SOROS SETTING UP DOVISH ALTERNATIVE TO AIPAC?

Soros pairing with dovish Jews to consider an alternative to AIPAC (JTA)
By Ron Kampeas
WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 (JTA) A top staffer for billionaire philanthropist George Soros met recently with senior representatives of the dovish pro-Israel community to discuss setting up an alternative to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, JTA has learned.

Morton Halperin, a director of Soros' Open Society Institute and a veteran of senior positions in the Clinton, Nixon and Johnson administrations, confirmed to JTA that the meeting took place late last month. He would not add details.

“It was a private meeting, it was an effort to get this off the ground,” said Halperin, who directs the institute’s U.S. advocacy.

The meeting focused on how best to press Congress and the Bush administration to back greater U.S. engagement toward resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and how to better represent American Jews who don’t buy into AIPAC’s often hawkish policies. ....

JTA has learned from a variety of sources that a follow-up meeting focused on funding will take place in New York on Oct. 26. Soros is to attend, and other major Jewish liberals are invited, including Peter Lewis, who like Soros is a major contributor to MoveOn.org, the Web-based, liberal fund-raising group; Edgar and Charles Bronfman, major philanthropists to Israel and Jewish causes; and Mel Levine, a former Democratic congressman and high-powered West Coast lawyer.

If it comes to fruition, it would be Soros’ first major venture into Israel advocacy. Soros drew fire from some Jews in 2003 when at a conference on funding for Israel, he suggested that Israel bore some responsibility for the outbreak of anti-Semitism in Europe because of its stiff response to Palestinian terrorism during the intifada.