Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, June 2003, pages 18-19

Congress Watch

Is Syria Next Target in the War to Make The World Safe for Israel?

By Shirl McArthur

Some members of Congress, apparently upset that the Pentagon's civilian leadership seems to be vying for the title of chief saboteur of America's standing in the world, have weighed in to support efforts to make Syria the next target in the War to Make the World Safe for Israel, and to throttle efforts to restart the Middle East peace process.

As senior administration members—led by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, but also including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, as well as President George W. Bush himself—were leveling accusations and unveiled threats toward Syria, Reps. Eliot Engel (D-NY) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) seized the moment to introduce an expanded and toughened version of the Syria Accountability act that died with the 107th Congress.The new bill, H.R. 1828, aims to "hold Syria accountable for the serious international security problems it has caused in the Middle East."Its short title is the "Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2003," with 45 co-sponsors. In addition to Engel and Ros-Lehtinen the other Reps. are:

1. Robert Andrews (D-NJ)
2. Spencer Bachus (R-AL)
3. Cass Ballenger (R-NC)
4. Chris Bell (D-TX)
5. Shelley Berkley (D-NV)
6. Howard Berman (D-CA
7. Robert Brady (D-PA
8. Dan Burton (R-IN
9. Eric Cantor (R-VA
10. Joseph Crowley (D-NY
11. Jo Ann Davis (R-VA
12. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL
13. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL
14. Mark Foley (R-FL
15. Martin Frost (D-TX
16. Mark Green (R-WI
17. Joseph Hoeffel (D-PA
18. Steve Israel (D-NY
19. William Janklow (R-SD
20. Peter King (R-NY
21. Tom Lantos (D-CA
22. John Lewis (D-GA
23. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY
24. Robert Matsui (D-CA
25. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY
26. Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI
27. Michael McNulty (D-NY
28. John Mica (R-FL
29. Dennis Moore (D-KS
30. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY
31. Frank Pallone (D-NJ
32. Mike Pence (R-IN
33. Deborah Pryce (R-OH
34. Thomas Reynolds (R-NY
35. Mike Ross (D-AR
36. Jim Saxton (R-NJ
37. Brad Sherman (D-CA
38. Chris Smith (R-NJ
39. Edolphus Towns (D-NY
40. Jim Turner (D-TX
41. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD
42. David Vitter (R-LA
43. Anthony Weiner (D-NY
44. Jerry Weller (R-IL
45. Robert Wexler (D-FL).

After a 36-item listing of Syria's various sins, ranging from supporting terror and infringing on Lebanon's sovereignty to developing chemical weapons and "a suspicious nuclear research program," the bill includes an eight-point, unbinding "sense of Congress" that, among other things, Damascus should stop supporting terrorism, withdraw from Lebanon and comply with U.N. sanctions on Iraq, and Lebanon should deploy its army to the border with Israel, and Syria and Lebanon should enter into "unconditional bilateral negotiations with the government of Israel in order to realize a full and permanent peace."

The bill also includes an 11-point "statement of policy" that opens with "it is the policy of the United States"—disregarding the inconvenient constitutional point that the executive branch of the government sets foreign policy.Among the "policies" are that "Syria will be held responsible for attacks committed by Hezbollah and other terrorist groups with offices or facilities in Syria," and that "efforts against Hezbollah will be expanded given the recognition that Hezbollah is equally or more capable than al-Qaeda."

Finally, the bill requires the president to determine whether Syria has stopped doing all the bad things previously listed and whether substantial progress has been made in peace negotiations between Israel and both Syria and Lebanon.If not, the president must prohibit export to Syria of items on the U.S. munitions control list or the list of dual-use items.In addition, he must impose two additional sanctions from a menu of six.The six include prohibiting the export of all products except food and medicine, prohibiting U.S. businesses from investing in or operating in Syria, blocking transactions in which the Syrian government has any interest by any person or with respect to any property subject to U.S. jurisdiction, plus three diplomatic sanctions.The president can waive the sanctions if he determines it is in the U.S. vital national security interest to do so.

HARD-LINE ISRAEL-FIRSTERS TRYING TO BLOCK "ROAD MAP"

Bush's March 14 speech in which he said the "road map" plan for Middle East peace would be released as soon as a new Palestinian prime minister and cabinet are named took Israel's hard-line supporters by surprise.However, they quickly began regrouping to sabotage the key element of the plan, which requires that Israel and the Palestinians take parallel steps to achieve peace, including an independent Palestinian state, within three years.Israel, of course, wants the Palestinians to first stop all acts of terrorism and activities likely to promote terrorism before it is required to do anything.

The president's speech came right before the annual meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC

which mobilized 5,000 members to swarm the houses of Congress to express their objections to the plan.Then, however, demonstrating that Jewish Americans are divided on the subject, Americans for Peace Now (APN) and the Israeli Policy Forum, two American Jewish organizations that believe that peace between Israel and the Palestinians is in Israel's best interests, launched action calls and letters to Congress in support of the plan.

At the AIPAC meeting Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said that the road map would be implemented and is non-negotiable.Led by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX

however, members of Congress speaking at the meeting promised to fight.DeLay is one of those bible-belt conservatives who believe, or think their constituents believe, that the Jews should have all of Israel and Palestine because God gave it to them.

Immediately after the AIPAC meeting, Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Reps. Roy Blunt (R-MO

Steny Hoyer (D-MD

Henry Hyde (R-IL) and Tom Lantos (D-CA) began circulating for signatures letters to Bush calling on him to demand new Palestinian leadership, the creation of a new Palestinian security apparatus, and a cessation of terrorism before moving ahead on any Middle East peace process.In a sign that there may still be some grown-ups in Congress, however, APN has reported that progress on gaining signatures has been slower than the sponsors hoped, and the letters still had not been issued when Congress adjourned for the Easter recess on April 12.On the other hand, the U.S. Jewish publication The Forward reported that, as of April 14, the letters had 70 signatures in the Senate and 232 in the House.

SUPPLEMENTAL SPENDING BILL ENACTED

On April 12 Congress passed the conference report (H.Rept. 108-76) to the war supplemental spending bill (H.R. 1559).The final version is not quite the same as reported in the previous issue of this magazine, in that aid for Bahrain, Oman and the West Bank and Gaza is not specifically earmarked.However, the $50 million for the West Bank and Gaza "to reduce terrorism and support the peace process" was included in the discussion language.The amounts approved were $1 billion in military aid and $9 billion in loan guarantees for Israel; $300 million in economic aid and $2 billion in loan guarantees for Egypt; $700 million in economic aid and $406 million in military aid for Jordan, and $1 billion in economic aid and $8.5 billion in loan guarantees for Türkiye.

Interestingly, the conference report places greater restrictions on the loan guarantees for Israel than expected.First, the guarantees are to be available over three years, rather than immediately as the president requested, thus giving teeth to the following restrictions.Second, the guarantees are to be used "only to support activities in the geographic areas which were subject to the administration of the government of Israel before June 5, 1967."Finally, the amount of guarantees issued are to be reduced by an amount equal to the amounts spent by Israel "for activities which the president determines are inconsistent with the objectives and understandings reached between the United States and the government of Israel," thus giving the president the latitude to reduce the amount by the amounts spent on settlements.Whether he will do so remains to be seen.

KILLING OF RACHEL CORRIE PROMPTS DUELING RESOLUTIONS

When word got around the House that Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA) planned to introduce a resolution expressing sympathy for the loss of Rachel Corrie, a constituent of Baird's who was run over by an Israeli bulldozer in the Palestinian village of Rafah, Israel's supporters, led by Lantos and Rep. Phil Crane (R-IL

leapt into action.As soon as Baird introduced his resolution, H.Con.Res. 111, which simply expresses sympathy to Corrie's family and calls on the U.S. government to "undertake a full, fair, and expeditious investigation" into her death, Crane and Lantos introduced H.Con.Res. 112, later superceded by H.Con.Res. 119, "condemning attacks on United States citizens by Palestinian terrorists."H.Con.Res. 119 is identical to 112, except that 112 claims 41 U.S. citizens were killed by Palestinians in Israel, but 119 claims only 38.Neither says how many of those listed held dual citizenship and were living in Israel as Israeli citizens.

The Crane/Lantos resolution has 44 co-sponsors, who are listed in the box at left.Baird was joined by six other members of Washington's congressional delegation:

1. Norman Dicks
2. Jennifer Dunn (the only Republican)
3. Jay Inslee
4. Rick Larson
5. Jim McDermott
6. Adam Smith

Later they were joined as co-sponsors by the following Democratic Reps.:

1. Neil Abercrombie (HI)
2. Earl Blumenauer (OR)
3. Lois Capps (CA)
4. John Dingell (MI)
5. Anna Eshoo (CA)
6. Michael Honda (CA)
7. Patrick Kennedy (RI)
8. Barbara Lee (CA)
9. John Lewis (GA)
10. James McGovern (MA)
11. Nick Rahall (WV)
12. Pete Stark (CA)
13. and David Wu (OR).

Shirl McArthur, a retired U.S. foreign service officer, is a consultant in the Washington, DC area.