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Thursday, December 07, 2006
Some headlines and summaries from JTA
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U.S. House passes anti-terrorism bill
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the more moderate version of the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act.
The act, which seeks to isolate the Palestinian Authority until it recognizes Israel and rejects terrorism, was bogged down last summer over differences between the Senate and House versions.
The Senate version, favored by the White House, limits such sanctions to Hamas-led governments, meaning the act would be moot if the terrorist group is ousted; makes an exception for assistance for Mahmoud Abbas, the relatively moderate P.A. president from the Fatah movement; grants the president greater leeway in suspending the bill’s provisions for national security reasons; and does not stringently oversee assistance funneled through nongovernmental groups, as the House version did.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobbied hard for both versions.
In a surprise move Thursday, the Senate version was brought to the House floor, where it passed on a voice vote.
President Bush must sign the bill within 10 days of this Congress ending, which is expected to happen by this weekend, or it lapses.
“We expect to receive the legislation soon and will be studying it carefully,” a White House official told JTA.
Senate confirms Gates
The U.S. Senate confirmed Robert Gates, who described Israel as a nuclear power, as defense secretary by a 95-2 vote.
The two senators who voted against Gates Wednesday night, Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) and Jim Bunning (R-Ky.), cited his willingness in the past to engage Iran.
“How do those who deny this evil propose to save us from these people?” Santorum asked.
“By negotiating through the United Nations or directly with Iran?”
Gates earned plaudits for his frank assessment of the challenges facing the United States in Iraq as that country descends into civil war.
In his confirmation hearings, Gates said Iran is seeking nuclear weapons because “they are surrounded by powers with nuclear weapons — Pakistan to their east, the Russians to the north, the Israelis to the west and us in the Persian Gulf.”
Israeli media described the comment as a potential breach of a longstanding tacit agreement by Washington to go along with the Jewish state’s policy of nuclear ambiguity.
But Vice Premier Shimon Peres, who came up with the policy in 1963, was unmoved by Gates’ apparent slip.
“This announcement does not make any fundamental difference,” Peres told Israel Radio.
Peres himself has confirmed Israel’s nuclear capacity in remarks to visiting U.S. Jews.
GOP taps Ros-Lehtinen for foreign affairs
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives selected a staunchly pro-Israel congresswoman as their senior lawmaker on foreign affairs.
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) will take the top GOP seat on the International Relations Committee that is being vacated by Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.), who is retiring.
Hyde, who has chaired the committee since 2001, was considered cool on Israel at times, and especially critical of what he perceived to be Israel’s failure to protect the interests of Palestinian Christians.
Ros-Lehtinen, who chaired the committee’s Middle East subcommittee, is very close to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and sponsored key legislation in recent years isolating Syria and the Palestinian Authority.
Elected to the position Thursday, Ros-Lehtinen will be the ranking member now that the Republicans have lost control of Congress.
Chairing the committee will be Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), a Jewish lawmaker who also was key in passing pro-Israel legislation.
Pelosi slots Lantos, Waxman as chairs
The incoming speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives nominated two Jewish lawmakers to chair committees.
The nod Wednesday from Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) virtually guarantees that Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), a staunch defender of Israel, will chair the International Relations Committee, and Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), who is well known for his outspokenness, will chair the Government Reform Committee when Democrats assume control of the House in January after winning midterm elections.
They join Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), the Democratic Caucus chairman and fourth-ranked Democrat in the House.
Two Jewish congresswomen, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), are among the nine deputy whips.
White House honors Sharansky
Natan Sharansky will be honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
A former Soviet refusenik and recently retired Israeli politician, Sharansky will receive the medal from the White House on Dec. 15.
Sharansky now is a fellow at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem and head of its new strategic studies institute.
In 2004, President Bush embraced Sharansky’s book, “The Case for Democracy,” instructing his staff to read it and using it as a template for his own plans to democratize the Middle East.
Bush nominates RJC head to Brussels post
President Bush nominated the chairman of the Republican Jewish Coalition as U.S. ambassador to Belgium.
Sam Fox, 77, a St. Louis businessman and philanthropist and a top GOP fund-raiser, has presided over the RJC’s aggressive drive in recent elections to portray Democratic support for Israel as diminishing.
On Tuesday, Bush referred to the Senate his nomination of Fox to replace Tom Korologos, a Republican lobbyist, in the Brussels post.
Envoys tour Israeli Air Force base
Foreign envoys visited an Israeli Air Force base to hear about the Lebanon overflights policy.
Nearly a dozen representatives of countries that have contributed troops to the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon toured the Ramat David base in northern Israel on Thursday and were briefed by military staff.
Topping the agenda was Israel’s argument that its continued overflights in Lebanon, a breach of the U.N.-brokered cease-fire that ended the recent war with Hezbollah, are necessary to monitor renewed arms smuggling to the militia, another violation of the cease-fire.
There was no immediate comment from the envoys about the visit.
Top Israelis, Americans at Saban session
Top Israeli and U.S. officials will meet this weekend in closed session.
The Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, a think tank funded by Israeli-American millionaire Haim Saban and headed by former top U.S. Middle East envoy Martin Indyk, is hosting the three-day session in Washington.
Among the many officials attending are Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni; David Welch, the current top U.S. envoy to the region; Shimon Peres, Israel’s deputy prime minister; Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and her husband, former President Bill Clinton; Amos Yadlin, director of Israel’s military intelligence; Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s minister of strategic planning; and many other Bush administration officials and U.S. and Israeli lawmakers.
The only session open to coverage is the formal launch of the conference at the U.S. State Department on Friday night, which is to be addressed by Livni and Welch.
http://www.jta.org
posted by Somebody @ 11:30 PM Permanent Link
 
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