Washington Watch Lobbying Time Israeli delegation heads for Washington to lobby on the peace process. JAMES D. BESSER Washington Correspondent I sraeli officials are heading to Washington to pave the way for the July 29 visit by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon — moved up from September by the Bush administration, which wants to keep up at least the appearance of momentum as it pursues its potholed road map to Palestinian statehood. The visitors include the Israeli mili- tary chief of staff, here this week for meetings with his Pentagon counter- parts, and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, due in next week for wide-ranging talks that will set the stage for the Sharon visit. But it's Sharon's impending appear- ance that has diplomats on both sides of the ocean working overtime. President George Sharon W. Bush and his foreign policy team want to press the Israeli leader on sev- eral issues, including settlement out- posts and the controversial security fence, which critics say is encroaching into Palestinian territories — but not press too hard. "Those issues will come up, but I don't know that they are likely to come to a head at this point," said Jess Hordes, Washington director for the Anti-Defamation League. The visiting Israeli officials, for their part, want to make sure administra- tion nudging on those issues does not supplant continuing strong pressure on the Palestinians to move forward on dismantling the terrorist infrastruc- ture. "Israel is prepared to accept some pressure on the fence and on settle- ments," said a top pro-Israel activist this week. "But that has to come with much stronger, much more direct pressure on the Palestinians to keep moving forward on security, and not to let Arafat regain more control over the process." 7/18 2003 24 Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, whose feud with P.A. Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas ostensibly ended with a new power sharing agreement this week, will be a persistent subtheme to the Sharon visit. The Israeli leader will press the administration to keep pressuring the Palestinians to isolate the longtime leader; the administration will argue that without more Israeli gestures, Abbas will lose ground to Arafat — or, worse, to Hamas. Mostly, the administration wants to maintain the small but important momentum that has devel- oped around its road map. "Yes, it's symbolic, but there is also substance here," said the ADL's Hordes. "It will be more than just a photo op visit; there is a process under- way that is still in its incipi- ent stages and still very frag- ile. "The goal here is to put it on as firm a footing as possi- ble, so that it can withstand the inevitable buffeting in the future." Judith Kipper, director of the Mideast program at the Council on Foreign Relations, said that the unusually warm relationship between Sharon and Bush is "not fray- ing at all," but that the two leaders now have a better understanding of each other. "This is a president who says what he means and means what he says, and there are no gray areas at all," she said. "Sharon understands that; he under- stands that it's not in his or Israel's interests to defy the president." Visa Issue The Israeli foreign minister will also spend time during his Washington visit dealing with an issue that has angered Israelis and many others around the world: new, tighter U.S. visa poli- cies as part of the war on terrorism. Israelis who want to travel to this country are chafing under the new require- Shalom Judge Pryor ments, which include personal inter- views and additional paperwork. That, Even Jewish groups that religiously Israelis complain, will inevitably lead avoid judicial nomination battles are to long delays and aborted trips. weighing in on the controversial nom- And officials of U.S. Jewish organi- ination of William Pryor to United zations say it's already harder for them States Court of Appeals for the to bring in Israeli guests. Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta. On Monday, Israeli media reported Recently the Anti-Defamation that the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv was League asked the Senate Judiciary swamped by prospective tourists hop- Committee — which could vote on ing to beat the impending deadline for Pryor this week — to "closely consid- the new policies. But Israel wants to er" the nomination. In a letter to the go further; the Jewish state wants to be chairman, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, added to the list of 27 countries, ADL leaders cited four areas of con- mostly Western European, in the Visa cern: Waiver Program, whose citizens do "Mr. Pryor's record of active hostili- not need visas to enter the United ty on church-state States. separation; his According to the State relentless opposition Department, Israel does not to reproductive free- meet its top requirement for dom; gay and les- that status — a rejection rate bian rights; and fed- of no more than 3 percent for eralism." visa applications. But even As attorney gener- visitors from those favored al of Alabama, "Mr. nations could face problems Pryor has frequently in the months ahead; after used his platform to Oct. 1, they will be required promote an exclu- to have machine-readable sive, Christian passports. Many European notion of America nations are just now getting and American law," Pryor the advanced passports in the ADL officials wrote. hands of travelers. The group cited a Last week, the Israel visa 1997 speech in which Pryor asserted issue came up at a hearing of the that "the challenge of the next millen- House Government Reform nium will be to preserve the American Committee. Rep. Henry Waxman, the experiment by restoring its Christian ranking Democrat, said Israel should perspective." be on the list of nations without a visa And the group pointed to another requirement. speech in which Pryor gave his own But the biggest complaints came unique take on church-state separa- from the U.S. travel industry, which tion. "I will adhere to and uphold the claims the tightening requirements for separation of governmental powers getting a visa and the machine-read- because that is the ultimate security of able passport requirement for nations a free people," he said in 1977. "With whose citizens do trust in God, and His Son, Jesus not need visas will Christ, we will continue the American cripple a U.S. experiment of liberty in law." tourism industry B'nai B'rith, another group that usu- that has not yet ally avoids nomination fights, went shrugged off the dis- further by calling on the committee to astrous impact of the reject the nomination. In a letter to Sept. 11, 2001, ter- the committee, B'nai B'rith President ror attacks. Joel S. Kaplan cited Pryor's "unques- Israeli officials say tioned disregard for the separation of the visa issue will be church and state and for the constitu- high on Shalom's tional protection of women's reproduc- agenda. tive rights."