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Legislative Round-Up - 11/19/04

I. Senate Resolution II. House Letter - Aid to PA III. House Letter - Egypt IV. 109th Congress - Jewish Members V. APN letter to President Bush

for the week ending November 19, 2004

I. Senate Resolution
II. House Letter - Aid to PA
III. House Letter - Egypt
IV. 109th Congress - Jewish Members
V. APN letter to President Bush

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I. SENATE RESOLUTION
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A Senate resolution is circulating, apparently coming from the office of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) articulating support for the joint statement regarding Middle East peace issued by President Bush and Prime Minister Blair, as well as the steps outlined in that joint statement. The resolution also reaffirms the Senate's commitment both to President Bush's vision of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security, and to the Road Map. It is not clear if or when the measure will be introduced.

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II. HOUSE LETTER - AID TO PA
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Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY) is seeking co- signers on a letter to President Bush in support of the Administration's decision to give $20 million in direct aid to the Palestinian Authority.

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III. HOUSE LETTER - EGYPT
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On November 17th a Dear Colleague letter was circulated by Reps. Gary Ackerman (D-NY) and Joe Knollenberg (R-MI) seeking signatures on a letter to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The letter notes "appreciation for Egypt's current efforts in support of Prime Minister Sharon's plan to withdraw from Gaza." The letter closes by noting that, "With Egypt's continued leadership, which will be crucial to any future success, we may yet see progress toward achieving the just and lasting peace in the region we all desire."

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IV. 109th Congress - Jewish Members
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The House lost two of its Jewish members in the last election: Rep. Peter Deutsch (D- FL), who gave up his seat in a failed run for Senate; and longtime Democratic party heavyweight, and former House leader, Martin Frost (D-TX), who lost his seat after the Texas legislature re-drew his district to change it to a majority Republican district. At the same time, the House picked up two new Jewish members, both women. In the Senate, all Jewish members who were up for re-election won.

Senate (11 total - 2R, 9D)
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Barbara Boxer (D-CA) - reelected Norm Coleman (R-MN) - election in 2008 Russ Feingold (D-WI) - reelected Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) - election in 2006 Herb Kohl (D-WI) - election in 2006 Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) - election in 2008 Carl Levin (D-MI) - election in 2008 Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) - election in 2006 Charles Schumer (D-NY) - reelected Arlen Specter (R-PA) - reelected Ron Wyden (D-OR) - reelected

House (26 total - 1R, 24D, 1I)
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Gary Ackerman (D-NY) Shelley Berkley (D-NV) Howard Berman (D-CA) Eric Cantor (R-VA) Ben Cardin (D-MD) Susan Davis (D-CA) Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) Eliot Engel (D-NY) Bob Filner (D-CA) Barney Frank (D-MA) Jane Harman (D-CA) Steve Israel D-NY) Tom Lantos (D-CA) Sander Levin (D-MI) Nita Lowey (D-NY) Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) Steve Rothman (D-NJ) Bernie Sanders (I-VT) Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) Allyson Schwartz (D-PA) - newly elected Adam Schiff (D-CA) Brad Sherman (D-CA) Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) - newly elected Henry Waxman (D-CA) Anthony Weiner (D-NY) Robert Wexler (D-FL)

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IV. APN LETTER TO PRESIDENT BUSH
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On November 12th APN sent the following letter to President Bush:

Dear President Bush,

On behalf of Americans for Peace Now (APN), we are writing to congratulate you on your reelection to the office of President of the United States. APN is America's premier Jewish, Zionist organization dedicated to enhancing Israel's security through peace. As American Jews deeply committed to Israel's security, we appreciate your support for Israel these past four years, as Israel has struggled to defend itself against terrorists.

Your reelection comes at an historic moment in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: it comes on the heels of the Knesset vote to approve parts of Israeli Prime Minister Sharon's disengagement plan; it also coincides with the end of Yasser Arafat's grip on Palestinian leadership. APN urges you to seize this moment to translate your often-stated commitment to Israel into action by investing the personal effort, political capital, and national prestige necessary to stop violence and re-start a political process toward peace and reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians.

Mr. President, history has shown that Israelis are most secure when the U.S. engages in a political process that offers a genuine chance to resolve the conflict, restoring hope to both Israelis and Palestinians. History is now providing a unique opportunity to restart just such a process. Recent developments provide the springboard for a new and reinvigorated era of U.S. Middle East diplomacy, a key goal of which must be the empowerment of a new and moderate Palestinian leadership. In the near term, this leadership can help coordinate a stable Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and part of the northern West Bank, giving Israel a responsible party that may feel empowered enough to implement a ceasefire, while being able to claim a "down payment" on the process of ending the occupation. In the longer term, it can be a real partner in negotiating peace.

In this regard, we urge you to recall, as many in Israel do, the opportunity to save lives that was lost due to the failure of then-Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas to consolidate his own leadership. Prime Minister Abbas represented a leader whom both Israel and the U.S. recognized as committed to fighting terror and implementing the political reform that you have demanded. However, in the face of Arafat's predictable efforts to undermine his new Prime Minister, the U.S. and Israel failed to shore up Prime Minister Abbas by permitting him to deliver even minimal tangible improvements to the lives of his people. The resulting loss of legitimacy of his leadership squandered a priceless opportunity to save lives. It would be unconscionable to repeat this error.

We appeal to you not to waste this new opportunity. The United States, Israel, and the Palestinian people need a new Palestinian leadership with the desire and the ability to consolidate its authority, clamp down on terrorism, implement needed political reforms, and convince its people that peace will be achieved only through negotiations, and never through terror.

The success of any new Palestinian leadership will depend, in large measure, on ensuring that the new leaders understand the performance benchmarks upon which they will be judged and that your administration, Israel, and the international community are fully prepared to offer necessary support and assistance to enable them to reach these benchmarks. Reasonable benchmarks could include, for example, the consolidation of Palestinian security forces under the authority of the Prime Minister, along with a commitment to implement a ceasefire. Such steps would need to be taken in coordination with an Israeli ceasefire and a halt to targeted assassinations. Fundamentally, any performance benchmarks must be linked explicitly both to tangible benefits that can be delivered by the new leadership to its people, and to a credible political process towards a viable two-state solution. In addition, in the medium- and long-term, only democratic elections can deliver credibility to a new Palestinian leadership and bestow upon it the authority to act on behalf of the Palestinian people in the context of peace negotiations.

Mr. President, as you begin your second term in office, the Middle East - and in particular Iraq - will necessarily take center stage in your administration's agenda. We urge you to recognize that the success of your efforts to stabilize Iraq, peacefully curtail Iran's nuclear ambitions, and democratize the Middle East, is intimately linked to your efforts on the Israeli-Palestinian track. Investing political capital and national prestige in efforts to achieve progress on the Israeli- Palestinian track is not a diversion of resources from other priorities in the region, but rather an investment in the success of all your policies in the region. Likewise, failure to invest in the Israeli- Palestinian track will diminish the impact of your efforts elsewhere in the region. As we have stated many times in the past, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not the cause of fundamentalism and terror; rather, it is an issue cynically invoked by fundamentalists to whip up support for their own twisted agendas. Neutralizing this issue by engaging seriously and credibly in a political process that restores hope to Israelis and Palestinians is the single best investment the U.S. can make toward advancing all its policy goals in the Middle East. Moreover, such engagement would go a long way to rebuilding and bolstering alliances with other nations in the region and around the world - nations whose cooperation, and willingness to share costs, the U.S. desperately needs in Iraq.

Finally, we draw your attention, once again, to the problem of outposts and settlements. The Israeli Peace Now Settlements Watch team has found that over 50 outposts currently exist that were established since March 2001 - outposts that, under the Road Map, must be evacuated. There can be no doubt that U.S. intelligence analysts have accumulated similar, corroborating information. While we were pleased to see recent reports that your administration rejected the list of 23 unauthorized outposts in the West Bank presented by the Israeli Defense Ministry, we remain concerned about your administration's continuing failure to send clear signals on this issue. This failure has left the impression that the U.S. will tolerate non-implementation of commitments by Israel. This is a dangerous impression that must be corrected.

Similarly, we were dismayed to learn from U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell that your administration is negotiating over standards by which the U.S. would accept the "natural growth" of veteran settlements. The Road Map quite clearly calls on the government of Israel to freeze "all settlement activity (including natural growth of settlements)." Your administration is not acting in Israel's or America's interests by going along with schemes designed to circumvent this commitment.

Moreover, recent media reports indicate that your administration has failed to deduct sums used for Israeli government investments in the occupied territories from the amount of U.S. loan guarantees made available to Israel. Part of your administration's policy is that such deductions would be made each year. Peace Now's Settlements Watch team has produced extensive aerial photograph surveys of the occupied territories demonstrating continued expansion of settlements and outposts, including settlements earmarked for evacuation under the disengagement plan. This expansion includes new homes, roads, and farm lands. Further, it has been clearly documented that various Israeli government ministries have funded the establishment and maintenance of settlement outposts. Provision of the loan guarantees was an important signal of U.S. support for Israel; making the required deductions is similarly a signal that the U.S. does not believe that Israeli national interests or the cause of peace are served by further investment in settlements.

In sum, Mr. President, both Israeli and American interests are best served when America provides more than just rhetorical and financial support for Israel. Like you, we believe that America must always be Israel's closest friend and ally. At the same time, we remind you that during your first term in office terror killed more Israelis than in any period since Israel's War of Independence. Clearly, rhetorical support for Israel's right to self-defense, coupled with only token engagement on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, are insufficient to safeguard Israel or her people.

The U.S. must also use every tool at its disposal to bring about reconciliation between Israel and the Palestinian people. That means engaging at the highest levels with both sides to broker a genuine political process. A serious and sustained effort on the part of the U.S. is necessary if we are to help to pave the road for peace. To that end, by reiterating support for Israel but offering little more than political initiatives that are left to wither on the vine - while Israelis continue to suffer and die awaiting a genuine political process to end the violence and deliver peace and security - you do Israel no favors. Nor does Israel benefit from U.S. policy that turns a blind eye to the deepening and further entrenchment of the occupation through settlement expansion.

As you begin your second term as President, history has provided you a unique and unprecedented opportunity to achieve real progress on the Israeli-Palestinian track, and history will record whether this opportunity was seized or squandered. For the sake of Israel, we hope that you will take full advantage of the opportunity that history has provided.


For more information, contact APN Government Relations Director Lara Friedman at 202/728-1893, or at LFapn@earthlink.net.