July 21, 2006
By James D. Besser

Jewish leaders head to Israel, Washington to demonstrate solidarity and encourage politicians to stay the course.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi this week called situation in Lebanon “appalling” and called for measures to hold Syria and Iran accountable.

With fighting raging in Lebanon and Gaza and terrorist rockets falling on Israeli cities, Jewish leaders this week were heading to Israel to show solidarity with the Jewish state — and some to Washington, to weigh in on the current crisis with administration officials, members of Congress and foreign diplomats.

On Thursday, leaders of the United Jewish Communities (UJC) and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) were due here for meetings with administration and congressional officials.

“The goal is to communicate with our nation’s leaders our collective concerns for the state of Israel during this time of existential threat,” said William Daroff, the UJC vice president for public policy.

He said the Jewish leaders would also do some “brainstorming with administration officials about ways to encourage our allies to include Hezbollah on their official lists of terrorist organizations.”

Hadar Susskind, the JCPA Washington representative, said the 50 or so JCPA and UJC leaders would also “make the point that it’s high time to fully implement the Syria Accountability Act,” and discuss current proposals for an international peacekeeping force along the Lebanese border — although neither group has taken a position on that issue.

On Monday, Anti-Defamation League director Abraham Foxman was in town with a straightforward message for administration officials: “Hold the line, stay the course and don’t stop Israel from doing what it needs to do,” he said.

Foxman praised the “relatively balanced” statement issued at the G8 summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, and President Bush for “exerting leadership at a time when everybody was criticizing him.”

Foxman also met with ambassadors from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and France, urging them to “understand the situation Israel finds itself in and to not lose the opportunity to deal with the issue in a way so that we won’t have to revisit it again and again.”

Leaders of more dovish groups are walking a careful line — criticizing Hamas and Hezbollah for igniting the current crisis and mostly refraining from criticizing Israeli military actions, but also pressing for stronger U.S. and international involvement in bringing about a ceasefire.

This week Brit Tzedek v’Shalom, an American Jewish peace group, urged its members to write to President Bush and members of Congress to demand “substantive diplomatic efforts to intervene immediately in order to achieve a ceasefire and the release of Israeli soldiers in the ongoing Mideast crisis.”

On the other end of the political spectrum, Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, said his group was “talking to our contacts in the White House and the State Department and in Congress about a single message: Don’t pressure Israel to prematurely end its military operations before Hezbollah is eliminated as a threat.”

Congress Scrambles To Support Israel

Whether it's election-year politics or genuine concern for Israel, members of Congress are eager to get in their licks against Hamas and Hezbollah and support the Jewish state.

On Tuesday, the Senate passed a resolution touching on those points. In addition, it criticized Syria and Iran for their roles in the crisis and demanded the immediate and unconditional release of Israeli soldiers. The House was expected to pass its version on Wednesday.

The Senate bill was sponsored by Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Democratic Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

A House version sponsored by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Majority John Boehner (R-Ohio) was slowed last week by a jurisdictional dispute; last minute partisan wrangling on Tuesday angered several key Democrats.

But heavy lobbying by pro-Israel groups and a distinct lack of sympathy for Hezbollah and Hamas were expected to lead to passage of the bill, Democratic leaders said.

“I think what is happening in Lebanon is appalling,” said Pelosi at a news conference before the House vote. She promised Congress would “make some very firm statement about what is happening. Israel has a right to defend itself. The actions initiated by the Hezbollah to instigate the Lebanon-Israel border hostilities are wrong. The governments of Syria, Iran, and Lebanon should be held accountable for what is happening there.”

On Tuesday, Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.) introduced a separate resolution criticizing the “criminal and terrorist acts of aggression against the State of Israel and its armed forces” and calling on the international community to hold “Iran and Syria accountable for their support for unprovoked international terrorist aggression against Israel.”

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), expected to run for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination on an anti-war platform, said, “I stand firmly with the people of Israel and their government as they defend themselves against these outrageous attacks.”

In an interview with an Iowa newspaper, he linked the issue to his opposition to the Iraq war.

“What we have done by becoming mired in Iraq, and by deciding to change the balance of power in that region, is enable Iran and Syria to be much more open in tormenting Israel, the United States and our allies,” he said in a Journal-Sentinel interview.

Rep. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), slated to appear at a major Israel solidarity rally in Washington on Wednesday, said: “Hezbollah is a terrorist organization that is financed and supported by Iran and Syria. Israel must be secure within its borders, and I call for the involvement of the United States and the international community to find a solution to the violence that threatens the entire region.”

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), chair of the House Subcommittee on the Middle East and Central Asia, urged President Bush to “enhance pressure on Syria to abandon policies that threaten U.S. national security... our allies.”

In a letter to the President, she also insisted on full implementation of the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act, passed by Congress several years ago.

And Ros-Lehtinen called for quick final passage of the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act and the Iran Freedom Support Act, which she said would “empower the President to implement all political, diplomatic, and economic sanctions on the regime in Tehran responsible for the deaths of countless Americans and Israelis, mayhem and destruction throughout the decades.”

Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), a co-author of the Syria sanctions bill, was harsher in his criticism.

He said the administration has offered a variety of excuses for not imposing the full range of sanctions called for in the law.

“But if we’re ever going to implement these sanctions, now is the time to act. Now is the time to send a clear message to Syria,” he said...