"Somehow we are letting politics
drive policy to a far greater extent
than before," he told an audience that
included a number of Arab ambas-
sadors and journalists, as well as repre-
sentatives of the Israeli Embassy in
Washington.
The administration's reluctance to
risk
the wrath of the Jewish communi-
\-
,-Dty, he said, has crippled its efforts to
serve as a genuine broker in the stalled
talks.
"We stand here today having fully
leaked the United States position on
the details of the second [Israeli]
withdrawal, but we are paralyzed
about putting that position on the
table," he said, referring to the
• unpublished but widely leaked U.S.
• proposal for a 13.1 percent Israeli
pullback from the West Bank. "The
United States is entitled to have a
position on these matters; we have
significant and substantial interests in
the Middle East. Those interests do
not always accord exactly with the
interests of the State of Israel."
At the same time, he said, "it is
\_ important that everybody understand
that the United States is now and has
been and will forever be irrevocably,
absolutely and unconditionally com-
mitted to the security of Israel. It
doesn't matter who is in power in the
United States or in Israel; that is a fact
of life that simply is not going to
change."
American credibility in the region,
• he said, is "inextricably linked" to the
Middle East peace process. 'And, sad
to say, that credibility is at a very low
ebb, and it stands to go even lower if
we don't get that process on an
improving path."
As a lame-duck president, he said,
Clinton is in an -excellent position to
exert American leadership in the talks.
"But to do that, he must be willing
to expend political capital," he said.
"So far he has not been willing to do
that."
Baker, while defending the Bush
administration's use of loan guarantees
requested by Israel as a lever to push
the Shamir government, recommend-
ed against using economic or military
aid to win concessions from
Netanyahu.
"His speech was a public call for
confrontation with Israel," said a top
official with a pro-Israel group here.
"But we need to remember that harsh
confrontation didn't work when he
tried it as secretary of state, and it's
not likely to work now that he's offer-
ing his advice from the outside."

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