JINSA Report #573 "Voice, vote, and influence"

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May 23, 2006

JINSA Report #573

"Voice, vote, and influence"

The U.S. has been adamant about withholding funds from Hamas, and has
gotten surprisingly decent support from European countries and Arab
banks. As a rule, it's good not to spend our money on terrorists. But an
even better approach has emerged in The Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act
of 2006, by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and nearly 300 co-sponsors,
attacking the Palestinian question at its diplomatic roots. American
support for Palestinian aspirations to statehood must be predicated upon
Palestinian support for civil rights for its own people and demonstrable
acceptance of the legitimacy of Israeli sovereignty in the region. The
President said so in the June 24th Speech, and Rep. Ros-Lehtinen's bill
adds congressional muscle to his words.

In our favorite part, the bill directs the President to "transmit to the
appropriate congressional committees a report containing recommendations
for the elimination of such entities and efforts that are duplicative or
fail to ensure balance in the approach of the United Nations to
Israeli-Palestinian issues," citing:

* The United Nations Division for Palestinian Rights
* The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the
Palestinian People
* The United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace
Process and Personal Representative to the Palestine Liberation
Organization and the Palestinian Authority
* The NGO Network on the Question of Palestine
* The Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the
Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied
Territories
* Any other entity the Secretary determines results in duplicative
efforts or funding or fails to ensure balance in the approach to
Israeli-Palestinian issues

It then directs the Permanent Representative of the United States to the
United Nations to use his "voice, vote and influence," to enact the
President's recommendations.

The bill also restricts the visas of Palestinian "diplomatic"
representatives, restricts their travel in the U.S. (for UN meetings,
etc., although after we get rid of all of those one-sided committees, we
won't need many Palestinian "diplomats"), and prohibits PA
representation in the U.S.

That hits two of the four recommendations JINSA made right after the
election - we also wanted to disband the Quartet and shelve the Road Map
- and makes clear that the U.S. has standards for diplomatic
intercourse, even as the bill permits limited humanitarian funding -
with U.S. aid packages labeled as such. We previously called on the U.S.
and the EU to "withdraw political support for Palestinian statehood and
decline to treat PA personnel like diplomats when they troop through
Europe and the UN … At the level of public perception, Palestinians
relish being the political equivalent of the Israelis - they are not and
they should be denied."

This bill goes a very long way toward that goal; not as punishment but
as the natural outcome of political choices the Palestinians have made
and which we Americans are under no obligation to support.

To view this JINSA Report online click on the link below.
http://www.jinsa.org/JINSAReports/3412

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