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Members of Congress Head to Israel for Summer Sun and Summitry
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More in NewsJerusalem - The summer tour season to Israel for American politicians reached its peak this month, with nearly 10% of the House of Representatives visiting Jerusalem in the past two weeks. Forty Republicans and Democrats met with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in two separate rounds of intensive touring mixed with high-level policy meetings.
This year’s tours came at a crucial moment, as Congress is considering a massive and controversial arms deal proposed by the White House and aimed at both Israel and Saudi Arabia. In addition, American policymakers are readying for an international summit in November that will deal with the situation in the Middle East. The Congressional trips, sponsored by pro-Israeli groups, have become one of the main attractions offered during the summer recess.
“They have us on our feet at 8 o’clock in the morning, and we run around until late at night,” said one of the staff members accompanying the members of Congress.
For first-time congressman Paul Hodes, the visit was also a chance to get a closer look at the Jewish state. Hodes, the first Jewish congressman to represent New Hampshire, had never visited Israel.
“This is my first trip outside the United States as a congressman, and I’m happy it is to Israel,” Hodes said while walking to a quick lunch, after which he headed out for a bus tour. “As someone who follows the issue for many years, I was especially interested in coming here.”
On a hot Tuesday morning, 18 Democrats — most of them members of the 2006 freshman class — mounted a tour bus on their way to Ramallah for a meeting with the new Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad. Dressed in khakis and sport jackets — the preferred attire for an adventure in the Levant — Democratic members of Congress returned from their trip to the Palestinian territories with a clear sense of excitement over the new Palestinian leadership.
“I think that the leadership of Mr. Abbas and Mr. Fayyad gives reason for hope,” said House majority leader Steny Hoyer, who led the Democratic delegation. “We are hopeful that history proves that we have come to a time where the leadership of the Palestinian people has determined that terrorism is not acceptable as a policy.”
The high spirits among the Democrats stood in contrast to conclusions reached by some Republican congressmen, who visited the region a week earlier. House deputy minority whip Eric Cantor became the first American lawmaker to criticize Fayyad after learning that the Palestinian leadership may have provided assistance to Hamas members. Cantor wrote a letter saying that he would warn other American lawmakers that talks with the Palestinian government “offer little value.”
The congressional trips to Israel were organized and sponsored by the American Israel Education Foundation, an offshoot of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee that focuses on taking political leaders and staff members on educational visits to Israel. The separate group was formed in order to maintain the separation between Aipac’s lobbying operation and the educational foundation that sends lawmakers on all-expense-paid tours.
In organizing the visits, AIEF built two itineraries that were almost identical, yet totally separate for members of the two parties. Both delegations roamed Israel and the Palestinian territories in parallel tours, with one group ending its visit a day before the other one landed.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sent last-minute cancellation notices to both the Republican and the Democratic delegations that came to Ramallah. In the first case, he left for consultations abroad; regarding the Democrats, he begged out with the flu. Abbas’s absence turned over the spotlight to Fayyad, who enjoys significant popularity among American lawmakers and policy officials because of his moderate political views and his efforts to install good governance, accountability and transparency in the Palestinian Authority.
Fayyad, who became second in the P.A. hierarchy after the fallout between Fatah and Hamas, managed to charm lawmakers from both parties who visited him in Ramallah. Democratic and Republican staff members said that Fayyad came across as a straight talking, down-to-earth partner, a stark contrast to the experience that some of the veteran lawmakers have had with former Palestinian president Yasser Arafat.
“He’s honest; he’s not a politician,” Hoyer told the Forward after the meeting.
While the delegations may have covered similar territory, they did not draw similar conclusions on the impending policy matters. On the Israel-Palestinian peace process, it was the Democrats who appeared to be closer to the Israeli government. According to attending government sources, in meetings with the lawmakers, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni stressed the need to support the Abbas government and to strengthen Fatah.
Majority leader Hoyer went so far as to publicly state that “the United States has never opposed the Palestinian people.” He hinted that if the P.A. does curb terrorism, Congress will be willing to consider further financial aid to the Palestinians.
Cantor, who led the Republican delegation, came to very different conclusions a week earlier. A day after meeting with Fayyad, Cantor learned that the P.A. has decided to provide financial assistance to Hamas members.
“You can imagine my shock and disappointment,” he said to Abbas in an angrily worded letter. “This came less than 24 hours after you looked me and several other U.S. Congressmen in the eye and vowed that your government would not seek rapprochement with Hamas.”
Democratic lawmakers raised Cantor’s complaints with Fayyad, as well as with Israeli and American officials, and heard, according to Hoyer, a unanimous agreement that the payment to Hamas members was merely a bureaucratic mistake that was rectified within less than an hour.
“I believe there is no policy by the Palestinian government to support Hamas,” Hoyer said.
On the issue of the new White House arms proposal, it was the Republicans who were on the same page as the Israeli government. The deal would send $20 billion worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries, and Olmert has declared that Israel does not view it as a threat.
The Israeli support for selling arms to Saudi Arabia has caused confusion among Jewish groups. Only two organizations have made public statements on the issue: From the right, the Orthodox Union announced it opposes the deal because of the Saudis’ failure to cooperate with the United States on a wide array of issues. On the left, Americans for Peace Now expressed opposition to the deal because it escalates the Middle East arms race. Mainstream Jewish groups have remained silent on this issue.
In Congress, it has been Republicans who have been supportive of the Bush administration plan. Congressional Democrats, on the other hand, have not yet adopted an agreed-upon policy in regard to the arms deal, and have presented a number of different fronts. In Jerusalem, Hoyer tried to remain vague, but Nevada Congresswoman Shelley Berkley said, “I don’t trust the Saudis.” Berkley, who wrote a letter to President Bush demanding that the deal be called off, told the Forward that the Saudi leaders are “deceitful” and “the biggest supporters of terrorism.”
The debate over the Saudi arms deal remained the single issue dividing congressional Democrats on their visit.
On the Israeli-Palestinian front, the members adopted a cautiously optimistic line, similar to that now being advocated by Israeli leaders.
“I think there is hope,” said Hodes, president of the Democratic freshman class, while stressing that “it is very important to temper optimism with reality and practicality.”
Comments
MY FATHER-IN-LAW WHO WAS A FEDERAL JUDGE(AHLEV ASHALOM)USED TO LOVE TO SAY "YOU CAN ONLY REASON WIIITH REASONABLE PEOPLE" WWE AND THE PALESTINIANS COULD MAKE THE REGION BLOOM AND FLOURISH WITH THE NEW TECHNOLOGY AVAILABLE TO US AND THEM. BUT WE AND THEY EACH HAVE OUR MILLITANTS WHO BELIEVE THAT THE ENTIRE LAND BELONGS TO US OR THEM. AS SHIMON PERES HAS SAID TIME AND AGAIN,"YOU DON'T NEGOTIATE WITH YOUR FRIENDS,YOU ONLY NEGOTIATE WITH YOUR ENEMIEW. THE DEMON THAT HAUNTS US AS WELL AS THEM IS THAT EACH PARTY BELIEVES THAT NOT ONLY ARE THEY 100% RIGHT, BUT INDEED THEY ARE INDEED 1,000%. WITH THIS "MESHUGGENEH" OUT THE REASONABLE PEOPLE ON BOTH SIDES FEEL THAT THEY HAVE NO ONE TO NEGOTIATE WITH. PRIME MINISTER OLMERT ONCE FELT THIS WAY BUT UNDER THE TUTELEGE OF ARIEL SHARON AND SHIMON HE TOO HAS COME TO THAT AS WINSTON CHURCHILL ONCE DURING THE HEIGHT OF THE COLD WAR THAT (ENGLISH ACCENT PURPOSELY USED FOR EFFECT)---JAW,JAW,JAW WAS PREFERABLE TO WAH,WAH,WAH) IF THERE WAS ONLY A STATES MAN OF THE STATURE OF ANWAR SADAT AMONG THE PALESTINIANS TRULY "EACH COULD SIT UNDER HIS OWN FIG TREE CONTENT IN THE KNOWLEDGE THAT EACH NATION HAS DESTROYE THEIR SPEARS AND PRUNING HOOKS AND NO ONE NEED FEAR BEACAUSE EVERY NATION HAS RREALIZED THAT IT IS UNNECESSARY TO LEARN WAR ANY MORE. THIS HAS BEE NOT ONLY THE HOPE OF WE JEWS BUT ALSO OTHER FAITHS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. THE ONLY PROBLEM IS THAT THE HITLERIANN PHILOSOPHY THAT RIGHT MAKES MIGHT AND THAT THEY AND THEY ALONE HAVE THE ANSWERS TO THE WORLDS PPROBLEMS. THE ABOMINABLE CANCER OF GREED AND HATRED OF ANYONE DIFFERENT CONTRIBUTES TO MOST,INDEED ALL OF THE WORLDS PROBLEMS. UNFORTUNATELY WE JEWS HAVE BEEN ON THE RECEIVING END OF THESE CRAZY FEELINGS SINCE THE DAWN OF TIME. UNFORTUNATELY MAN DOES NOT LEARN EASILY.
Since Hoyer is so damn happy that the Palestinians have sworn off violence as a means of opposing illegal occupation by Israel, perhaps he could enlarge on his happiness by getting the Israelis to swear off stealing any more land which is the cause of the violence.
And good old AIPAC, which swears it does not exert any 'undue influence' on our foreign policy,,,except for the all expenses paid trip to Israel for EVERY new freshman group of legislators, which it delegates to its subdivision the AIEF, under the guise of education. How can AIPAC go wrong with the head of the Democratic caucus, Rahm Emanuel, a jew on loan from the Israel Defense force (IDF) and the head of the freshman group Hodes, another jew? And bear in mind that the jews make up a little about 2% of our population of 200 million. We are certainly blessed to have so many in positions of power. Add to that mixture, Pelosi who heads the House and sees "an unbreakable bond" between the Unites States and Israel, and Reid in the Senate who has such a fondness for Israel that he puts all his extra cash in Israeli bonds. How can AIPAC go wrong with that team? We have been supporting Israel under this "special relationship", which no one can define, to the tune of billions of our tax dollars each and every year since its inception as a state in 1948. I'd call that a good example of UNDUE INFLUENCE! I'd like to see this unending flow of our tax dollars decided by the people, instead of by these paid shills for a foreign state.
We have no business sending any of our tax money anywhere while we have millions of our poor, without health insurance, others without shelter and a crumbling infrastructure. This giving away of our tax money, while our own citizens suffer is nothing short of treason and all of Israel's sycophants in Congress and elsewhere should be brought up on charges. We need to inform the Pelosis, the Hoyers, and the rest of the dual allegiance/dual citizenship traitors that not one of them was sent to Washington to represent Israel! I'm sick of it! Support our own citizens and to hell with Israel!
Why do they not make Israel the next State of the US. Sad so sad
Those whose trip to Israel is paid for by AIPAC should be seen as corrupted politicians and I strongly urge Americans not to return them in the next election. It is clear that their major objective is to serve the interest of Israel.
What article leaves out is that over 90% of all Legislators of both US houses will travel to Israel this year aone. Today there is almost no seperation in capital citys, Jerusalem is as much a capital city as is DC, but with more and more influence going to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is captial even though it is against the founding Rules of UN. Seperation from AIPAC by this group AIEF, please give us some recognition of having some intelligence as no individual program can emanate from Israeli influence without one overriding group, the Israeli governemtn,aand is just another way to try and diffuse the American popualces from knowing just how subservient our elected officials are to the funds being funneled along with the political power to either elect or remove from office by Israelis political forces. the billions we send find their way back through many money laundering ways ; from giving an Israeli Legal firms that has ties to their intelligence services and is now partnered up with US interest in DC suburbs and has the power much the same as their embassy, who are then interconnected throught all Israeli grousp from Campus watchers gun rghts activist and funnel campaign funding back inot the electeds' pockets, to allowing Israeli buisness concerns to monitor our phones and colect our bills for using them who at oen time installed the FBI's phone and computer systems. It makes no difference to American people where their tax moneys are allocated or upon whom we make war for and in partnership with but damn our leaders in US could at least be honest in their criminality to tell us so. We would still elect them as we have no other choice but to do so.
The question remains: Can two nations coexist on one land? As an American, I think of "one land, one nation." For that reason, I have to wonder what in the world the United Nations were thinking with the 1947 Partioning of Palestine. Now, sixty years later, the problem remains: two nations sharing the same land. In my opinion, it would take the wisdom of Solomon to resolve the present dilemma. However, the solution may be hiding in plain sight: forming a coalition Israeli-Palestinian government, which would be responsible for infrastructure needs and governance of a shared capital city, Jerusalem. Similar ideas have been proposed, but maybe the time is ripe for compromise. The alternative could be sixty or more years of war.
For these new members of Congress, this was, in effect, their second orientation. AIPAC controls American Middle Estern policy and the sooner the representatives understand that and get a grasp of the procedures and implications involved,the better.
Pigs....
What were the congressmen wifes doing during this busy tour schedule?