Washington Watch
Warning Shots?
Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., and Sen.
Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., a leading
Democratic presidential contender,
quickly joined the angry chorus, and
by Wednesday there were signs the
State Department was wavering.
State Department threatens U.S. aid to Israel.
JAMES D. BESSER
Washington Correspondent
I
spokesman Phillip Reeker. "In terms
of that type of internal discussion
within the government, I couldn't tell
you."
The response from Capitol Hill was
more definite. On Tuesday, Rep. Eliot
Engel, D-N.Y., said that "Congress did
not grant the president the authority to
curtail loan guarantees to Israel for secu-
rity enhancements even if they are in
the West Bank. If the president wants to
continue to call himself a close friend of
Israel, this is not the way to do it."
But an official with a pro-peace
s the Bush admitiistration
upping the pressure on Israel
to modify its controversial
security fence, which critics say
is unilaterally creating restrictive bor-
ders for a possible Palestinian state?
Or is it just sending some warning
shots across the Sharon government's
bow?
Jewish leaders were scrambling for
answers this week in the wake of
reports that the State Department
is prepared to hit Israel where it
hurts: in its battered treasury'.
Newspapers on Monday report-
ed that.the State Department will
consider reductions in the $9 bil-
lion in loan guarantees for Israel
voted earlier this year in response
to the placement of the West
Bank barrier, which Israel says it
needs to stop terrorist infiltration.
According to the law authoriz-
ing the guarantees, the amount
Israel spends over the Green Line
will be deducted from the guaran-
tees. The administration has to
report on its deductions by Sept.
30.
Palestinian representatives and
Mideast groups that have been
critical of Israeli policy have been
flooding the White House with
krL
information about the route of
The 150-mile security fence will separate
the fence, which they say intrudes
Israel and the West Bank.
deeply into some West Bank
areas. The administration has sig-
naled that construction of an anti-ter- process group said that the enabling
legislation does not include any
rorism barrier is not a problem —
exemptions for security-related expen-
unless it turns into a West Bank land
ditures.
grab.
Jewish officials were worried, but
tried to downplay the crisis. "It's a
Not Mincing Words
shot across Israel's bow," said one
While President George W. Bush was
Jewish official. "Having given Sharon
promoting his Mideast road map to
a big victory last week by not pub-
Israeli and Palestinian leaders in
licly criticizing the fence, they are
Washington last week, a top Repub-
now trying to affect the route it takes
lican was in the region with a very dif-
by warning Israel that there will be
ferent message.
consequences if it goes too far."
Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, and his
On Monday, a State Department
dramatic speech to the Knesset, were
spokesman declined to directly
warmly received by a broad spectrum
answer questions about the sanctions
of Israeli politicians, and right-wingers
report. "Our views on separation and
in particular — although the latter
the fence have been discussed at great
group ignored another part of Delay's
length and are well known," said
8/ 8
2003
24
Mideast message.
"He really made an impression,"
said Fred Zeidman, a longtime Jewish
Republican activist and now chair of
the U.S. Holocaust Memorial
Council. Zeidman took DeLay on his
first trip to Israel in the mid-1980s.
But the majority leader was clearly
not reading from the same page as the
Republican administration, which has
made Mideast peacemaking a top for-
eign policy priority. DeLay dismissed
the current ceasefire by terror groups,
which the administration now sup-
ports, as "vacations" for terrorists.
The lawmaker refrained from direct
criticism of the administration's
approach to Mideast peacemaking, but.
in the past year he has been highly crit-
ical of the road map, the centerpiece of
the new administration initiative.
In a speech to the pro-Israel lobby
earlier this year, he said that Gaza, the
West Bank and the Golan Heights are
parr of Israel; he has made it clear Israel
should make no concessions to the
Palestinians until all Palestinian terror
stops; while the administration insists
that both sides take immediate steps.
The gap between DeLay and Bush
"reflects a real division in the Repub-
lican leadership on how to deal with
Israel," said University of Akron politi-
cal scientist John Green. "Many of the
more conservative elements, particu-
larly in the religious community, are
very skeptical of the road map."
And while DeLay's trip is being viewed
by many as the usual political grand-
standing, "the State Department is
pulling its hair out over this," Green said.
And DeLay's efforts are "being viewed
very negatively at the White House."
Jewish right-wingers were jubilant.
But their blizzard of faxes and e-mails
about DeLay's ventures ignored some-
thing else the lawmaker reportedly
said. According to Israeli newspapers,
DeLay was asked about Jonathan Jay
Pollard, the American convicted of
spying for Israel in 1987 and still serv-
ing a life sentence in a North Carolina
prison. DeLay, the new darling of a
Jewish right that considers the free-
Pollard cause a top priority, reportedly
didn't mince words, saying that Pollard
"is a spy and should remain in jail."
A number of other lawmakers,
including Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.,
Turf Building
Several top administration officials
met with Jewish leaders on Monday
— a routine "getting to know you"
session that nonetheless generated a
flicker of controversy.
Tevi Troy, the new White House
liaison to the Jewish communal world,
and Jay Lefkowitz, a top domestic pol-
icy adviser, were hosted by the
Conference of Presidents of Major
American Jewish Organizations.
Although the President's Conference
mandate is to deal with U.S.-Israel
relations, Lefkowitz not surprisingly
emphasized domestic issues — espe-
cially the administration's bitter fight
with Senate Democrats over a number
of nominees to the federal bench.
Last week, the nomination of
Alabama Attorney General William
Pryor to the 11th circuit court in
Atlanta was stymied by Democrats
who prevented an up-and-down vote.
A number of Jewish organizations,
including many that normally stay out
of judicial nomination battles, have
weighed in against Pryor because of
his controversial views on church-state
separation.
Lefkowitz said he was "troubled" by
some of attacks on Pryor, which he
said amounted to a "religious test" on
judicial appointees. But some
Conference members were troubled by
something else.
Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the
Union of American Hebrew
Congregations, said that the Lefkowitz
appearance represented an intrusion by
the Conference into the domestic
arena. "This is not the realm of the
Presidents Conference," said Rabbi
Yoffie, a persistent critic of the way the
umbrella organization of Jewish leaders
— frequently seen as the central voice
of American Jewry — makes decisions.
"The Conference does not deal with
domestic issues. We've had a division
of responsibilities that we've lived with
for a long time, and to the best of my
knowledge, there has been no decision
made to change it."
Another top Jewish leader said that
while Troy focused on Israel-related
matters, Lefkowitz "came with a clear
domestic political agenda that was not
appropriate for this forum."
But Malcolm Hoenlein, the