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>From http://sptimes.com/2002/05/12/Columns/Israel_shows_its_musc.shtml
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Israel shows its muscle dealing with Congress
By SUSAN TAYLOR MARTIN, Times Senior Correspondent
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 12, 2002
During the 2000 election campaign, pro-Israel groups were among the biggest
contributors to U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch of Florida. The Fort Lauderdale Democrat
got $23,400, more than he received from groups representing education and health
care interests.
During the 2000 election campaign, pro-Israel groups were among the biggest
contributors to U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch of Florida. The Fort Lauderdale Democrat
got $23,400, more than he received from groups representing education and health
care interests.
But Deutsch says the pro-Israel money had nothing to do with his May 2 vote for a
controversial House resolution expressing unequivocal support for Israel.
Nor, he says, did the money affect his decision to join three other members of
Congress in flying to Israel that day to hand-deliver the resolution to Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon.
"I honestly have no much idea how much money I was given," Deutsch said. "And it's
irrelevant in terms of anything."
Others aren't so sure.
"Clearly the giving by the pro-Israel interests has an impact in Congress," says Larry
Noble, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington, D.C.,
organization that monitors campaign financing. "You can't say it's the only thing that
impacts Congress in terms of the resolution, but it clearly does have a lot of impact."
According to the center, pro-Israel groups have contributed $41.3-million to federal
candidates and political party committees since 1989. In the same period, pro-Arab
and pro-Muslim interests have given $297,000.
Of course, congressional support of Israel is neither new nor surprising. The United
States has been Israel's closest friend since 1948, when President Harry Truman
became the first world leader to recognize the new Jewish state. Despite its small
size and scarce natural resources, Israel absorbed hundreds of thousands of Jews
from around the globe and built a thriving country -- with the help of billions in U.S.
aid -- that is the only democracy in the Middle East.
But critics say Israel's continued occupation of land seized during the 1967 Middle
East War has stymied peace and contributed to the violence that has claimed the
lives of 489 Israelis and more than 1,500 Palestinians since September 2000.
The latest crisis came in late March when Israel, in response to a suicide bombing
that killed 28 Jews, invaded several Palestinian cities. President Bush found himself
caught between Arab demands to stop the incursion and Israel's insistence on
destroying the "infrastructure of terrorism."
It was amid Bush's attempts to end the crisis that the House passed the resolution
expressing solidarity with Israel and condemning Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Although 352 members voted yes, there was enough concern about the measure
that 82 others voted no or didn't vote. Some opponents said the resolution would hurt
America's ability to act as an evenhanded broker in Mideast peace negotiations.
"This one-sided resolution will only fan the killing frenzy," charged Rep. Marcy
Kaptur, D- Ohio. "It offers no encouragement for the Arab states to have a place at
the peace table. . . . Israel cannot make peace alone. This resolution envisions no
Palestinian state. At its worst, I fear it represents crass domestic politics in this
election year."
Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., argued that the resolution failed to take into account that
neither Israelis nor Palestinians had fully honored the 1993 Oslo peace agreement.
"Let us get that straight," he told his House colleagues. "Neither side is an angel."
Florida's Deutsch countered that Israel's fight against Palestinian attacks and
America's fight against al-Qaida are one and the same.
"There is no Yasser Arafat exemption to the war on terrorism," said Deutsch, who is
Jewish and has many Jewish voters in his state.
Hours after the resolution passed, Deutsch and three other House members flew to
Israel aboard a U.S. Navy plane. At least one Israeli newspaper called the trip a
"fact-finding mission" although any facts gathered came from the Israeli side.
Deutsch said he and his colleagues asked to meet with Palestinians but were told
that was impossible unless they agreed to see Arafat. They declined.
"The consensus is that it's a post-Arafat era and he's a terrorist," Deutsch said in a
phone interview after his return last week. The four also asked to go to the West
Bank and Gaza Strip but were warned by the U.S. Embassy in Israel that it would be
too dangerous, Deutsch said.
Instead, the delegation met with Israeli leaders and visited victims of terrorism. One
of the "most constructive" parts of the trip, Deutsch said, was seeing the large
amount of weapons Israel seized from the freighter Karine A as they purportedly
were being smuggled into Gaza in January.
"This was a very, very sophisticated operation that I did not have a sense of at all
until we got there," Deutsch said.
The bipartisan delegation was led by Rep. James Saxton, chairman of the Special
House Oversight Panel on Terrorism. The Ohio Republican listed pro-Israel groups
as among his biggest contributors in the last election, with a total of $29,900.
Historically, groups supporting Israel have funnelled about two-thirds of their
contributions to Democratic candidates. But that may change.
"You hear talk that Republicans think the pro-Israel vote may be easier to get this
time and that it may be easier to break some of that money away from Democrats,"
says Noble. "If it does shift, it may be due in part to the support Israel has been
getting from Republicans and conservatives."
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