A Tale of Two Conferences: Arab-Americans and Zionist Americans
What Democrat Bill Clinton did not promise in the way of support for Israel, Republican Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole did, making it clear that he was prepared to out-Israel the president even to the point of embarrassment. The next day, Senator Dole introduced a bill in the Senate to move the...
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| Published in: | The Washington report on Middle East affairs 1995-06, Vol.XIV (1), p.11 |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Magazinearticle |
| Language: | eng |
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| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | What Democrat Bill Clinton did not promise in the way of support for Israel, Republican Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole did, making it clear that he was prepared to out-Israel the president even to the point of embarrassment. The next day, Senator Dole introduced a bill in the Senate to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem by 1999. Since about half of the Senate's members already had signed a letter calling for the move, the bill seemed likely to pass. Will the president sign it, even though Martin Indyk, Clinton's new ambassador to Israel, told senators such a move would "explode" the peace process? Dole was ready for that eventuality: "If the peace process should fail in the end, I can assure you that Israel will have the full support of the United States," he told the cheering delegates. In his talk, President Clinton cited contracts for $3 billion in U.S. military purchases from Israel that have been signed by the Pentagon as proof of support for Israel by his administration far beyond the ordinary aid package. (The U.S. Department of Commerce calculates that each $1 billion creates between 20,000 and 40,000 jobs, meaning the Clinton administration has transferred between 60,000 and 120,000 U.S. defense industry jobs to Israelis.) He also cited the free-trade agreement between the two countries, "giving Israel better access to the U.S. markets than any other country." Israel made $8 billion in sales to the U.S. last year. No one mentioned that in Jerusalem the previous week, former Florida Congressman Dan Mica and agricultural committee members were citing the failure of Israel to live up to its free-trade agreement with the U.S., specifically by continuing tariffs and thereby excluding U.S. farm goods for the most part. However, no U.S. retaliation has been threatened, and only the Jerusalem Post reported this violation by Israel of the terms of its agreement with the United States. No U.S. media informed American readers of this complaint by U.S. legislators. |
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| ISSN: | 8755-4917 2163-2782 |