- WASHINGTON (AP) - Congress
clasped Israel in a warm embrace on Thursday, passing resolutions of support
for the Jewish state and blessing its recent military campaign as an attempt
at "dismantling the terrorist infrastructure" in Palestinian
territory.
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- "Let every terrorist know, the American people will
never abandon freedom, democracy or Israel," said Texas Rep Tom DeLay,
shortly before the House voted overwhelmingly in favor of nonbinding legislation.
Recent attacks directed against Israelis, the House GOP whip added, "are
attacks against liberty, and all free people must recognize that Israel's
fight is our fight."
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- "Israel has been under siege ... from a systematic
and deliberate campaign of suicide and homicide attacks by terrorists,"
said Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., the leading sponsor of the measure
that cleared the Senate. "Their essence is identical to the attacks
on our country of Sept. 11," he said.
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- Both measures said the United States and Israel are "now
engaged in a common struggle against terrorism."
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- But the bill that DeLay, a conservative who has been
outspoken in his support of Israel in recent months, and Rep. Tom Lantos,
D-Calif., sent to the House floor was the more sharply worded of the two.
It mentioned Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat by name and accused him of
an "ongoing support of terror" in the wave of bombings against
Israelis this spring.
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- The House acted on a stand-alone resolution, passing
it by 352-21. Twenty-nine lawmakers voted present, several of them saying
they had wanted more balanced legislation. Lieberman and Sen. Gordon Smith,
R-Ore., offered their proposal as an amendment to trade legislation. The
vote was 94-2.
Lawmakers, eager to show solidarity with Israel, have long chafed at the
silence the Bush administration asked of Congress at a time when American
diplomats worked to stave off a wider outbreak of violence in the Middle
East.
With Israeli troops ending their military operation on Wednesday, lifting
a siege of Arafat's headquarters, the White House gave its grudging assent
to the inevitable.
"The president understands Congress will speak its mind in a nonbinding
fashion and the president will respect that," White House spokesman
Ari Fleischer told reporters.
Referring to the 535 members of Congress, he added: "The president
also understands no foreign policy can have 535 secretary of states"
" words that seemed to say the administration was not endorsing the
measures in all their particulars.
Earlier, officials had urged Lieberman, DeLay and other key lawmakers to
soften some of the language, and to insert phrases to express support for
Palestinians.
Many of those requests were rejected " including a call to strip out
references to "dismantling the terrorist infrastructure in the Palestinian
areas." Both measures contained the phrase.
The House bill stated that Israel's recent military operations were "an
effort to defend itself against the unspeakable horrors of ongoing terrorism
and were aimed only at dismantling the terrorist infrastructure in the
Palestinian areas, an obligation Arafat himself undertook but failed to
carry out."
The House acceded to two or three requests from the White House, adding
a provision that calls on the international community to "take action
to alleviate the humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people."
A few lawmakers expressed concern with the legislation. Sen. Charles Schumer,
D-N.Y., said he would have preferred to see Arafat identified by name in
the Senate measure.
Sen. Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., dismissed what he said was a "simplistic,
one-sided" proposal that was political in nature and not in Israel's
best interests. He and Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., were the two senators
to oppose the measure.
In the House, some lawmakers said a more balanced approach would have been
preferable.
"Resolutions like this can very well backfire and actually hurt Israel
more so than it will help," said Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas.
A steady stream of lawmakers spoke in favor of the bills in debates that
unfolded simultaneously in the chambers at opposite end of the Capitol.
The resolution calls upon all parties to work toward peace, said Smith.
"But it does say it without equivocation, we stand with Israel on
the front line in the war against terrorism," he said.
"Israel has not asked for this war any more than we asked for ours
against al-Qaida and the Taliban," Lantos told the House. "But
when democracies come under terrorist attack, it is morally incumbent upon
us, as the world's leading democracy, to express our solidarity. That is
what this resolution does."
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- Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. All rights
reserved.
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