“The longer I am in Washington, the more I understand that Congress really does almost nothing meaningful on Israel, the Palestinians, or the conflict in general. Lobby or no lobby, Capitol Hill is a vast wasteland when it comes to the Middle East.” These are the words of M. J. Rosenberg, who over the past decade has served as Director of Policy Analysis for the Israel Policy Forum.
The only important measures annually enacted by Congress on the Israeli-Palestinian issue are the roughly $3 billion military aid package and the $8 billion loan guarantee for Israel. The vast majority of our national lawmakers--Republicans and Democrats--routinely vote for both bills because they do not want to oppose the wishes of the American Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC), Israel’s powerful voice in Washington.
At long last, however, two Congressmen have apparently grown tired of AIPAC’s unabashed sabotage of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. They tried to impress upon President Bush--in advance of his visit to the Middle East--that "serious progress will only be possible if a solution is found to stabilize the Gaza situation and preserve the achievements made in negotiations," and that "the current status quo, with its constant threat of a new eruption of terror and violence, seriously harms the security of both the Israeli and Palestinian people and undermines the chances for achieving progress toward Israeli-Palestinian peace."
The two Congressmen who drafted the letter to Mr. Bush are Representatives David Price (D-NC) and Ray LaHood (R-IL). They are urging him to reinvigorate Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking, explore a ceasefire, end the Gaza blockade, stop the smuggling of weapons, and condemn rocket attacks.
The Price-LaHood “Dear Colleague” sign-on letter, that circulated on Capitol Hill from May 9 to 13, is the first Congressional initiative in recent memory that seriously addresses the crisis in Gaza and southern Israel. It is supported by at least four pro-Israeli lobbies--Israel Policy Forum, Americans for Peace Now, Brit Tzedek v’Shalom, and J Street, recently founded to promote meaningful American leadership to end the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Other well-known lobbies supporting the Price-LaHood statement are the Arab-American Institute and Churches for Middle East Peace whose members include the Christian Church, the Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Church of Christ, and the United Methodist Church.
In spite of several public appeals by the organizations supporting the Price-LaHood initiative and by both Congressmen, only 7 Republicans and 45 Democrats among the 435 House members could be persuaded to cosign the letter to the President.
In the meantime, Representatives Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Jane Harman (D-Cal.) enlisted 63 colleagues, including the chairmen and ranking members of the Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees, to sign a letter calling on the President to give the Israelis the advanced X-band radar system that would enable them to knock down Iranian missiles early in flight. As Mr. Bush visits Israel to celebrate its 60th year of statehood, "It would be an appropriate birthday gift," said Harman in an interview, "and would help ensure that Israel survives to celebrate its 120th.” X-band radar, according to Kirk, would "allow Israel and the United States to see the earth through a common window" and more than quintuple Israel's warning time against an Iranian missile attack from one minute with its current system to six minutes, and allow an intercept with Arrow missiles outside Israeli territory. Kirk and Harman have been hyping a ballistic missile threat from Iran even though U.S. intelligence considers Tehran’s ballistic missile program not sufficiently developed to be a serious threat for the foreseeable future.
The motivations behind the Price-LaHood and the Kirk-Harman letter are fairly obvious: While Price and LaHood want to advance the peace process, Kirk, Harman, and their like-minded friends find it more useful for their careers to please AIPAC.