Clamor from Israel lobbyists confusing Congress

About two weeks before Ehud Olmert's speech to the combined houses of Congress, a much-heralded congressional initiative to isolate the Palestinian Authority is in limbo, in part because no one is quite sure what Israel wants.

Top members of Congress, the Bush administration and senior diplomats are sorting through conflicting signals from Israel and its supporters as they attempt to formulate a policy on how to assist Palestinians while isolating their leaders.

Olmert arrives May 21, meets Bush on May 23 and addresses Congress on May 25. The congressional speech is a rare honor, one actively solicited by the Israeli Embassy, AIPAC and other Jewish groups.

Olmert needs the reinforcement as he launches a plan to withdraw from more of the West Bank. To get that support, he'll have to present a detailed outline of how he plans to deal with the Palestinians.

The Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act, which had accumulated 291 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives, was guaranteed passage in a vote scheduled for this week before it was abruptly removed from the congressional calendar.

Israel's mixed signals are part of the problem. Olmert's government has yet to work out how to deal with a Palestinian Authority tugged in different directions by its Cabinet — led by Hamas — and Mahmoud Abbas, the relatively moderate authority president from the Fatah party.

Members of Congress who look to Israel for guidance wanted to wait until Olmert could articulate where exactly Israel stood before clamping down on the Palestinians.

That could take a few days. Israel is stinging from reports such as one in the New York Times, describing a Gaza Strip on the verge of collapse because of its isolation. And while Israel is loathe to prop up the Hamas government in any way, some government officials feel that if Gaza plunges into chaos, it could endanger Israel and remove any leverage Israel has left with the authority's security forces.

For congressional members, the mixed signals were coming not just from Israel but from the pro-Israel community as well. Congressional staffers said a combined phone blitz by three dovish groups opposed to the bill was having an effect.

As one staffer put it, there were "two possible pro-Israel votes" — for and against the bill.

The three dovish groups are Americans for Peace Now, the Israel Policy Forum and the Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace. The groups say the bill's restrictions on presidential flexibility in dealing with the Palestinians are too broad and not limited to Hamas, but apply to the entire Palestinian political spectrum.

The legislation "undermines the U.S. role in bringing Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table towards the end of achieving a two-state resolution of the conflict," the Alliance said in a letter to Congress members.

Such appeals apparently were having an effect. AIPAC, which lobbied hard for the bill, told journalists the delay was "procedural," but in a private alert to its members "strongly urged" them to maintain support for the bill.

The alert outlined talking points to rebuff the dovish groups' points. The Senate and House versions of the bill "allow humanitarian assistance to flow unfettered and maintain the president's flexibility to provide indirect non-humanitarian project assistance if he deems it is in the national security interests of the United States," the AIPAC memo said.