Washington Watch
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Durban II?
Another pro Arab U.N. conference
scheduled in Switzerland
JAMES D. BpSER
Jackson-Vanik
Washington Correspondent
Now that President George W. Bush
and Russian president Vladimir Putin
have bonded, the administration is
ratcheting up efforts to get Congress
to lift restrictions on Moscow based
on the 1974 Jackson-Vanik amend-
ment.
Jackson-Vanik ties favorable trade
status for the former Soviet Union and
other nations to their human rights
records, and their handling of emigra-
tion in particular. Last week, after
their summit in Washington and
Crawford, Texas, Bush officially called
for "graduating" Russia from Jackson-
Vanik requirements.
The administration wants restric-
tions ended on five other former
Soviet Republics.
Congress must approve an end to
Jackson-Vanik restrictions as part of a
trade bill. The administration hopes to
have that done before Congress leaves
for the year in early December,
although finding an appropriate vehi-
cle and getting it passed may be diffi-
cult.
Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., a long-
time defender of Soviet Jews, will play
a major role in helping push the
administration proposal.
Mark Levin, executive director of
NCSJ, a group-that-advocates for Jews
in the former Soviet Union, said that
Jewish leaders hope to use the upcom-
ing congressional deliberations to win
assurances that both governments will
keep human rights on their agendas as
ties between the two countries
improve.
Last week, Putin met with Jewish
leaders at the Russian embassy in
Washington; Levin said participants
were encouraged by his commitment
to fight anti-Semitism and work for
religious freedom.
I
srael, battered and bruised by a
United Nations racism confer-
ence in South Africa in late
August, could face another
pounding in Geneva on Dec. 5.
With prodding from Arab and
Muslim nations, Switzerland is con-
vening a session of the High
Contracting Parties, the signers of the
Fourth Geneva Convention, a 1949
agreement that deals with the rights of
civilians during wartime.
The sole function of the meeting, only
the second in the 52-year history of the
treaty, is to condemn Israel's policies in
Gaya and the West Bank. The first meet-
ing of the signatories in 1999 also
focused on Israel, but lasted only 45
minutes, largely because of U.S. pressure.
"It's the 'son of Durban,"' said
Abraham Foxman, national director of
the Anti-Defamation League. "Durban
opened a Pandora's box; this is one result.
"It's part of a major effort to put
Israel outside the community of
nations, to somehow show that they
are the only ones guilty of violating
the Geneva Convention."
Martin Raffel, director of the Israel
Task Force of the Jewish Council for
Public Affairs, said the real danger is
the cumulative impact of a determined
Arab campaign to delegitimize Israel.
"It's part of a pattern in which Israel
is singled out and vilified in every
international meeting," he said.
"While this meeting has no immediate
binding impact, it still fosters this
strong anti-Israel feeling in the inter-
national arena. And I'm sure this is
not the end of it."
The Bush administration has already
indicated it will not participate; the
Israeli government, too, is boycotting
the meeting:
The upcoming meeting "seems like a
fairly esoteric issue, at first glance," said
David Harris, executive director of the
American Jewish Committee. "But it has
the potential to become quite nasty."
European Union delegates will
attend the session. Sources say EU
leaders are trying to keep the session
from turning into Durban II —but
Jewish leaders worry that their partici-
pation lends legitimacy to the entire
enterprise.
P.A. Sanctions
Yasser Arafat may still be a hit with
European leaders, but on Capitol Hill,
he is more of a pariah than ever.
Last week, congressional negotiators
approved a foreign aid bill that included
language that could result in sanctions
against his Palestinian Authority if it
fails to comply with repeated commit-
WASHINGTON WATCH on page 26
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