."
Such volleys were balanced, to some extent, by promises from both sides to work together against racism and injustice. But the sense of outrage came through even more clearly in individual declarations. Defending the new black support for the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker of Harlem's Canaan Baptist Church said the Palestinians "are the niggers of the Mideast." Nathan Perlmutter, director of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, called the black leaders' charges an "amalgam of half-truths, untruths and anti-Semitic nonsense." Howard Squadron, president of the American Jewish Congress, accused black leaders of attacking Jews "for the sake of reviving the sagging institutional fortunes of civil rights organizations that have seen better days."
For those who wondered precisely what were the causes of black dissatisfaction, the group of 200 voiced them in what some called a "declaration of independence." The main causes:
Andy Young's fall. Young was the highest-ranking black in the Administration, the only one with the President's ear, and blacks felt that he was unfairly and too quickly removed as a result of Jewish pressure. While Jewish groups did protest Young's secret meeting with the P.L.O., Jewish leaders insist they only wanted to torpedo the policy, not Young, noting that in one poll of Jewish leaders, only two called for Young's removal from his post at the U.N.