Washington Watch We'll help you get all your ducks in a row... anti - Double your usable clos- et space. Always Qualify. - MIK 'AFT O ft Designing and Installation services. Is The Boycott Back? Arab states revive old bias; terror bill _pushed through; faith-based abandonment. JAMES D. BESSER Washington Correspondent Good Closet Keeping Systems' il Since 198-1 (888) 914-9700 Tired of going to "art galleries" that are little more than "*. custom frame shops? ON THE AVENUE Come to for a breath of-fresh air! 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"At this point, I see it more as rheto- ric than actual fact," said Jess Hordes, Washington director for the Anti- Defamation League and the longtime coordinator of Jewish anti-boycott efforts. But even that rhetoric is "disturbing as a barometer of how things have changed," he said. Last week's Damascus meeting involved the Central Office for the Boycott, the group that coordinated the Arab boycott until it fell apart in the early 1990s. Officials described their action as more of a political mes- sage than a new economic squeeze. Still, participants voted in favor of renewing the primary boycott, which applies to Israeli companies seeking to sell their products in Arab markets. That, the Arab participants said, could cost the Israeli economy more than $3 billion per year. Participants also decided to boycott a handful of American, European and Asian companies that do business with Israel, and to continue their efforts to end the last vestiges of economic cooperation with the Jewish state. But Hordes said that "while there are some in the Arab world who are trying very hard to reactivate the boy- cott, it appears unlikely they will be successful." One tip off, according to Hordes: participants at last week's meeting "declined to name the compa- nies that are targets. It will be very hard to have an effective boycott that way." And Egypt and Jordan did not participate, he said, making an all-out boycott push unlikely. Hordes said the chances that critical states such as Saudi Arabia will revive Wasserman Linda Dobrusin the secondary boycott — which black- listed companies that did business with Israel — are "less than 50-50, because they know that in the end, they will just be hurting themselves." But Jewish groups and the Bush administration will closely monitor how last week's decisions in Damascus play out across the Arab world. Terror Debate Jewish groups responded cautiously to the hasty passage of an anti-terrorism bill that civil liberties groups say will leave the Constitution in shreds. Late last week, the House rejected a compromise formula that would have scaled back provisions allowing unlim- ited detention of foreigners suspected of terror connections and greater sur- veillance authority for law enforce- ment agencies. Many Democrats complained about the way the substitute bill was rammed through the House, but in the end most voted for it. The bill expands the definition of terrorism and updates surveillance authority to include new modes of communication, such as e-mail. It also increases state and federal authority to investigate domestic groups that sup- port foreign terrorist entities. And it eliminates the statute of limitations for prosecuting terrorists. In one concession to critics, several controversial provisions of the House bill — the Senate passed its version a day earlier — will "sunset" after five years. The Senate bill contains provisions dealing with money laundering; the House wants to deal with the subject in separate legislation. Still, differences between the two bills are relatively minor, and Capitol Hill observers expect the House- Senate conference committee to move quickly, perhaps sending a finished bill to President Bush as early as this week. The Anti-Defamation League praised the quick Congressional action. "This legislation is an important step forward in strengthening our abil- ity to identify, locate, track and prose- cute terrorists and their supporters here and abroad," the group's leaders said in a statement. "With appropriate oversight, our nation's security agen- cies should be given the latitude neces- sary, to prevent terrorist activity." Richard Foltin, legislative director of the American Jewish Committee, acknowledged that the national emer- gency that began on Sept. 11 has changed the political calculus for anti- terror legislation. "We welcome the action by the House and Senate to move quickly to address vital national security con- cerns," he said. "We have to under- stand this is taking place in the con- text of a war by the United States against an implacable and ruthless foe." Still, he said, groups like the AJC "will be watching the implementation" of the legislation to ensure that civil liberties are protected. The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism supported some pro- visions of the bill, but in a letter to House leaders last week expressed con- cern about the detention and wiretap- ping provisions. And the Reform group took note of the harsh tone that characterized the urgent debate. "We have been deeply troubled by the suggestion by some that those who are raising questions about the legislation are in some way unpatriotic or un-American, wrote Rabbi David Saperstein, the RAC director. "In our mind, there is little which better reflects the unique strengths of our country than the abil- ity to insist on a full debate on any- thing which impinges on fundamental liberties, even in an hour as challeng- ing as this." Leaders of the American Civil Liberties Union were less restrained, saying they were "bitterly disappoint- ed" by the bill." Faith-Based Dies The White House, eager to preserve the mood of bipartisan cooperation, appears ready to jettison big chunks of its faith-based initiative — President George W. Bush's top domestic priori- ty until the Sept. 11 terror attacks reshuffled the political deck in Washington.