THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Friday, September 14, 1984
43
POLITICS
Congress may sit on Israel legislation
BY MORRIS J. AMITAY
Special to The Jewish News
r
Washington — As Congress
heads into the home stretch before
its planned elections adjournment
on Oct. 4, two significant legisla-
tive items affecting U.S.-Israel re-
lations remain. Action on the bills
to move the U.S. Embassy from
Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and the
proposed U.S.-Israel Free Trade
Area is anticipated by one or both
Congressional bodies before ad-
journment.
For obvious political reasons,
however, the Reagan Administra-
tion is unlikely to notify Congress
about further sales of sophisti-
cated arms to Jordan and Saudi
Arabia until after the elections.
At that time it is possible the
Congress might consider new
ways of reviewing these sales,
given the unconstitutionality of
the Resolution of Disapproval
process used in the past with re-
gard to the F-15 and AWACs air-
craft sales to Saudi Arabia.
The one subject which friends of
Israel in Washington usually are
most concerned about at this time
— the annual foreign aid package
— has already been taken care of.
Of the two outstanding issues, the
Free Trade Zone and Jerusalem,
the former is more likely to be re-
solved positively since both politi-
cal parties back it, while the latter
has created a sharp difference be-
tween Republicans, who oppose
moving the embassy, and Demo-
crats, who favor the move. In fact,
the Democratic Presidential
nominee, Walter Mondale, has
pledged on a number of occasions
to move the embassy as soon as he
takes office, while the Reagan
Administration considers the
status of Jerusalem to be a subject
of negotiation between Israel and
its Arab neighbors, and is fearful
of offending Arab sensibilities.
Given this sharp difference, and
Republican control of the Senate,
final action on even a non-binding
resolution is unlikely in the few
remaining weeks, should the
House of Representatives pass the
measure.
The create of a free trade zone
between the United States and Is-
rael has drawn its primary oppo-
sition from an unexpected source
— organized labor. Labor, which
has always been a firm supporter
of Israel, feels that this legislation
would set a precedent for similar
treatment being given to other
countries. While the entry of Is-
raeli goods into American domes-
tic markets will obvsiouly have
only a negligible effect on the U.S.
economy, labor remains opposed,
and final favorable action could be
sidetracked by Congress' reluc-
tance to deal in the limited time
remaining with controversial sub-
jects.
With the Congressional and
Presidential election campaigns
in full swing there are a number of
excellent opportunities to replace
prominent opponents of closer
U.S.-Israel ties with solid friends.
Foremost are the two very close
Senate races in Illinois and North
Carolina where incumbents
Charles Percy and Jesse Helms
will be hard-pressed to retain
their seats.
In Illinois, the latest polls put
challenger Rep. Paul Simon only
five percentage points behind
Percy, th chairman of the Foreign
Relations Committee. In North
Carolina, popular Gov. Jim Hunt
is dead even with Helms, who has
compiled one of the worst Israel-
related records in the Senate.
Two outstanding Jewish sup-
porters of Israel in the Senate
have maintained their leads over
serious challengers — Rudy Bos-
chwitz, Republican of Minnesota,
and Carl Levin, Democrat of
Michigan.
The U.S. Embassy in
Israel and the free
trade zone remain on
the legislative
agenda.
While Presidential coattails
today are not considered as long
as in previous years due to greater
voter sophistication in splitting
ballots, a number of close Senate
races with significance to Israel-
related issues could be decided by
the Reagan-Mondale election.
Even though there are less than
two months to go before election
day, a great deal can happen be-
tween now and then to make any
predictions look bad the day after.
Much of the media focus in the
aftermath of the Israeli elections
has unfortunately been concen-
trated on Rabbi Meir Kahane.
Newspapers with an anti-Israel
slant such as the Washington Post
have been having a field day pro-
viding broad coverage of
Kahane's extremist actions and
pronouncements. But what even
friends of Israel largely fail to ac-
knowledge was brought out re-
cently in a cogent analysis by
Jerusalem Post writer Hirsh
Goodman. Goodman argues that
Kahane's election was the result
of "an understandable paranoia"
created by Arab hatred of Israel.
Goodman points out that many
of Kahane's young supporters-
"have been nurtured in an
environment of hate" in which no
matter what Israel does it is al-
ways vilified. His numerous
examples of the double standard
applied against Israel in the past
not only gives credence to this
thesis, but should remind us that
with all its faults, Israel still re-
mains a vibrant democracy and
America's only stable ally in th
Middle East — in juxtaposition to
many of its detractors.
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