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Al-Ahram Weekly 13 - 19 May 1999 Issue No. 429 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 13 - 19 May 1999 Issue No. 429
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Books Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Israel's Moroccan vote
By Dalal Abu Ghazaleh
Four Israeli cabinet ministers, top Knesset members and businessmen met last week with Moroccan Jewish leaders under the auspices of King Hassan II to create an Israel-based World Union for Moroccan Jewry. The three-day meeting in the southern Moroccan city of Marrakech was thousands of miles away from Israel, but it occurred just days before an election that would choose the next Israeli prime minister.
The significance of the gathering, the first of its kind, did not go unnoticed among the diplomatic community, Israelis included, Moroccan government officials and a largely Western press corps. They were united in one aim -- to see how Moroccan Jews would vote in the 17 May election and whether they would shift away from the right-wing Likud Party, now led by incumbent Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
For the diplomats and analysts, the meeting was no sheer coincidence. The Moroccan monarch, who has played a key role in Arab-Israeli peace-making, is again showing strong interest, albeit discreet, in whether his "loyal subjects" would fulfil his wish of voting for peace.
"I don't want to interfere in your internal politics, but I hope you will vote for peace and those who work for it," he told some 100 participants, first during a closed meeting and later at an open audience in his royal palace after the closing session on Tuesday.
"The Middle East region, birthplace of our three great religions, deserves peace and I appeal to you all to do what you can to reach this goal," said the king. The monarch wields huge influence with some 900,000 Moroccan Jews, two thirds of whom now live in Israel and form nearly ten per cent of the electorate there.
Moroccan Jews have traditionally voted for Likud and first tested their power in the 1977 election. Their votes were decisive in bringing right-wing leader Menachem Begin to power, ending the monopoly enjoyed by the Labour Party since the creation of Israel in 1948. Some Israeli politicians say that they already notice a shift, especially among young voters, towards Labour and other centrist parties. The monarch could address the rest, especially the elderly, who still revere him for the role his father, King Mohammed V, played in protecting the Jews during World War II.
The respected Jeune Afrique magazine said in a recent article on the king's popularity in Israel: "It is a practice of many candidates to display the king's picture to attract Moroccan Jewish votes." The king's popularity reached such a level that some officials suggested asking him to mediate between Netanyahu and ex-Foreign Minister David Levy, a Moroccan Jew, over problems concerning the distribution of ministerial portfolios.
But the monarch's feelings towards Netanyahu appear to be known to all, including Likud Finance Minister Meir Shitreet. Shitreet had earlier said that he would try to "change some wrong ideas" and convince the monarch that his prime minister was a man of peace and only Likud was capable of delivering a lasting peace with Israel's Arab neighbours. According to some participants, Netanyahu's name was never mentioned during the talks, but his "ghost" was there in the meeting hall and in the messages that were being delivered.
Moroccan leaders have repeatedly deplored the policies of Likud's government since Netanyahu toppled former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres in the closely won 1996 election. Moroccan officials said Netanyahu had tried several times to visit Rabat but had been bluntly discouraged from doing so because the king did not "like Netanyahu's body language". In fact, the four ministers who attended the Marrakech meeting were the first to visit Morocco since 1996. King Hassan pointedly referred to them as "Israeli party leaders".
Andre Azoulay, a Moroccan Jew who is the top economic adviser to the king, insisted that the monarch's remarks were purely "philosophical" and not political. The Moroccan Jews wanted to send a message that they were "united in the call for peace", he added.
But Azoulay, a close friend of Peres and one who played a key role in arranging the Marrakech meeting, sent the clearest message about where Moroccan Jewish votes should go in the upcoming elections. "I feel I have lost an arm or a leg as long as the dignity, freedom and sovereignty of my neighbour is in danger. Today my neighbour is a Palestinian," he told the gathering.
The message that Moroccan Jews should convey to Israelis is that "coexistence between Muslims and Jews and between Arabs and Jews could work because it succeeded in Morocco", he added, echoing many speakers, some of whom had come from as far as Canada.
Although the Jewish community in Morocco has dwindled to a low of around 5,000, their departure was due more to economic factors than political persecution as was the case in many Arab countries following the creation of Israel when Arab nationalism was at its height. But this small Moroccan community, which includes powerful business leaders, continues to be a strong bridge between Israel and Morocco.
Compass, a Moroccan business journal, says that hundreds of firms are owned by Moroccan Jews making it easier for Israeli businessmen to enter the Moroccan market without the need for a foreign third-party, as is the case in Egypt.
Mustafa Al-Khalfi, a writer who opposes Arab-Israeli normalisation, criticises this group's economic power because it "aims to influence decision-making [in Morocco]". Moroccan Jews have worked constantly since the early 1970s to arrange dialogue between Arab and Israeli leaders, a fact that was kept secret until the Camp David peace treaty in 1979.
However, many Moroccan Jewish leaders pride themselves on the fact that they have acted as a bridge between the Arabs and Israel. Rafi Ederi, a top Labour parliamentarian, said he took part in negotiations that led to a secret meeting in Rabat in May 1978 between then Egyptian Deputy Prime Minister Hassan El-Tohami and the then Israeli foreign minister, Moshe Dayan. Those talks were followed by President Anwar El-Sadat's historic trip to Jerusalem.
