Bush’s top pick for defense chief has strong Israel ties

WASHINGTON -- Israeli officials and Jewish leaders are praising President-elect George W. Bush's likely pick for secretary of defense, former Republican Sen. Daniel Coats of Indiana, as an outspoken friend of Israel and an aggressive proponent of the Israeli-U.S. bilateral relationship.

Bush met with Coats, currently a lawyer at a Washington law firm, on Monday. Aides said on Wednesday the president-elect could formally announce his nominee as early as this week.

The secretary of defense serves alongside the president's national security adviser and secretary of state as a key figure on foreign policy issues. All arms sales must be approved by the Pentagon, making the secretary of defense a crucial figure in Israeli-U.S. ties.

"Whatever agreement will emerge from the peace process, when it comes to the implementation, if Israel needs equipment, it is approved by the Pentagon," said an Israeli military official in Washington.

The leading pro-Israel lobby, AIPAC, was full of praise for Coats, who served in the House of Representatives from 1981-1988 before he was appointed to the Senate in December 1988 to fill a vacancy caused by the election of Indiana senator Dan Quayle as vice president. Coats served in the Senate until 1998, when he did not seek a third term.

"He clearly has a great deal of sympathy for Israel," said one senior AIPAC official. "He understands it both in the strategic and the emotional sense."

Coats, 57, who served on the Senate Armed Services Committee and in the U.S. Army from 1966-1968, is well-versed in military issues and is a strong supporter of a national missile defense program, a linchpin of Bush's campaign.

Vice President-elect Dick Cheney, who is coordinating Bush's transition effort, is said to be backing Coats' nomination while Bush's nominee for secretary of state, Colin Powell, reportedly preferred an earlier candidate with less military experience, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge. Several former aides to Coats are employed by the Bush transition team.

Coats is regarded as a committed internationalist who consistently voted for foreign aid during his time in Congress. He signed onto a litany of pro-Israel initiatives and holds hawkish views on the peace process.

In a 1991 speech to the Israel Bonds organization, laden with references to the Nazi genocide, Coats described Israel as a "miracle," and the "most reliable" U.S. ally in the Middle East, saying that "support of Israel must remain the focus of American politics in the region."

"For years Israel has been urged to trade land for peace -- to sacrifice the tangible for the unlikely. I am convinced we must start at a different, earlier point. We must urge Arab nations to begin by trading peace for peace -- to end a permanent state of war with Israel. Before all else, we must hear from Arab mouths words that could change everything: 'Israel has a right to exist.'"

On domestic issues, Coats was considered a friend of the Jewish community in the Senate. At the request of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, he co-sponsored a bill that would have made special accommodations for religious people in the workplace, including Sabbath-observing Jews.

He is a friend of the defeated Democratic vice presidential candidate, Sen. Joseph Lieberman. On a flight to visit U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf a decade ago, Lieberman, an Orthodox Jews and Coats, a devout Protestant, reached into their bags simultaneously and pulled out Bibles while seated adjacent to one another.

The two senators then carried out a religious discussion and later became partners on interfaith issues, by serving as co-chairs of the Center for Jewish and Christian Values.