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Veto-Proof Embassy
Legislation Passes
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I
he cloakroom action was
hot and heavy this week as
a bipartisan group of con-
gressional leaders ham-
mered out a compromise formula
for legislation forcing the State
Department to move its embassy
from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
In the end, all that effort was
enough to keep President Bill
Clinton from vetoing the bill —
but not enough to convince him
to sign it.
The modified bill passed the
Senate on Tuesday by a 93-5 vote,
and cleared the House by a 374-
37 margin just in time for
Wednesday's appearance by Is-
rael Prime Minister Yitzhak Ra-
bin at a ceremony marking the
Jerusalem 3000 celebration.
The overwhelming margins
were the result of a behind-the-
scenes negotiations that result-
ed in a watered down version of
the bill first offered by Senate
Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-
Kans. The administration and
several key Democratic legisla-
tors had opposed that measure
because of concern about in-
fringements on presidential pre-
rogatives and the possible impact
of the move on the Middle East
peace talks.
Mr. Dole, who spurned efforts
to move the embassy until the on-
set of his own presidential bid, in-
troduced the bill in a spirited
speech to the American Israel
Public Affairs Committee in May.
Since then, he has been gath-
ering cosponsors in the hopes of
making the bill veto-proof — a
strategy that would also embar-
rass the target of his 1996 pres-
idential bid, President Bill
Clinton.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-
Calif., who supports the concept
of moving the embassy but rejects
the rigid timetable, doggedly held
out for a waiver provision that
would enable the president to
postpone implementation in six
months increments on national
security grounds.
On Monday, Mr. Dole accept-
ed the waiver amendment,
paving the way for quick passage
in the House and Senate.
Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan,
D-N.Y., who has championed the
embassy issue for almost 20
years, and Sen. Joseph Lieber-
man, D-Conn., played pivotal
roles in working out the compro-
mise — and making sure the ef-
fort was not hijacked by
anti-peace process forces.
"There was an effort to make
this bill into something that
would wreck the peace process,"
said a Senate source. "Moynihan
and Lieberman had the credibil-
ity on the issue to make sure that
something passed that would not
have that effect — and that
would not provoke a big fight on
the Senate floor over Jerusalem."
Sen Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., criticized
the administration for its resis-
tance to the move, and led efforts
to retain tough language that
would force the president's hand.
The bill requires that the em-
bassy be moved by May 31, 1999,
when final-status talks between
Israel and the Palestinians are
due to be completed; a provision
requiring groundbreaking by the
end of 1996 was cut from the bill
early in the negotiations.
But the administration did not
sign on to the compromise. On
Tuesday night, a White House
spokesman said that the presi-
dent would allow the bill, which
cleared Congress with veto-proof
majorities, to become law with-
out his signature.
"We have made more progress
in less time on the Middle East
peace process over the last two
years than at any time in the his-
tory of the Arab-Israeli conflict,"
Mr. Clinton said in a statement.
"A step such as this could hinder
the peace process. I will not let
this happen, and will use the leg-
islation's waiver authority to
avoid damage to the peace
process."
Jewish groups quickly ap-
plauded the passage of the
Jerusalem bill. Leaders of the
American Israel Public Affairs
Committee termed the vote his-
toric. AIPAC had made the
Jerusalem bill a top lobbying pri-
ority in recent months.
Malcolm Hoenlein, executive
vice chairman of the Conference
of Presidents of Major American
Jewish Organizations, said that
"this action puts the United
States on record in unmistakable
terms as supporting Jerusalem
as Israel's capital. It's symbolic
impact will be tremendous."
But some groups were less en-
thusiastic.
"What has always troubled us
about the bill is the fact that it
was so firmly opposed by an ad-
ministration that has done so
much to advance Israel's securi-
ty and the cause of peace in the
Middle East," said Jason Isaac-
son, director of the American
Jewish Committee's office of gov-
ernment and international af-
fairs. "It seemed like a heck of a
way to say thanks."
The AJCommittee, he said,
will now focus on "helping ensure
that this process does not have
an adverse impact." Li