T is Week

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Washington Watch

JAMES D. BESSER
Washington Correspondent

ewish activists are confident the Clinton administra-
tion will just say no when it comes to Palestinian
demands for more direct U.S. intervention in the
mired Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. And adminis-
tration sources say they're prepared to do just that,
although it will be couched in diplomatic niceties.
The talks, supposed to produce a "framework" agree-
ment on difficult final-status issues by next week, haven't
even resolved the fight over a delayed West Bank pullback,
mandated by last year's Sharm el-Sheikh agreement.
A summit_ between Prime Minister Ehud Barak and
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat last week did nothing to
break the deadlock, and on Monday the Palestinians unilat-
erally announced an indefinite suspension of talks.
U.S. officials are taking that announcement with a grain of
salt. "These kinds of dramatic ups and downs are to be
expected when the two sides start grappling with the really
hard issues," one official soothed. "There's a lot of melodrama

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"It's extreme in terms of not recognizing the need to
protect security, and focusing only on the issue of due
process," said Jess Hordes, the ADIA Washington director.
"There's a middle ground that needs to be found."
But Jewish leaders also worried about the image their
involvement would create. "Retaining the secret-evidence
provisions is justified on national security grounds, but it's
an uncomfortable position for our community — with its
traditional support for due process and civil liberties — to
take," said an official with another Jewish group.

Coalition In Shambles

Some Jewish groups are still hoping Congress will pass the
troubled Religious Liberty Protection Act (RLPA) in the
short session before the elections. But with the RLPA coali-
tion in shambles and some Jewish groups actively opposing
a measure once rated a top priority across the Jewish spec-
trum, the measure could turn into an election-year wedge
issue for the Christian Right.
Late last year, the Anti-Defamation League, the
Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and the
National Council of Jewish
Women left the RLPA coalition
because of concerns the measure —
designed to make it harder for state
and local governments to limit reli-
gious practice, even inadvertently
— could trump existing civil rights
law.
But other Jewish groups, includ-
ing the American Jewish Congress
and the Orthodox Union, continued to press for the legis-
lation.
Efforts to find a Democratic co-sponsor in the House have
failed; so have attempts to work with Sen. Edward Kennedy
(D-Mass.) to find a compromise formula that would retain
the basic RLPA concept while reassuring civil rights groups.
And recent court decisions have shaken confidence that
civil rights remedies based on the "Commerce Clause" — like
RLPA — will pass judicial muster.
The result: the RLPA fight could get really ugly — especially
if conservative Republicans get together with Sen. Orrin Hatch
(R-Utah), the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to force
a vote. That could put Democrats in the uncomfortable posi-
tion of voting against a civil rights measure. ❑

Israel wants Washington to ignore
Palestinian demands.

',55,10 A

that accompanies each move forward in the negotiations."
But administration officials also worry that this time,
Yasser Arafat's attempt to use Washington to squeeze a little
more from Israel may be particularly counterproductive
because the two sides are so far apart, with only dim
prospects for closing the gap anytime soon.
There's also talk that the September deadline for an
Israeli-Palestinian peace accord could be moved back by as
much as nine months. U.S. officials fear that will add to the
pressure on the Palestinian Authority to declare statehood on
its own. That move would provoke a strong Israeli reaction.
The Palestinians want Washington to pressure Israel to
offer more land near Jerusalem as part of the 6.1 percent
pullback mandated by last year's Sharm el-Sheikh agreement.
But Israeli officials say earlier agreements make it clear
Israel has the right to determine exactly what land is
returned — and Washington isn't challenging that view.

Terror Fight Goes On

Jewish groups were scheduled to weigh in this week before
a House panel against a measure repealing controversial
provisions of a 1996 anti-terrorism law. The original law
allows the Immigration and Naturalization Service to
detain and deport people on secret evidence if they are sus-
pected of terrorism.
According to the Arab-American Institute, some 20 people
of Arab descent are now being held based on such evidence.
The Secret Evidence Repeal Act, sponsored by Rep.
David Bonior (D-Mich.) and Rep. Tom Campbell (R-
Calif.), would remove those provisions from the law. Jewish
groups concede there may be problems in the application of
the 1996 law, but say the Bonior-Campbell bill goes too far.
The American Jewish Committee was scheduled to
testify; the Anti-Defamation League was also preparing
written testimony opposing the repeal effort.

6,4

2/11
2000

22

New York (ITA)
A referee in Virginia has slam-
dunked a local Jewish school basketball team.
The team from the Hebrew Academy of Tidewater,
made up of sixth- through eighth-graders, forfeited a
game last week after the referee told six of its players
they could not wear their yarmulkes on the court.
The wearing of yarmulkes is "not something we are
going to be flexible on," the coach for the academy,
Nathan Drory, was quoted in the Associated Press as
saying, adding that four of his players are sons of rabbis.
The commissioner of the local officials association
defended the referee's decision, sayings "If the clips
were to come loose and stick someone in the eye, our
$5 million liability insurance wouldn't cover it."
After the forfeit, the academy played the Sweethaven
Chrisd.an Academy in a scrimmage, which Sweethaven
won, 33-22.

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