Focus

Omnibus

Bush signs spending bill, but questions items backed by Jews.

Ron Kampeas
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Washington

p

resident George W. Bush signed
a $555 billion omnibus spending
bill in December that includes
funding for Israel, the Palestinians and
domestic programs championed by Jewish
groups — but he also expressed strong
qualifications about some of its provi-
sions, including those of concern to Jews.
The president attacked the inclusion
into the bill of thousands of earmarks
— spending designated by individual
lawmakers for specific projects and the
mechanism used to fund an array of
Jewish elderly programs.
Among the expenditures included:
• Defense assistance for Israel amount-

ing to $2.38 billion, as well as $39.6 mil-
championed by a bipartisan slate of law-
lion in assistance for absorbing refugees.
makers in both houses.
That's down from the $2.4 billion and
• Some $15 million in homeland secu-
$40 million originally allocated, reflect-
rity funds for non-profits. The lion's share
ing the across-the-board 0.81
of these funds, first intro-
percent cut Bush requested
duced in 2005, have gone to
to control funding. Next year,
Jewish groups for protective
the government is set to hike
measures, such as improved
defense assistance to Israel to
entrance barriers to com-
$3 billion.
munal buildings. The United
• A ceiling of $243.5 million
Jewish Communities fed-
in assistance for the Palestinian
eration umbrella group led
Authority, which is just over
a battery of Jewish groups
half the $410 million Bush
that lobbied for these funds,
Presiden t Bush
asked for, and comes with strict
among them the Orthodox
oversight provisions.
Union and Agudath Israel of
• About $9 million in funding
America.
for groups promoting Israeli-Palestinian
• $5 million for 19 Naturally Occurring
and Jewish-Arab coexistence. The Alliance Retirement Communities, an elderly care
for Middle East Peace, a coalition of
program pioneered by UJC, as well as
Jewish-Arab "people to people" groups,
$300,000 for two UJC-designed projects
led lobbying for these funds, which were
in New Haven, Conn., and Durham-

Chapel Hill, N.C., that pioneer the "Family
Caregiver Access Network."
The expenditures are among thousands
of earmarks written into the bill that were
opposed by Bush.
In his signing statement, Bush said he
was "disappointed in the way the Congress
compiled this legislation, including aban-
doning the goal I set early this year to
reduce the number and cost of earmarks
by half'
He said the earmarks cost $10 billion.
The Democratic-led Congress says that is
an overestimate.
Democrats and Republicans in Congress
say earmarks fund critical local projects
like hospitals and road repair.
Bush also signed a terrorism insurance
bill that includes a provision banning
travel insurers from denying coverage to
those who have traveled to Israel or intend
to do so.

❑

Hold Arab States Accountable

Knollenberg urges president to not buckle on Israel support.

A

gainst a backdrop of escalating
tensions and diminished expecta-
tions, President Bush is traveling
to the Middle East this week in hopes of
advancing the peace initiative restarted at
the recently convened Annapolis summit.
On the eve of the president's departure,
U.S. Rep. Joe Knollenberg, R-Farmington
Hills, sent Bush a letter, underscoring the
importance of holding key Arab states, nota-
bly Egypt and Saudi Arabia, accountable for
their actions and role
in the peace process.
"...it is crucial that
Egypt and Saudi
Arabia support
in every way the
peace negotiations
between Israel and the
Palestinians. I encour-
age you to use the
Rep. Knollenberg
influence of the United
States Government to
ensure that our Arab allies understand the
important role they must play in supporting
the peace effort, and how disappointed the
United States will be should they fail to sup-
port the forces of moderation in the region:"
Specifically, Knollenberg, cited Egypt's

responsibility for cutting off the flow of
arms across its border into Gaza, and Saudi
Arabia's overtures to Hamas.
Knollenberg's letter to Bush, delivered
just days before the president's departure,
called Egypt to task for failing to monitor its
border. "There is also no doubt that the flow
of weapons between Egypt's border and the
Gaza Strip has added to the proliferation of
rocket attacks into the western Negev region
of Israel," Knollenberg noted.
"Hamas' persistent attacks against inno-
cent Israeli citizens seek to destroy the
prospect of peace. While Egypt cannot be
held accountable for the actions of Hamas,
it must be recognized that the open border
between the Gaza Strip and Egypt should
be closely monitored and accounted for by
Egypt."
Knollenberg is a member of the power-
ful House Appropriations Committee and
the Foreign Operations Subcommittee with
oversight over U.S. foreign aid.
The United States directs about $1.7
billion in annual aid to Egypt, about $1.3
billion of it being in military assistance.
Several members of the U.S. Congress
have criticized Egypt's failure to crack
down on weapons smuggling over the bor-
der and through tunnels into the Hamas-

controlled Gaza Strip.
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., publicly stated
two weeks ago that prospective U.S. aid to
Egypt should be conditioned on stepping
up its efforts to halt the illegal weapons
smuggling. "Egypt can do a lot more
said Specter, a member of the Senate
Appropriations Committee. "And if the
don't, I think it would be appropriate to
condition aid to them on that factot"
Congress last voted on a $2.4 billion
aide package to Israel, which represented
the final installment of a 10-year plan
of assistance to Israel. This past sum-
mer, Israel and the U.S. signed a new
Memorandum of Understanding outlin-
ing America's renewed commitment to
Israel. Under the new aid agreement, the
U.S. will transfer $30 billion to Israel over
10 years, compared with $24 billion over
the past decade, an increase of roughly 25
percent in military aid.
Knollenberg's letter to Bush also ref-
erenced the fact that the Saudis recently
hosted Khaled Meshaal, Hamas' radical
leader, "in an ongoing effort to bring 'rec-
onciliation' between Hamas and Abbas'
Fatah Party. Any attempt to bring Hamas,
a terrorist organization, back into the
Palestinian government before they meet

the requirements laid out by the United
States and other members of the Quartet
directly undermines peace.
"The United States and Arab nations
should join in actively opposing the inclu-
sion of Hamas in a Palestinian govern-
ment until Hamas recognizes Israel's right
to exist, renounces violence and terrorism,
and accepts previous agreements and obli-
gations, including the Roadmap for Peace
stated the letter.
Knollenberg's aide said he tried to round
up colleagues to sign onto the letter, but
given that the president announced plans for
his Middle East trip during the December
holiday season, there wasn't sufficient time
to coordinate such an effort."However, the
impact is still there," she said.
Congress has been in recent since Dec. 20
and will not return until Jan. 15. According
to the American Israel Public Affairs
Committee, there was no known organized
effort to send a congressional letter to Bush;
Knollenberg's letter was a stand-alone com-
munication to convey his sentiments.
Knollenberg is in his eighth two-year
term in Congress. His district represents
much of suburban Oakland County, includ-
ing Bloomfield Hills, Birmingham, West
Bloomfield and Farmington Hills.

❑

JN

January 10. 2008

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