Jerusalem Post, Sunday, October 3, 1999
While AIPAC slept
By Daniel Bloch
(October 3) - In 1982, in the midst of Israel's war in Lebanon and after Menachem
Begin's refusal to accept President Ronald Reagan's peace plan, the American
administration tried to cut aid to Israel. The two houses of Congress blocked this attempt
and aid was granted.
The Senate even responded by increasing military aid grants by $225 million, sending a
strong message of its support for Israel. Since then, as in most cases in the past,
Congress defeated every attempt to cut aid or to place any political condition in its
assistance to Israel.
In the last 25 years, at least since the Yom Kippur War, aid to Israel enjoyed
bipartisan support in Congress, and was in most cases kept out of party and ideological
controversies or the inner fighting between the White House and Congress. Even at the
worst of times, aid for Israel never suffered from the state of relations between an
administration dominated by one party and the Congressional majority of the other party.
In many cases the aid to Israel was used as a vehicle to pass foreign assistance to
other countries. The reason was quite obvious: In general, foreign aid is not a popular
cause nor understood in many outlying congressional districts. People don't tend to
support aid to foreign countries when social budgets are cut, poverty and unemployment are
on the increase, and health insurance and social security are no longer enough to cover
basic needs. For many reasons, the attitude to the assistance to Israel was totally
different.
This special attitude was preserved and nourished for years by the Jewish community in
the United States, through its major organizations, its lobby groups, and through many
coalitions with other non-Jewish organizations. That was a source of strength for AIPAC,
the pro-Israeli lobby in Washington. Every senator and representative knew it, and the
administration took it into consideration as well. Often, many congressmen who voted
against Israel where targeted in their respected areas, and sooner or later were defeated
in their reelection attempts.
All this has changed dramatically since Congress refused to approve the $1.9 billion
Wye aid package promised by the Clinton administration. This is a severe blow to the peace
process, as it hurts Israel and the Arabs, especially the Palestinians, in an equal
manner. Truly, the main reason for the negative vote is not directly connected to Israel.
It is mainly an outcome of the deadly fighting between the Republican majority in Congress
and the Clinton White House.
Nevertheless, it is a bad precedent: For the first time, an aid package to Israel has
not been approved. If it happened once, it could certainly happen again. The failure to
get this aid package approved should be investigated and studied carefully. Did AIPAC and
other Jewish organizations fight hard enough for the approval of this package or has AIPAC
slept, together with the Israeli Embassy in Washington, which is still headed by
Netanyahu's political appointments?
One must question what kind of message did members of Congress receive in the past few
years concerning the peace process, based on the Oslo Accords?
It seems that the message was quite negative. Obviously the congressmen were not made
to understand the vital importance of economic support needed also by the Arabs in order
to sell the peace process to their people.
Although AIPAC has changed its tone since Barak gained power, some of the Jewish
organizations that lobby politicians still support the Likud and right wing anti-peace
movements in Israel. It takes time to repair past damages, including AIPAC's mistakes in
moving away from its past bipartisan attitude in favor of the Republicans in Congress and
against the current administration.
In that respect they forced a 180-degree change in the dictum that foreign assistance
to Israel and its Arab partners must be approved by all sides and parties irrespective of
any internal political rift in Washington. It is not too late to change this trend. In
order to prevent such mistakes again, or even worse ones, the Israeli government must
appoint a new team in its embassy in Washington that will be able to represent the
policies of the new government and muster the support needed for their implementation, in
the Jewish community as well as in the general public. They must prepare the groundwork
and infrastructure in public opinion so this can bring the administration and Congress
together to support the peace process with a full heart and an open purse.
Source:
http://www.jpost.com/com/Archive/03.Oct.1999/Opinion/Article-4.html
