NAAA Chapter Hosts Republican Congressmen

By Pat and Samir Twair

Although Republican congressmen meeting separately with members of the Greater Los Angeles Chapter of the National Association of Arab Americans expressed differing views on Bosnia and aid to the Middle East, all gave thumbs up approval for Arabic food served at the three brunch meetings.

They also agreed to look into co-signing Rep. Chris Cox's letter requesting the State Department to lift the ban on American travel to Lebanon.

"I had heard about Palestine all my life," Rep. Ken Calvert of California's 43rd Congressional District told participants at an NAAA session in the home of Peggy and Abdel Chehade. "I assumed it was huge, probably the size of Texas."

He said he was astounded when he arrived in the Middle East last August to discover that Palestine is about the size of Riverside County, part of which he represents. Even more surprising was the realization that the Golan Heights, the part of Syria presently occupied by Israel, could fit within the borders of Southern California's rural community of Norco—population 24,000.

The freshman congressman said that in addition to teaching him some geography, the trip exposed him to the great divisions among Israeli political parties, as well as the fact that former U.S. President George Bush is disliked by leaders of Israel's rightwing Likud Party, who blame Bush for their defeat in the 1992 Israeli elections.

Although his trip was sponsored by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Representative Calvert said he met with two Palestinian leaders, East Jerusalem attorney Jonathan Kuttab and Prof. Manuel Hassassian of Bethlehem University.

"Both were very forthright on what it will take to build an infrastructure in Gaza and Jericho," he noted.

Rep. Calvert, who says that he is 1/16th Cherokee and the only Native American serving on the House Native American Affairs subcommittee, also is a member of the House Natural Resources and Science and Space and Technology Committees.

Suggested one NAAA member: "When the matter comes up on the House floor of making Haifa a port for the U.S. Navy's Sixth Fleet, please think about Gaza."

Rep. Calvert responded that the decision will be made on the basis of cost. Foreign aid has become a dirty word for many in Congress, he said, but he voted for the post-accord five-year $500 million U.S. aid package for Palestine. "Five hundred million dollars is a reasonable first step," he stated.

"Not when Israel receives $17 million a day from the U.S.," retorted an NAAA member.

A noncommittal approach to the Middle East was taken by freshman Republican Congressman Steve Horn, representing California's 38th District, who served as president of California State University at Long Beach from 1970 to 1988. At a brunch in the Long Beach home of Jamil Budeiri, Rep. Horn stated that Israel, Egypt and Russia are the three prime recipients of foreign aid. But, he maintained the $21 billion foreign aid package is a drop in the bucket compared to the $1.5 trillion budget of the United States.

In reply, Prof. Sherna Gluck stated that although the aid Israel receives "may seem insignificant compared to our annual budget, it still is the largest amount going to any one country." She added that many American Jews like herself believe in self-determination for the Palestinians and would like Congress to re-examine unquestioned annual U.S. aid to Israel.

Rep. Horn, who does not accept campaign donations from political action committees, said any change in foreign aid will likely depend on how both the Israeli and Palestinian parties to the Sept. 13 peace agreement work together. "If the parties go back [on their word] and play games, Congress will be unhappy," he said. "It won't be too tolerant of a lot of quibbling when there is this opportunity for a cessation of hostilities in the Middle East."

When it was pointed out that Israel has refused to sign the nuclear non-proliferation agreement, he said neither has North Korea. When the Cranston Amendment, which forgives interest on outstanding Israeli loans from the U.S., was likened to an entitlement, Rep. Horn replied: "We've forgiven loans historically, waivers are granted all the time." Rep. Horn's office later requested a copy of the Cranston Amendment, which was promptly faxed to him.

Although he scrupulously avoided condemnation of all parties in the Middle East, Rep. Horn took a strong stand on Somalia. "Great nations don't cut and run when their soldiers have been killed, wounded and degraded," he said when queried on U.S. policy in Somalia. "What we do in Somalia affects other dictators. They'll take it for granted that if they shoot a few Americans, the U.S. will withdraw. We have a role there, I want to see a massive use of force that will set the tone for all other brushfires and encourage forces that want peace."

Turning to the former Yugoslavia, Rep. Horn said that when the Serbs bombed Dubrovnik, on Croatia's Dalmatian coast, the U.S. should have stepped in. He praised President Clinton for warning the Serbs not to enter Kosovo and emphasized that the various religious communities in Bosnia had lived together in peace for decades.

"To see Mostar and other cities destroyed while the Europeans do nothing is like watching the 1930s all over again," he averred.

When the topic of a U.S. Sixth Fleet port at Haifa was initiated, Rep. Horn specified it IS not to be a home port, but a port of call. Discussion, he said, is underway on the possibility of the U.S. and Israel each investing $25 million to lengthen the Haifa pier to accommodate large ships.

Asked Professor Gluck: "Instead of investing $25 million to improve an Israeli port, why not spend $25 million to develop a port in Gaza?"

"I do believe in the principle of self-determination and, at some point, both parties are going to have to strike an agreement that is to their mutual self-interest," Horn told the NAAA group. The more than 30 NAAA members on hand all expressed gratitude that Representative Horn spent more than three hours in discussion with them.

Rep. Ron Packard, who was elected last year to his sixth term in Congress representing California's 48th District, met with NAAA members in the Monarch Beach home of Norm and Vicki Tanber. He said he was strongly opposed to the Cranston Amendment when it was on the House floor and he also opposed the $10 billion in loan guarantees to Israel.

In response to one NAAA member's statement that President Clinton has surrounded himself with strong supporters of Israel such as Martin Indyk, Representative Packard said the president tends to take the easiest solution to a problem, and that Congress has not tried to be balanced in its approach to the Middle East.

''I can't give you any encouragement," he said. "But if Israel's [Prime Minister] Rabin is going to be rewarded for signing the peace accords, the other side should be rewarded, too."

Reminding his audience that he sits on the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Packard said it would be helpful if voters would let him know if hidden agendas are tucked into bills that come before him.

When asked his opinion of Yitzhak Rabin's request to President Clinton that he shorten the life sentence of convicted spy Jonathan J. Pollard, Packard stated:

"This shouldn't be Clinton's decision, but that of the Justice Department. Pollard should undergo the same system of justice as any other spy. Israel has no business to ask the president for leniency, nor should the president override the justice system. "

Lebanon Marks 50th Year

Lebanon's Consul General to Los Angeles Farid Abboud and Mrs. Abboud received more than 600 guests Nov. 22 at a gala reception at the Beverly Hilton Hotel marking the 50th anniversary of the independence of Lebanon. "When things are good in Lebanon we are the envy of all," stated Consul Abboud. "Maybe that is why we exasperate others with our blind love for our country."

Ex-JDO Bomber Found Guilty

After deliberating less than three hours last Oct. 14, a federal jury found Robert Manning guilty of mailing an explosive device that killed a Manhattan Beach secretary in 1980. The Jewish Defense Organization activist faces a maximum life term in prison when he is sentenced Jan. 3.

Manning was extradited from Israel for the trial that found him guilty of mailing a bomb that killed Patricia Wilkerson. His wife, Rochelle, lost an appeal against being extradited from Israel and is scheduled to be retried in the Wilkerson case.

Coincidentally, on Nov. 23, the day the Israeli Justice Department ordered Rochelle Manning to be extradited to California for trial, William Ross, another fugitive wanted in the death of Wilkerson, was apprehended by Canadian authorities in Vancouver.

Ross, also a former activist in the Jewish Defense League and its even more violent offshoot, the Jewish Defense Organization, became a fugitive Aug. 6, when he failed to appear in Los Angeles federal court to answer charges of aiding and abetting the mailing of the bomb that killed Wilkerson. A Los Angeles real estate broker, Ross was involved in a legal battle with Wilkerson's employer, and prosecutors charge he hired the Mannings to mail the explosive to Wilkerson's boss. Vancouver police reported Ross had been using numerous aliases.

Manning also is the prime suspect in the 1985 bombing death of Alex Odeh, regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee's western office. According to extradition agreements with Israel, however, Manning cannot be tried for Odeh's murder because the American-born Manning had become an Israeli citizen before Odeh was assassinated.

Pat and Samir Twair are free-lance writers based in Southern California.