TRInk
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by
attention, he said, but "the real purpose
here is to listen to the parties, to see
where they want to focus any new talks."
Powell knows in advance most of
what he'll hear — an insistence by the
new Israeli government on a slower,
more incremental approach to peace
talks with the Palestinians, and
Palestinian demands that the talks pick
up where they left off under outgoing
Prime Minister Ehud Barak. That
demand has already been rejected in
Jerusalem and Washington.
Makovsky predicted no dramatic pol-
icy announcements during Powell's trip.
"They will listen to the parties and
make basic statements of friendship to
Israel," he said. "Publicly; the visit to
Israel will be a love fest; in private, the
Israelis want to talk about the whole
issue of moral equivalence — the idea
that the- administration seems to con-
demn attacks by Israel and Palestinian
terrorism in the same breath."
Powell also will bring a strong mes-
sage to the Arab league: Don't stir up a
pot that's already close to boiling over.
Bibi's Back In Town
At home, Benjamin Netanyahu might
just be a former prime minister who
blew his big chance for a comeback.
But to American political conservatives,
he is a hero—the avatar of a worldwide
conservative surge that will see free
markets triumph over government reg-
ulation, freedom over dictatorship.
Last week, Netanyahu received a
hero's welcome when he keynoted the
gala banquet — the Ronald Reagan
Banquet, no less — of the
Conservative Political Action
Conference in suburban Washington.
In his Friday night address, Netanyahu
stressed his conservative economic cre-
dentials and touted the high-tech revolu-
tion that he said will ultimately erode the
world's dictatorships — although "it'll
happen last in the Middle Fast."
"What you have now — or soon
will have — is millions of people,
tens, hundreds of millions, who can
access networks of information and
communication from below. And that
is fundamentally eroding the power of
the dictatorships."
But whether that happens in the
Middle East before the most repressive
states there get access to missiles and
weapons of mass destruction "is a very
open question."
And he suggested a unique solution
to the problem of rogue dictatorships:
Send them American junk TV.
Iran, he said, has 200,000 satellite
dishes and Internet users. "If you
want to encourage a change of regimes
in Iran, forget about all the standard
CIA stuff; just get bigger transponders
to beam 'Beverly Hills 20050' or other
stuff," he said, getting his Zip codes
wrong.
"A cold peace is not that comfort-
able — but it is a hell of a lot more
comfortable than a hot war," he told
the group. "In a very large radius,
Israel is the only democracy. So the
kind of peace we can make with our
neighbors is a peace... predicated on
Israel's strength and deterrence."
And sounding a responsive chord
with the conservative audience, he said
"it is absolutely essential that the United
States build a missile defense shield."
JCPA Preview
Pity the poor planners of the Jewish
Council for Public Affairs plenum,
which convenes in downtown
Washington on Sunday for the usual
round of policy debates, briefings and
lobbying.
Several months ago, Jewish activists
around the country — JCPA represents
123 Jewish community relations councils
as well as 13 national organizations in
the public policy forum — asked JCPA
officials to add more Israel content.
"People were very concerned about
local community reactions to the new
violence in Israel, and about media
coverage of the disorders," said JCPA's
Washington representative Reva Price.
"They say they need help in respond-
ing to very urgent concerns in their
own communities."
The group scrambled to provide that
help — only to face an equally insistent
demand for more discussion about
President George W. Bush's faith-based
initiatives. JCPA member agencies are
divided on the subject — with the
Orthodox Union favoring Bush's pro-
posals, but most of the liberal "defense"
organizations on the other side.
JCPA delegates will try to grind out
a position for the group's "joint pro-
gram plan" that will support the gen-
eral concept of making better use of
religious and charitable groups, but
stress the need for stringent safeguards
to make sure the money isn't used for
sectarian purposes.
They will get a look at the Bush
program from the inside. On Tuesday,
John Dilulio — the director of the
White House Office of Faith-Based
and Community Initiatives, which
opened for business this week — will
address the more than 1,000 delegates
in his first appearance before a Jewish
group since his selection. ❑
JOVAN
Friday, March 2 • 10-6
Saturday, March 3 • 10-
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