Washington Watch
Metro Detroit's Jewish
Assisted Living Community
From Russia
Without Love
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JAMES D. BESSER
Washington Correspondent
I
Resident Bluma Merzon and her daughter, Bonnie Torgow
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1999
22 Dett'oit JewiSh News
sraeli Prime Minister Ehud
Barak made it known this week-
end how he felt about new U.S.
sanctions on Russian companies
doing business with weapons builders
in Iran. His quiet but unmistakable
signals could spur passage of a measure
that has elicited strong support from
Congress and most pro-Israel groups.
But the Clinton administration is
adamantly opposed, fearing new sanc-
tions could destabilize Russian leader
Boris Yeltsin's
already-precari-
ous government.
They also say the
Iran
Nonproliferation
Act would bog
them down in
bureaucratic
requirements, a
diversion from
Boris Yeltsin
the personal
diplomacy they
insist is the only way to get Moscow
to clamp down on companies that sell
dangerous materials to Iran.
It's a strange strategy for Barak as
well. Over the summer, he quietly
urged pro-Israel forces in Washington
— prime movers behind the proposal
— to lay low to give his own direct
diplomacy with Russian leaders a
chance to work.
Now, Israeli sources say, Barak has
concluded those efforts have failed.
Meanwhile, Iran continues to make
technological advances, soon enabling
it to combine weapons of mass
destruction with ballistic missiles.
The House passed the new sanc-
tions legislation by a 419-0 margin in
September; the Senate is reportedly
prepared to move quickly when
Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.)
gives the signal.
"The message (Barak) is sending is
that well-intentioned efforts to post-
pone legislation in the hope that it
would open a window of opportunity
for dealing with Russia have failed,"
said Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice
chair of the President Conference of
Major American Organizations. "The
only thing that works is to make it
very clear to Russia that there will be a
price for helping Iran."
He said his group would push hard
for quick Senate action, but expressed
concern that "Iran may have already
crossed the technological threshold
where they can continue their pro-
gram-without additional assistance.
Still, we think it's critical that
Congress do what they can."
Wye Deal Closer
When it comes to the administration's
$1.8 billion Wye aid request, every,
thing that came before this week was
mere prologue.
After a handful of vetoes of impor-
tant spending bills and yet another
temporary measure to keep the gov-
ernment from shutting down, the
Republican-controlled Congress and
the Clinton administration will finally
sit down late this week to start wheel-
ing and dealing over a federal budget.
Both sides expect the deal to be a
major issue in next year's presidential
elections.
The fate of the Wye aid package,
which includes $1.2 billion for Israel
and a more controversial $400 million
for the Palestinians, will be deter-
mined by that partisan wrangling, not
by any debate over the merits of the
agreement that spurred the aid.
But last week's lobbying blitz led
by the American Israel Public Affairs
Committee (AIPAC) is producing
results, say numerous congressional
offices.
The clearest sign of a shift: Majority
Leader Trent Lott's promise to AIPAC
that he will support passage before the
end of the year — which really means
within two weeks, since Congress is
getting set to beat a hasty retreat.
"We made tremendous progress,"
said Howard Kohr, AIPAC's executive
director. "We're still waiting for the
moment when Congress and the
administration sit down and start talk-
ing about the budget. But the Lott
statement was a breakthrough."
In recent days pro-Israel lobbyists
and a parade of Israeli officials on
Capitol Hill, in a tactical shift,
focused more on the security aspects
of the aid than on its role in bolstering
the Wye agreement.
WITHOUT LOVE on page 24