Washington Watch Campaign Swing Lieberman Mideast tour designed to provide "balance" for presidential run. Morton Klein, president of the hard- line Zionist Organization of America. "I think that WILL hurt his chances in 2004." en. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., Lieberman met with Palestinian offi- on a major Mideast swing cials but shunned leader Yasser Arafat. over the winter break, is He also met with leaders in Qatar, doing just what preside'ntial Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. He warned candidates do: traveling to world hot spots to reinforce his presidential qual- Saudi leaders that they could jeopard- ize relations with Washington if they ifications. do not support the U.S. war against But his 10-day Mideast trip has a Iraq. special significance for Lieberman, He also jumped into the controversy who hopes to become the first Jewish over the administration's relatively presidential candidate of a major party. low-key response to North Korea's Lieberman's nomination prospects accelerating nuclear weapons pro- were boosted last month when former Vice President Al Gore announced he - grams, while getting ready to send a massive U.S. force into Iraq. will not be a candidate in 2004. "The Bush administration, in taking Lieberman has said he will make a for- a military option off the table and not mal announcement about his plans negotiating with Kim Jong.II has left later this month. us with a policy that seems nowhere Benjamin Ginsberg, a political sci- and has created a crisis," he told entist at Johns Hopkins University, Connecticut reporters over the week- said Lieberman's state- end." ments in the region rep- All of which adds up to the opening resent a conscious effort rounds of a yet-to-be-declared presi- to pre-position the can- dential campaign. didate for inevitable "He's doing exactly what he should campaign trail questions be doing: getting himself on camera, about his commitment reinforcing his record on foreign poli- to U.S. interests. Lieberman cy, showing he's fair and experienced," "He's running for pres- said a top Jewish Democrat. "In ident of the United Lieberman's case, that may produce States, not prime minister of Israel," controversy in some quarters of the Ginsberg said. "He will be asked over Jewish community, but that will have and over again: will he put Israel's little impact on his overall campaign." interests over America's? He has to make statements that he can point to later on that show his long record of Committee Musical Chairs putting American interests first." It's the kind of backroom game that That's just what Lieberman did on a only a congressional insider could 10-day trip that included meetings love. with Israeli, Palestinian and Saudi But the outcome of the quiet debate leaders. over the future of a critical subcom- In a series of statements, Lieberman mittee of the House International — a lifelong supporter of Israel — Relations Committee could have a big appeared to be striving for balance in impact on pro-Israel efforts in the new his Mideast positions. Congress, which convenes next week. In Israel, he stated his support for The Middle East and South Asia eventual Palestinian statehood and subcommittee is on the GOP hit list, referred to the "desperate humanitari- now that the chairman — former Rep. an conditions" among West Bank Ben Gilman, R-N.Y. — is out of Palestinians. Congress. That angered right-of-center pro- The subcommittee was revived a few Israel activists in the U.S. years ago as a consolation prize for "I think grassroots Jews will be very Gilman after committee term limits concerned about him endorsing a forced him out of the top slot on Palestinian state at a time when Jews International Relations. Now that are being killed on a daily basis," said JAMES D. BESSER Washington CO rresp ondent S 1/3 2003 16 Gilman is gone, House leaders are eager to put the subcommittee out of its misery. Under current rules, committees are limited to five subcommittees; keeping the Mideast committee would require a special waiver from International Relations chairman Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill. Why does any of this political com- mittee-shuffling make a difference? Because the subcommittee has tradi- tionally been a forum for pro-Israel activism, and because Hyde, while pro-Israel, is relatively indifferent to the whole set of Mideast issues. And having a Mideast subcommittee means a separate staff that works exclusively on related issues; if Mideast matters are taken over by the full com- mittee, Mideast issues will compete with dozens of other critical interna- tional issues for time and attention. "For pro-Israel lobby- ists there's a delicate cal- culation going on," said a Jewish Capitol Hill staffer. "They aren't par- ticularly happy with Hyde's level of interest in the pro-Israel agenda, so Hyde they'd like the subcom- mittee to stay in busi- ness. But that calculation works only if t4e right person takes it over." Leading candidates to take over the subcommittee, if it is spared are Rep. Doug Bereuter, R-Neb., and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla. Ros-Lehtinen has been a hawkish and vocal supporter of Israel; Bereuter has generally not been a friend to pro- Israel groups. Some pro-Israel leaders are quietly urging Republican leaders to retain the subcommittee — with Ros-Lehtinen as its chair. AIPAC On Campus According to some accounts, American colleges are seething breed- ing grounds for anti-Israel and anti- Jewish sentiment. But some Jewish leaders say the cur- rent crisis in Israel and the rise of anti- Semitism around the world have also ignited a Jewish campus revolution that is producing a new breed of focused, politically savvy activists. Some of those young activists were in Washington over the weekend hon- ing their political skills as part of the re-invigorated young leadership pro- gram of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) — the pro-Israel lobby. The group's Saban National Political Leadership Training Seminar brought together 240 students from 60 "target- ed campuses" for advanced training in campus activism that doesn't lose sight of the real target of the pro-Israel effort: decision makers in Washington. "For the sophisticated- pro-Israel activist, Washington is the target," said Jonathan Kessler, who helped create AIPAC's young leadership program two decades ago and recently was brought back when the group decided to redouble its efforts. "That's as true on campus as it is in the broader com- munity. Advocacy without political action is like shouting in the wind." Kessler said AIPAC has forged a strategic alliance" with other groups active on campuses, including Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life. Participants in the AIPAC program, he said, are being driven both by the continuing threats to Israel's existence and changing political realities in this country. "They recognize that Israel is under assault," he said. "They also recognize that it isn't enough to play defense in terms of pro-Israel activism; they have to be actively involved in strengthen- ing the U.S.-Israel alliance for the future. And they're looking for tools to enhance the effectiveness of their activism." Already, he said, their activism is starting to produce results. Participants are circulating pro-Israel petitions on all 60 campuses. "They're being circulated face-to-face, not on the Internet," he said. "That has resulted in more than 120,000 person- al encounters." The signed petitions are being pub- lished as full-page ads in campus newspapers. On more than 100 campuses, stu- dents are inviting pro-Israel members of Congress to speak. "And pro-Israel students have created new Israel forums to bring together student lead- ers to discuss these issues," he said. Many of the participants will be heading to Washington this summer to serve in political internships; many others are already signed on to work with congressional campaigns in 2004. Collectively, "this is retail political activism at its finest," Kessler said. Ei "