Washington Watch
Jerusalem Shift?
What Indyk said; unilateral worries; right of
return; Lieberman watch; unbuttoned Bush.
JAMES D. BESSER
Washington Correspondent
D
id Martin Indyk, the U.S.
ambassador to Israel, signal
a shift in U.S. policy on
Jerusalem when he told the
Hebrew Union College in Israel last
week that Jerusalem "is not, and can-
not be the exclusive preserve of one
religion," and that "Jerusalem needs to
be shared?"
In Israel, the comments provoked a
partisan furor, with Likud Knesset
member Uzi Landau calling for
Indyk's recall. In a letter to U.S.
President Bill Clinton, Landau, chair
of the Knesset State Control
Committee, charged that "the timing
of the speech and the political context
in which it was delivered leave no
room for doubt that Ambassador
Indyk was calling on the government
of Israel to divide Jerusalem."
Landau also blasted what he said
was Indyk's "tacit support for Prime
Minister Barak's so-called secular revo-
lution." Landau said it is "inexplicable
that Ambassador Indyk would choose
to interject his private religious prefer-
ences into the debate over secular-reli-
gious tensions in Israel."
Most pro-Israel Jewish leaders in the
U.S. took a more benign view.
Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice-
chair of the Conference of Presidents
of Major American Jewish
Organizations, warned Jewish activists
not to jump to conclusions on Indyk's
ambiguous statements on Jerusalem.
"It's subject to a lot of interpretation,"
he said. "We believe his comments
need to be clarified."
But the Zionist Organization of
America, a persistent critic of Indyk
— a former pro-Israel lobbyist and the
first Jew to serve as ambassador to
Israel — called for Indyk's immediate
ouster.
"For the first time in history, a U.S.
government official has called on Israel
to 'share' Jerusalem with Arafat," said
the group's president, Morton A.
Klein.
Indyk's comments on pluralism,
other Jewish officials said, were unusu-
al for an ambassador, but generic
enough to stay clear of diplomatic
minefields.
Indyk praised the contributions of
Reform Jews in Israel and said that "at
a time of growing tension between
secular and Orthodox Jews in Israel,
religious leaders have a special respon-
sibility and a critical challenge to find
through dialogue and through the
promotion of tolerance and compro-
mise ... a new way forward that can
bridge the divide before it becomes a
chasm.
"
Unilateral Worries
The Sept. 13 target for the declaration
of Palestinian statehood has come and
gone, one more missed deadline litter-
ing the potholed path to Mideast
peace.
But that isn't impeding efforts in
Congress to cut off U.S. aid to the
Palestinians and prohibit spending for
U.S. diplomatic facilities in a
Palestinian state if Yasser Arafat makes
the declaration without benefit of an
agreement with Israel.
A bill sponsored by Rep. Jerrold
Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Chuck
Schumer (D-N.Y.) would do just that;
a second measure in the Senate by
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and
Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) would
exempt humanitarian and anti-terror-
ism aid. Pro-Israel lobbyists are cur-
rently working to merge the bills and
clarify language about exactly what
"humanitarian" assistance entails.
The American Israel Public Affairs
Committee (AIPAC) has made passage
of a unilateral-declaration bill a pull-
out-all-the-stops priority, Capitol Hill
sources say.
AIPAC lobbyists are telling lawmak-
ers that even though the Sept. 13
deadline has passed, Arafat has still
promised to make the declaration by
the end of the year which, they say, is
more likely than ever to have severe
repercussions in the region.
The administration opposes the
measure "because they don't like to
have their hands tied," said a top pro-
Israel lobbyist. "But so far, they haven't
worked very hard against it."
The primary bill currently has 71
cosponsors in the House, 16 in the
Senate. Congress could act on the
WASHINGTON WATCH on page 26
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