Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, April 2002, pages 14-15

Special Report

 

Administration Budget Requests Foreign Aid Increase, Including More Aid to Jordan

 

By Shirl McArthur

The budget for FY 2003 that the administration of President George W. Bush presented to Congress in February includes a request for $25.4 billion for international affairs, an increase of $1.4 billion over the current fiscal year’s amount. Included in the request is $16.1 billion for foreign aid, $780 million more than this year. The amounts for Israel and Egypt are in accordance with the previous agreement to reduce Israel’s economic aid by $120 million per year while increasing military aid by $60 million, and reduce Egypt’s economic aid by $40 million per year, leaving military aid unchanged. Therefore, the amounts in the FY 2003 budget for Israel are $2.1 billion in military grants and $600 million in economic grants, plus $60 million for “refugee resettlement.” For Egypt the numbers are $1.3 billion in military grants and $615 million in economic grants.

The proposed budget’s major change regarding the Middle East is a sharply increased allocation for Jordan. The administration requested $250 million in military aid to Jordan, an increase of $100 million over this year’s amount, and $198 in economic aid, an increase of $123 million.

Meanwhile, during the visit to Washington of Pakistan’s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Bush announced that he had ordered that $220 million of the $40 billion emergency package passed by Congress after Sept. 11 be reallocated to Pakistan, plus $28 million to be transferred immediately to Israel. These transfers were justified, according to an Office of Management and Budget document, because “the administration now believes that a portion of these funds would be better used to provide assistance to Pakistan and Israel, as allies in the war on terrorism.”

In presenting the foreign affairs portion of the budget to the Senate and House Foreign and International Relations Committees, respectively, and to the House foreign operations (foreign aid) appropriations subcommittee, Secretary of State Colin Powell did not defend the numbers. Instead, as has become customary, he used the occasion to present an overview of developments and U.S. policies in all parts of the world. On the Middle East, he began with the “confrontation” between Israel and the Palestinians, saying that U.S. policy remains to get both parties to back off from violence and return to a political process, first through a cease-fire and then following “the path outlined in the Tenet Security Workplan and the Mitchell Report.” He said that Chairman Yasser Arafat must act to confront the sources of violence, and that the Israeli government should act in ways to ease the Palestinians’ hardships and avoid further escalation.

 

Powell Defends, Slightly Softens, “Axis of Evil” Statement

Powell also both defended and tried to soften Bush’s tough State of the Union address, wherein the president called Iran, Iraq, and North Korea an “axis of evil.” First, Powell said that Bush “wasn’t talking about people who are evil. He was talking about regimes who are evil or do evil things.” On Iran, Powell acknowledged that Tehran has been helpful in the anti-terrorism efforts, particularly at the Bonn and Tokyo conferences regarding Afghanistan. But, he said, Iran still is pursuing weapons of mass destruction and supporting terrorism. According to Powell, it would be hypocritical to say, “Well, they’ve done these good things and let’s ignore all the unpleasant things they are doing”—apparently forgetting for the moment the innumerable “unpleasant things” done by several countries, notably Israel, that the U.S. chooses to ignore.

On Iraq, Powell said that the U.S. has long had a policy of regime change, because “the Iraqi people deserve better leadership than they have had for the last 30 years.” He went on, however, to talk about strengthening the sanctions, saying, “I believe by the end of May we will have moved to smart sanctions so the Iraqis can no longer claim that we are somehow affecting the well-being of their citizens.” In his written statement he referred to the possibility of “other options,” but he omitted this from his delivered statement.

Not surprisingly, some members of Congress maintained their drumbeat to engage Saddam Hussain directly. In his opening statement prior to Powell’s testimony, Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking Republican Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC) declared, “Saddam must go!…There’s no doubt that the people of Iraq will happily get rid of the scourge known by the entire world as Saddam Hussain; but it needs to be known that U.S. policy, and if necessary, U.S. air power, support them.” The following week, on the floor of the Senate, ranking Republican on the Middle East subcommittee Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) insisted, “We are not safe. That region of the world is not safe as long as Saddam Hussain rules in Iraq.”

 

PLO Sanctions Bill Continues to Gain Co-Sponsors

As reported in the previous issue of this magazine, the foreign aid appropriations bill passed in December included a modified version of H.R. 1795, the House bill that would impose sanctions on the PLO and the PA unless they comply with previous commitments. However, this apparently was not enough for its sponsors, Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY) in the House and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), with his Senate counterpart, S. 1409. Both bills continue to gather co-sponsors. H.R. 1795 now has 112 co-sponsors, including Ackerman, and S. 1409 has 39 co-sponsors, including McConnell. New co-sponsors since those listed in the March issue of the Washington Report are, for S. 1409, Sens. John Breaux (D-LA), Jim Bunning (R-KY), Jon Corzine (D-NJ), Tim Hutchinson (R-AR), and Arlen Specter (R-PA).

New co-sponsors of H.R. 1795 are Reps. Howard Coble (R-NC), Mike Doyle (D-PA), Vernon Ehlers (R-MI), Eni Faleomavaega (D-AS), George Gekas (R-PA), Bart Gordon (D-TN), Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Tim Johnson (R-IL), Mark Kennedy (R-MN), Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), Steve LaTourette (R-OH), William Lipinski (D-IL), Scott McInnis (R-CO), Anne Northrup (R-KY), John Peterson (R-PA), Adam Putnam (R-FL), John Shimkus (R-IL), Ronnie Shows (D-MS), Michael Simpson (R-ID), Adam Smith (D-WA), Bart Stupak (D-MI), Lee Terry (R-NE), Patrick Tiberi (R-OH), Jim Turner (D-TX), Fred Upton (R-MI), and Albert Wynn (D-MD).

 

Little Progress on Positive Bills

Perhaps reflecting the increasingly anti-Arab—and especially anti-Palestinian—sentiment in Congress, the balanced cease-fire resolution introduced by Rep. John Dingell (D-MI), H.Con.Res. 253, has gained no co-sponsors since those named in the March issue of this magazine. This resolution urges both the Palestinians and the Israelis to end the violence in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza, and it specifically endorses the recommendations of the Mitchell Report. Similarly, the Secret Evidence Repeal bill introduced by Rep. David Bonior (D-MI) has gained no co-sponsors since last July. Given the mood in Congress since September, the bill is likely to languish and die in committee.

On the other hand, the Hate Crimes Prevention bill, H.R. 1343, introduced by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) last April, continues to gain support. It now has 205 co-sponsors, just 13 short of half the members of the House. The bill would provide federal assistance to states and local jurisdictions to investigate and prosecute crimes motivated by race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, or disability.

 

Some New Negative Bills

Of the Middle East-related bills introduced since the first of January, the one that makes the least sense is also the one gathering the most co-sponsors, probably because it offers the opportunity to take a cheap shot at the Palestinians without causing any real consequences. The “Peace with Security” bill, H.R. 3624, was introduced Jan. 24 by freshman Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), who was referred to by one congressional staff member as “AIPAC’s newest errand boy.” Following 10 paragraphs describing the PLO’s, the PA’s, and Chairman Arafat’s sins, real and imagined, the bill prohibits any U.S. funds from being used “for any form of assistance directly or indirectly to the Palestinian Authority or any instrumentality of the Palestinian Authority.” The bill does provide for a presidential waiver. In his letter to House members seeking co-sponsors, Cantor said, “The time has come to cut off all American taxpayer dollars to the Palestinian Authority, a proven terrorist organization.”

The reason Cantor’s statement and this bill make no sense is that for the past several years every foreign aid appropriations bill has contained the same provisions (Sections 546 and 555 in the most recent foreign aid bill) prohibiting “providing funds to the Palestinian Authority.” All of the $80 million to $100 million in aid currently provided to the West Bank and Gaza is administered directly by the USAID, usually through non-governmental organizations. Never mind. The bill now has 57 co-sponsors, in addition to Cantor.

The 57 are Reps. Spencer Bachus (R-AL), Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD), Shelley Berkley (D-NV), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Joseph Crowley (D-NY), John Culberson (R-TX), Jo Ann Davis (R-VA), Jim DeMint (R-SC), Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL), John Doolittle (R-CA), Eliot Engel (D-NY), Phil English (R-PA), Mike Ferguson (R-NJ), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Ernest Fletcher (R-KY), Randy Forbes (R-VA), Martin Frost (D-TX), Benjamin Gilman (R-NY), Virgil Goode (I-VA), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Felix Grucci (R-NY), Melissa Hart (R-PA), J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ), Steve Israel (D-NY), Tim Johnson, Walter Jones (R-NC), Sue Kelly (R-NY), Brian Kerns (R-IN), Jack Kingston (R-GA), Mark Kirk (R-IL), Tom Lantos (D-CA), Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), Michael McNulty (D-NY), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), C.L. Otter (R-ID), Major Owens (D-NY), Mike Pence (R-IN), Joseph Pitts (R-PA), Todd Platts (R-PA), Deborah Pryce (R-OH), Dennis Rehberg (R-MT), Thomas Reynolds (R-NY), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Jim Ryun (R-KS), Jim Saxton (R-NJ), Ed Schrock (R-VA), John Shadegg (R-AZ), Christopher Shays (R-CT), Rob Simmons (R-CT), Simpson, Mark Souder (R-IN), Thomas Tancredo (R-CO), Todd Tiahrt (R-KS), Tiberi, Anthony Weiner (D-NY), Dave Weldon (R-FL), and Jerry Weller (R-IL).

An even harsher bill, H.R. 3743, was introduced on Feb. 13 by Engel, with Saxton as co-sponsor. This bill’s effective provisions enact Cold War-type travel restrictions on PLO diplomats in the U.S. Specifically, PLO representatives in the U.S. would be restricted to a 25-mile radius of the U.N. headquarters building. Any other travel would require a written request 48 hours in advance of the travel. In addition, the bill includes a “Congressional Statement” urging, among other things, the president to terminate any waiver of the Middle East Peace Facilitation act, the secretary of state to designate the PLO and other “groups operating as arms of the Palestinian Authority” as foreign terrorist organizations, and the president to “direct the United States representative to the United Nations to take all appropriate measures to ensure termination of the permanent observer status of the PLO at the United Nations.”

If all goes according to plan, New York may soon be known as “Ramallah on the Hudson.”

Shirl McArthur, a retired foreign service officer, is a consultant in the Washington, DC area.

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