http://www3.haaretz.co.il/eng/scripts/article.asp?id=60851&mador=4&datee=11/9/99
Ha'aretz,
Tuesday, November 9, 1999
Uncle Sam as an Automatic Teller Machine
By Nitzan Horowitz
WASHINGTON - "Ladies," United States Senator Daniel
Patrick Moynihan politely wrote to Ruth and Nadia
Matar of the Women in Green movement, in response
to their warning that Uncle Sam was committing a
cardinal sin in providing assistance in the context
of the Wye memorandum, "while I do appreciate your
concern for the state of my soul, I would commend
to you the wisdom of my departed friend, Menachem
Begin, God rest his heroic soul, who once told me
that 'I will never give an American legislature an
excuse to vote against a request of any Israeli
government' ... May I also mention that the last
time Jews residing in the Holy Land involved
outside powers in their internal disputes, the
Romans ended up destroying the very city they had
been invited to protect.".Moynihan, together with
several hundred members of both houses of the U.S.
Congress, is supporting congressional ratification
of the current $1.9 billion American aid package to
Israel. The propaganda of the right is only one of
the obstacles preventing the transfer of the funds,
because both the Clinton administration and the
Republican majority in Congress have cynically and
manipulatively established a link between aid to
Israel and their political struggle.
The first conclusion that can be drawn from this
affair is that the era of
Uncle-Sam-as-automatic-teller-machine is over.
Those who are visualizing the agreements with Syria
and Lebanon and the final status agreement with the
Palestinians in terms of tens of billions of
dollars would do well to wake up from this pipe
dream. The Wye crisis is a clear warning signal
regarding the present mood in Washington. The
lobbyists of the American Israel Public Affairs
Committee (AIPAC) can tell Ehud Barak about the
sour faces that can be seen in Congress, especially
after the prime minister has taken it for granted
that the American legislature will keep on funding
the peace process. The battle over Wye has made it
crystal clear that President Bill Clinton promised
a generous financial aid package without first
reaching an agreement with Congress, and that
Congress is going to find it difficult to funnel
more money into the financial suction pump that
goes under the name of the peace process.
Foreign aid has never been a popular item in the
United States, especially not among the members of
the present Congress and especially not in an
election year, when the central plank in the GOP's
platform is reduced taxes.
The Congress and the new administration that will
be in place in Washington by January 2001 might
change that picture. Any change, however, will be
dependent on two unknown factors: the total funding
that will be needed and the state of the American
economy. In the meantime, one can only dream about
the mammoth figures that Barak is thinking about in
connection with such items as the withdrawal from
the Golan Heights, compensation for Palestinian
refugees and the solution of Israel's water
shortage problem. The Americans are now stating in
highly explicit language that "our Middle Eastern
friends" will have to look elsewhere for most of
the money that is needed.
The second conclusion that can be drawn is a need
to abandon a traditional fixation with the other
components of American foreign aid. Israel, which
has always received the largest chunk of this aid,
must work hard to avoid giving the impression that
the assistance it receives is at the expense of the
starving in Africa or the refugees in Kosovo.
Israel must see the entire picture as the
administration in Washington sees it, and must
mobilize its influence in Congress on behalf of
international causes. What is needed is not that
Israel play little-goody-two-shoes purely for
public relations purposes, but rather that it adopt
a sober-minded international perspective that takes
into account both American public opinion and
Washington's relations with other countries.
The third - and perhaps the most important -
conclusion relates to Israel's perception of its
relationship with the United States. The Wye crisis
has again proven - this time with enormous thrust -
that the only way to achieve firmly rooted
relations with America is to invest time and energy
in establishing a solid relationship with Congress.
The president is sometimes superficially understood
to be the true representative of Washington. This
may have been the impression of some of Jerusalem's
new decision-makers, but it is an optical illusion
that can have grave implications. Although the
president is the head of state in the American
system of government, Congress has massive
political clout, far greater than the clout of most
parliaments in countries with that form of
government.
Israel enjoys a unique status in Congress and
receives the assistance of true professionals,
namely, the members of the Jewish lobby. This is an
asset that has no parallel in the international
arena. Countries that are far more important than
Israel would love to have even a few grains of the
influence that Israel has on Capitol Hill. Against
this background, it is difficult to understand why
Congress was ignored from the very start of the Wye
affair, when it became apparent that the Wye
assistance package had not been included in the
budget proposal that the White House had presented.
An immediate response should have been mounted to
counter the initial messages churned out by
right-wing propagandists. Instead, action was
delayed for an incredibly long time because of the
position of left-wing Jewish organizations.
Sensitivity is needed in order to prevent the Wye
assistance package from becoming the victim of
America's current partisan war. The source of
Israel's strength in Washington stems from the fact
that there is almost total consensus toward Israel
- a consensus that transcends partisan boundaries.
This strength is also an Achilles' heel, however:
Israel must never take sides in partisan warfare.
Instead, Israel must simultaneously work all
corners of the political arena in Washington - and
not just in crisis situations. The special
relationship with Congress requires great expertise
in American politics and plenty of legwork in the
corridors of power on Capitol Hill, as well as in
more distant settings.
The congressional wing of the Israeli Embassy in
Washington needs reinforcements. Much greater
coordination must be reached with AIPAC and with
American Jewish organizations at large, and this
coordination must be based on the recognition that
these heavyweight bodies have their own special
strategies.
In general, there is the need for true Israeli
understanding, founded on gratitude and respect, of
a wonderful phenomenon - the American Jewish
community. The undercurrents of that community, the
cultural challenges that determine its outlook and
the complex manner in which it participates in
American society constitute a real key that can be
used to have an influence on both Congress and
American-Israeli relations
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