INSIDE WASHINGTON JAMES D. BESSER Washington Correspondent Is White House Using Iraq To Push Israel? re recent administra- tion overtures to Iraq part of a broader effort to put pressure on the Israelis to reject a new Likud-led government? Rep. Howard Berman (D- Calif.), who has led the fight for strict sanctions on the government of Saddam Hus- sein, has staked out a posi- tion that the administration is doing just that. "They're losing sight of the big picture, seemingly because of their irritation over the Likud govern- ment," Berman said in an interview last week. "I cannot fathom what the ad- ministration is doing. If this is an effort to express irrita- tion with Israel, it is under- mining all its concerns on weapons proliferation and with the Middle East peace process by doing so." And the administration's steadfast opposition to sanc- tions designed to slow down Iraq's quest for an arsenal of chemical and nuclear weapons, along with the missiles to deliver them, can only add to the deadly arms Howard Berman: 'Threat needed.' race in the region, Berman said. During his recent Middle East trip, Sen. Robert Dole (R-Kan.) met with Hussein as a representative of the administration. The meeting occurred just two weeks after Hussein had threaten- ed to unleash chemical weapons against Israel in response to any attempt to pre-empt his growing arsenal of chemical weapons and his active quest for a nuclear capability. Berman argued that at- tempts to develop better re- lations with the Iraqi government are doomed to fail. "The only thing that will work is the threat that Iraq's ability to revive itself econ- omically will be jeopardized by virtue of Western retalia- tion for its conduct," Ber- man said. Berman remains confident that his comprehensive measure to apply a wide range of sanctions against Iraq will survive congres- sional scrutiny — despite in- tense opposition by the ad- ministration. "We're in the process of trying to get a hearing on the bill," he said. "Then there are many avenues open to us, from a freestan- ding bill to placing it on the foreign assistance bill or the export administration legislation when it gets to the House floor. I think there is a strong bi-partisan majority here to take action on the question of Iraq." Jewish Groups Backing Bill To Ease AIDS Burden Almost lost in the blizzard of legislation in Congress is an important AIDS measure that has attracted the atten- tion of some Jewish groups. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D- Mass.) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R- Utah) have teamed up with 24 colleagues to pro- mote the Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act (CARE). The bill is an attempt to provide some relief for AIDS patients and their families who now are seeing their fi- nances wiped out by the astronomical costs of treating the disease. The bill would provide emergency funding for AIDS treatment. Under current regulations, the only federal assistance available is based on Medicaid formulas, in which patients and their families must become im- poverished before becoming eligible for aid, or Medicare, which requires recipients to be disabled for two years before becoming eligible for benefits. And with AIDS, few pa- tients survive for two years after becoming disabled. "This is a very creative liabbanit' No Rabbi, So Senate Backs Off Last week, the office of Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) announced with con- siderable fanfare a Capitol Hill first: a woman rabbi was scheduled to give the opening invocation at Wednesday's session. But the fanfare quickly turned into a controversy that raged through Jewish political circles. Hatch, who had met Rachel Sorotzkin during one of his trips to Israel, had been impressed by her title of "Rabbanit." Unfortimate- ly, Hatch or someone on his staff assumed the word to be synonymous with "Rabbi." In fact, "Rabbanit" is a Hebrew word referring to the wife of a rabbi — which is exactly what Sorotzkin is. She is also the mother of 13 children. Sorotzkin's own resume described her as the daughter of a rabbinic fami- ly, and described her as "Spiritual Guide to the wo- men of her congregation." The plot thickened when Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) got wind of the plan. As president pro tempore of the Senate, Byrd has nomi- nal control over the office of the Senate Chaplain, which, in turn, decides who gets to give the opening prayer everyday. Byrd quickly nixed the Sorotzkin appearance, citing Senate rules that require that clergy who give such invocations must represent congregations in the United States — and regulations re- quiring ordination. The offices of Sen. Rudy Boschwitz (R-Minn.), Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) and Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D- N.Y.) provided information to a Senate hi- erarchy thoroughly confused by Jewish titles and affilia- tions. There was also word that several prominent Orthodox rabbis in New York heard about Sorotzkin's lack of or- dination and registered their objections with friends in the Senate. Making matters even more complicated, some Jewish Capitol Hill staffers insisted that Sorotzkin's prayer had political overtones that might embarrass Israel's supporters in Congress. "It's terribly unfortunate that the one thing that's not political in the entire U.S. Senate's day was politiciz- ed," said David Luchins, a special assistant to Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.). "That was one of the most unfortunate aspects of all this." By early this week, Hat- ch's office was trying to wipe some of the egg off the sena- tor's face, and some Jewish politicos were trying to fig- ure just how the embarrass- ing sequence of events came about. ADL Sets Up Meeting Between Bush, Kollek Artwork by Kevin Kreneck of the Roanoke Times & World-News. Copyright* 1990. Kevin Kreneck. Distributed by Los Angeles Times Syndicate. way to get money in the form of federal disaster assistance to the state and local governments," said Susan Banes Harris, director of the Washington office of the New York UJA-Federation. "We feel it is important to put more money into cost- effective, community-based care." Big-city Federations are playing a particularly active role in lobbying for the mea- sure, along with the Ameri- can Jewish Committee — in part because Jewish- affiliated hospitals tend to be in large urban areas, where the burden of the AIDS epidemic has been the greatest. President George Bush, who has had his share of trouble over the issue of East Jerusalem in recent weeks, got some first-hand informa- tion last week from a man who knows the situation in- side out — Mayor Teddy Kollek. The meeting was not ex- actly a coincidence; it was arranged by the Anti- Defamation League, a group which was concerned about Bush's comments on Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem and decided to do something about it. Bush and Kollek have a longstanding relationship; ADL officials hoped that this relationship, along with Kollek's reputation for per- suasiveness, might have an impact in the Oval Office. In meetings with top State Department officials, ADL director Abe Foxman and the group's Washington di- rector, Jess Hordes, sug- gested that Kollek might be able to shed some light on the Jerusalem question. "We're very pleased," Hordes said after the meeting. "Only good can come of it; who is more vi- sionary on the subject of Jerusalem than Teddy Kollek?" At the White House meeting, which was also at- tended by White House chief of staff John Sununu and National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft, Kollek brought up a number of sub- jects, including the substan- tial growth of Jerusalem's Arab population since 1967 and the growing number of municipal services. ❑ THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 33