ear In Review

The $10 Billion Lesson

The loan guarantee became a measure of U.S.-Israel relations.

he year started and ended bluffing, went ahead with its effort to in Yitzhak Rabin and the Labor Party's
with major news about the bypass the White House and make its victory in the elections, the fact is that
U.S. $10 billion loan guar-. case to Congress, where support for the Washington was extremely pleased with
antee for Israel. In the loan guarantee was strong.
the results. Mr. Rabin soon called a halt
course of the year, the loan
This led to a Sept. 12, 1991 show- to all "political" settlements in the ter-
guarantee took on a life of down, one of the low points in the his- ritories (as opposed to what he calls the
its own as it became a tory of the often stormy U.S.-Israel "security" settlements), and Mr. Bush
measuring stick of the quality of the relationship. As thousands ofJews from responded by pledging to support the
Washington-Jerusalem relationship. around the country lobbied in Wash- loan guarantees. The deal was an-
Initially, American support was ington for approval of the loan guaran- nounced at a joint press conference last
sought by Israel on humanitarian tee, Mr. Bush took to national television month at Mr. Bush's summer home in
grounds for a guarantee — not an actu- to voice his anger over the Jewish effort. Maine.
al loan — for funds needed to help find He spoke of himself as "one lonely little
For now, then, there appears to be a
homes and jobs for the tens of thousands guy" up against "powerful political happy ending to the saga, though Mr.
of immigrants from the former Soviet forces" on Capitol Hill. His description, Rabin criticized the leaders of AIPAC,
Union. But as the Bush administration which seemed to characterize the Jew- the pro-Israel lobby in Washington, for
became increasingly upset with Israeli ish effort as un-American, unleashed an what he considered to be its foolhardy
Prime Minister Shamir's alleged stub- outpouring of anti-Semitic mail to Wash- effort to railroad the loan guarantee ap-
bornness regarding the peace talks, the ington. Mr. Bush later sought to apol- proval through Congress, against the
loan guarantee became part of a carrot- ogize for that aspect of his attack. president's wishes.
and-stick political plan. If Mr. Shamir
But he and Secretary of State Baker
Among the painful lessons learned
cooperated by putting a halt to settle- stuck to their strategy of punishing from the experience was that when a
ment expansion on the West Bank, the Prime Minister Shamir for his refusal president wants to stop a piece of leg-
White House would approve the loan to call a halt to settlement activity. The islation like this, all the seemingly over-
guarantee. If the settlements went administration hoped to convince Israeli whelming support in Congress
ahead, the loan guarantee would not, voters in the June national elections disappears — and advocates are left to
Jerusalem was told. that Mr. Shamir was jeopardizing the make peace with the man in the White
The administration rejected the word loan guarantee and, thus, Israel's econ- House.
"linkage," but that was the deal.
omy, as well as Israel's relations with
American Jewish grOups, perhaps its most vital ally.
suspecting that the administration was
Whether or not that was a key factor

(Above) The haunting faces of political prisoners
held by the Serbians prompted worldwide
condemnation, but little action.

face of crimes against civilians. Mr.
Wiesel noted, for example, that while
the suffering in Bosnia has not reached
the proportions of the Holocaust, "they
[the Muslims] are suffering now, and
we must pay attention."
At year's end, too many of us came to
understand how the Holocaust came to
be — not through evil as much as silence.

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A year-long drama surrounded the proposed $10 billion U.S. loan guarantee for Israel.