July 1996, pg. 41

Congress Watch

Democratic Congressman James Moran Dares to Speak Out

By Eugene Bird

For the first time since former Congressman Paul Findley (R-IL) raised the question of U.S. aid before the old House Foreign Affairs Committee, a sitting congress-man has openly questioned continued aid to Israel in the face of the new Israeli government’s signals of intransigence over the critical parts of the peace process so carefully nurtured by the Clinton administration.

At a June 12 hearing on the Middle East by the full House International Relations Committee, Congressman James Moran (D-VA) openly confronted the administration, and Committee Chairman Ben Gilman (R-NY), over the issue of continuing support for the new government of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu if he carries out his campaign pledges.

Questioning Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Robert Pelletreau, Congressman Moran, who is immensely popular in his Northern Virginia district, asked the witness, “Is there any limit to your support for this new government...any point beyond which you would not go along? I...am concerned about his [Netanyahu’s] policies...his promise to expand settlements, to continue to expropriate houses...[to violate] the agreement already made to put Jerusalem on the table for final status negotiations and Netanyahu’s promise to take it off...Would you [the U.S. State Department] object if the troops are not deployed from Hebron? Will you object if Israel [fails] to keep her promise to create a land passage between the West Bank and Gaza? Or fails to release prisoners?

“We have substantial leverage with Israel,” Representative Moran continued. “There is that $3 billion a year we give her. We have the responsibility to use [the leverage] to further the peace process for it is in the greater national interest to do so. We are more than a disinterested, passive observer.”

Assistant Secretary Pelletreau replied very briefly, saying in essence that the U.S. would wait to see what the new government in Israel “really does” on these matters.

Afterward, a high-ranking State Department official, when asked by the Washington Report if he had ever heard such frank questioning of the U.S.-Israeli relationship on Capitol Hill, replied: “Never. We were astonished and I suspect Pelletreau hardly knew what to say in reply before that heavily pro-Israel committee.” Up to the moment Congressman Moran spoke, almost all of the questions, except for two or three from Congressman Lee Hamilton (D-IN), had been hard-ball queries about compliance of the Palestinians with the peace process, including the charter amendment issue. During and after the Moran questioning, there was stunned silence from the pro-Israel representatives and their staffs.