American Jewish Committee Executive Director Testifies Before Senate Foreign Relations Committee

American Jewish Committee
Wednesday, 5 November 1997

Testifying today before a hearing of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on NATO expansion, David A. Harris, Executive Director of the American Jewish Committee, urged the Senate to "grasp the significance of this moment, the chance to solidify the democratic ideal and enhance European, and Western security, and support the proposed enlargement of NATO."

Mr. Harris noted that AJCommittee was the first Jewish organization in the United States to publicly come out in favor of NATO expansion following the Madrid Summit. In its June 26th statement, the human relations agency observed that "an enlarged NATO will mean greater security and stability and also hasten the political and economic integration of Europe."

He added that AJC participation in a fact-finding mission last month to the three proposed new member states - the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland - "only confirmed our judgment that an enlarged NATO is good for the stability and security of the newly freed peoples of the region, is good for European security and integration, and is good for the United States.

"The opportunity presented by an expanded NATO means greater stability and security for Central Europe, a region that was the cockpit for the two world wars that brought such horror to the world -- and to the Jewish people." Integration into the Western alliance, he said, "offers a real safeguard for the rights of Jews and other minority communities, historically the target of national, religious or ethnic hatreds in too many places."

Mr. Harris, who has lived in the Soviet Union and was the national coordinator of the historic Freedom Sunday for Soviet Jewry, further stated that "to leave Europe divided at its Cold War boundaries, to ignore the lands to the east, to have NATO members turn their collective backs on Central Europe, would be to ignore the dangers to European - and Western - security that lurk there.

"An expanded NATO not only strengthens democracy in those nations embraced by the alliance at Madrid but encourages the other nations in the region to accelerate democratic and economic reforms, as well as resolve long-simmering disputes."

In conclusion, Mr. Harris asserted: "With the implosion of the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union, Europe is poised at one of those infrequent moments of historical definition, when choices are clear and alternatives stark….

"The history of our century teaches that American leadership is indispensable in building an undivided, democratic, and peaceful Europe. That leadership, embodied today in the drive to NATO expansion, continues a proud tradition. The American Jewish Committee believes that, while the cost of NATO expansion will not be negligible, the cost of failure to assure European stability and security would be far higher."

For more information, or to contact American Jewish Committee, see their website at: www.ajc.org