•

In Shifting Sands

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, surrounded by unidentified members
of the Knesset, exchanges words with the Knesset speaker Monday during a debate
on holding early elections.

President and Mrs. Clinton prepare lasagna for the homeless during a visit to the
D. C. Central Kitchen emergency shelter in Washington Monday

A US. president is impeached,•
an Israeli prime minister is voted out.
Both countries are weaker.

JAMES D. BESSER

Washington Correspondent

IV

ashington and Jerusalem
are separated by culture
and distance, but in
recent days they have
been linked by the precarious political
predicaments of their top leaders. And
for both countries, that means that
much needed bold policy initiatives to
deal with a host of crises will be on
hold for the foreseeable future.
In Washington, it takes place as
the nation braces for the new twists
of the impeachment process, which is
likely to drag out through January —
and the impact of it all much longer.
In Israel, the country is entering

12/25
1998

6 Detroit Jewish News

what's certain to be a raucous election
campaign that ostensibly puts peace
efforts on hold.
At the same time, both govern-
ments need to deal with long-term
economic concerns (the impact of
Asian and Russian crises on the U.S.
market and financial stagnation in
Israel). Then there's the needed
reform of the cumbersome health
care and social service delivery appa-
ratus of both countries.
In Washington, President Clinton
fought desperately — and futilely, it
turned out — to keep from being the
first president impeached by the
House of Representatives in 130 years.
Meanwhile, State Department diplo-
mats were working frantically to stave

off this country's growing isolation in
a world that doesn't seem to care
much about Saddam Hussein's arsenal
of chemical and biological weapons.
With the impeachment effort reach-
ing an all-consuming crescendo, the
high-stakes military confrontation was
treated almost as a sideshow by con-
gressional leaders absorbed in the parti-
san drama taking place in the Capitol.
In Israel, the first casualty of the
call for new elections: the agreement
signed in October after the arduous
Wye River negotiations. This week,
with the government crisis coming to
a head, the Israeli Cabinet suspended
implementation of the Wye
Memorandum entirely. On Tuesday,
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu

said he would follow through, but
nobody is betting on that.
In Washington, the political paraly-
sis was particularly evident.
Traditionally, the opposition lines up
behind a chief executive when troops
are sent into battle. But the battle to
unseat Clinton had become all-con-
suming. And the harsh attacks from
some GOP leaders may have con-
tributed to the striking lack of inter-
national support for the American
and British effort, especially in the
Arab world — where Clinton was
supposed to be riding high just days
after his precedent-setting trip to Gaza
and the West Bank. Why should Arab
leaders go out on a limb for a presi-
dent who was holding on to office by