Congress, Ignoring Israeli Rejection of Land for Peace, Sets New Requirements for PLO

By Dennis J. Wamsted

The Reagan administration's decision last December to recognize the PLO by initiating informal talks with the group stunned the pro-Israel lobby and its congressional supporters, virtually bringing its activities to a halt. But now, congressional opponents of the US-PLO dialogue are back on the offensive.

Kasten's Warning

In mid-April, for example, a group of 38 senators, led by Sen. Robert Kasten (R-WI), the ranking minority member of the Senate Appropriations Foreign Operations Subcommittee that oversees the US foreign aid program, warned the Bush administration that the Senate would "seriously consider a range of punitive action, including withholding US financial participation from those agencies" if the recently declared state of Palestine is accepted as a full member in the UN or any of its related organizations and agencies.

"The acceptance of a Palestinian state in such international fora would present another obstacle to a peace process that already faces difficult challenges and would seriously weaken US support for those UN bodies," the senators wrote in letters to President Bush and Secretary of State James Baker.

The letters had the desired effect. In early May, Secretary Baker announced formally that the US would oppose any attempt by the PLO to gain full membership status in the UN or its related agencies. "The US vigorously opposes the admission of the PLO to membership in the World Health Organization or any other UN agency," Baker said in a statement. "To emphasize the depth of our concern, I will recommend to the president that the US make no further contributions, voluntary or assessed, to any international organization which makes any change in the PLO's present status as an observer organization. Political questions such as this should not be raised in specialized agencies because such [politicization] detracts from the important technical work of these organizations."

A Conditional Dialogue

Having failed to prevent the US-PLO dialogue, Israel's congressional supporters have begun a policy aimed at circumscribing the discussions to the greatest extent possible. Specifically, bills introduced in both the House and Senate would force the PLO to comply with still more conditions simply to continue the current discussions.

The Senate bill, introduced by freshmen Joe Lieberman (D-CT) and Connie Mack (R-FL), outlines a series of "concrete steps" that the PLO must take to prove its peaceful intentions. Specifically, the legislation, the "PLO Commitments Compliance Act of 1989," calls on the Palestinian group to disband units that have been involved in terrorism; publicly condemn all acts of terrorism for which it is not responsible, while abstaining from committing any such acts itself; stop intimidating Palestinians seeking peace with Israel; and amend its covenant to remove provisions that undermine Israel's legitimacy and that call for its destruction.

In addition, the legislation calls on the other Arab countries to recognize Israel and to end their economic boycott of the Jewish state.

To ensure that the PLO complies with these strictures, the legislation calls on the president to report to Congress beginning 30 days after enactment and every 120 days thereafter on the organization's progress. Congress needs these reports to assess the PLO's progress "away from terrorism and towards peace," Lieberman and Mack wrote in a "Dear Colleague" letter circulated in early April. "To this date, the PLO has not gone beyond 'semantic formulas' and on to the real substantive steps that would signal a lasting transformation away from terrorism and towards peace."

Similar legislation was recently adopted by the House as an amendment to the chamber's State Department authorization for fiscal years 1990 and 1991. The amendment, crafted by Rep. Mel Levine (D-CA), requires biannual reports from the State Department "addressing the actions and statements of the PLO as they relate to the commitments made in Geneva regarding renunciation of terrorism and recognition of Israel's right to exist." The amendment by Levine, one of Israel's most steadfast congressional supporters, who has received more than $35,000 from pro-Israel PACs in the past three congressional election campaigns, also calls upon the State Department to prepare a report detailing the Arab countries' "participation in the Mideast peace process. " The aim of the amendment, Levine said, is to express Congress' "deep concern over the failure of the Arab states in the Mideast to join the peace process and to see what steps, if any, they are taking [to] move that process forward." In particular, Levine's amendment encourages the Arab countries to end their economic boycott of Israel and to support initiatives within the UN to repeal the mid-1970s resolution equating Zionism with racism.

Bills introduced In both the House and Senate would force the PLO to comply with still more conditions simply to continue the current discussions.

Not surprisingly, no mention is made in either the Kasten letter or the PLO "compliance" legislation about Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir's rejection of UN Security Council Resolution 242's land-for-peace formula, his refusal of direct talks with the PLO, or the 400 plus Palestinians killed in the past 18 months by Israeli soldiers and settlers.

Although the legislation will not have any immediate impact, it clears the path for future congressional action. Unable to prohibit the administration PLO discussions outright, Congress established additional conditions for the PLO to meet in the future, while ignoring the fact that Israel, the major recipient of US economic and military assistance, has not even met the conditions already accepted by the PLO. Now, once these vaguely worded "compliance" reports are completed, Israel's congressional supporters will have a base from which they can seek to undercut, and perhaps even discontinue, the talks.

Egyptian Aid, Round Two

A daunting list of problems confronts the Egyptian government, but it is unlikely that any are more intractable than the country's crushing foreign debt, including roughly $10 billion owed to the US. In late April the news got even worse, as two powerful members of Congress asked Secretary of State Baker to continue withholding $230 million in cash grant aid previously appropriated by Congress for Egypt.

The request was forwarded to Secretary Baker by Reps. Lee Hamilton (DIN) and David Obey (D-WI), who respectively chair the House Foreign Affairs subcommittees on Europe and the Middle East and the House Appropriations Foreign Operations subcommittee. President Hosni Mubarak's government "may have received mixed signals" in the past, the two said. Dispersing additional sums now "would only perpetuate bad economic policies and result in the waste of taxpayers' money."

The situation could get even worse in the near future, since it appears likely that the Egyptian government will fall more than a year in arrears on its debt payments to the US this summer. Should this happen, the Bush administration would be forced by US law to suspend all aid to Egypt.

Chemical Weapons Sanctions?

A decision by the Bush administration not to oppose sanctions against countries using chemical weapons or companies supplying this technology to the developing world may pave the way for congressional action later this year. The administration's decision, which was announced by Assistant Secretary of State H. Allen Holmes at a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee in early May, marks a complete turnabout from the solid opposition of the Reagan administration to any such legislation.

Dennis J. Wamsted is a free-lance writer specializing in the US Congress and Middle Eastern affairs.