“Such Distinctions Cannot Be Maintained”

Abstract

In the mid-1950s the AJC took a heightened interest in Palestinian affairs. Arab spokesman Fayez Sayegh becomes the focal point of this chapter, opening it up onto the broad pro-Arab public relations effort that he helped lead during the 1950s. Committed to Arab nationalism and Palestinian rights, Sayegh’s voice was amplified by American Protestant groups sympathetic to the Palestinian plight, especially the American Friends of the Middle East (AFME), a secretly CIA-sponsored organization. In 1956, Sayegh became acting director of the Arab Information Center in New York, a new Arab League public relations effort that, alongside AFME, led a major push to highlight Palestinian rights issues in America. The AJC felt that this pro-Arab public relations push threatened American Jews, endangering Jewish-Christian ties. Meanwhile, far-right domestic antisemitic groups cited Israel’s mistreatment of the Palestinians in their material and attempted cooperation with the Arab Information Center, which Sayegh tried to prevent. The AJC acknowledged that Sayegh avoided antisemitism and even met with him. Yet by 1958, the AJC began to feel that any sort of Palestine advocacy could potentially increase antisemitism, meaning that distinctions between anti-Zionism and antisemitism would be difficult, if not impossible, to maintain.