WASHINGTON, 22 June — American Muslim organizations are urging Arab Americans to contact their Representatives in Congress and ask them to refuse to sponsor anti-Palestinian House Resolution 1795 (Middle East Peace Commitments Act of 2001) calling for sanctions against the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
The bill, sponsored by Representative Gary Ackerman (D-NY), says the Palestinians are responsible for the current round of violence. “At a time when the United States is desperately trying to hold together a fragile cease-fire in order to save lives, it is inconceivable that some members of Congress are more interested in unbalanced and one-side efforts that only set the process back,” writes the Arab American Institute in an announcement to its members. The “List of Shame” citing the congressmen can be found on www.aaiusa.org, and www.cair-net.org.
Indyk’s new post
Martin Indyk, the US ambassador to Israel, will return to Washington this year to serve as a Middle East specialist at the Brookings Institution. He will bring “firsthand diplomatic experience from the front lines” of the Arab-Israeli conflict and a “conceptual mastery of the underlying challenges to US policy in this region,” Brookings President Michael Armacost said Tuesday, while announcing that Indyk will join the think tank Sept. 1.
“Martin Indyk’s real-world experience and contacts in the area, combined with his academic expertise, will allow Brookings to examine the tough questions facing the region and to suggest workable solutions,” added Armacost, an undersecretary of state under President Reagan and ambassador to Japan. Indyk, the first Jewish US ambassador to Israel, is finishing his second tour as envoy in Tel Aviv. A Clinton appointee, Indyk served first from 1995 to 1997. He replaced James Sasser last year.
The new McCain
“John McCain might have saved my friends and me a lot of time, effort and money. If he had only let me know he was going to be a centrist Democrat in his third US Senate term, I would never have become the Democratic nominee against him in 1998,” Ed Ranger writes in a commentary in the Los Angeles Times.
“I thought I was running against a fellow who voted with Newt Gingrich and Trent Lott 95 percent of the time. How was I to know he’d been playing possum all that time?” Ranger said.
“This was a guy with ratings of zero from the American Federation of Teachers and the United States Student Association; 11 percent from moderate environmental groups and the Public Interest Research Group; 5 percent from the National Women’s Political Caucus; 14 percent from the AFL-CIO.
“I could go on and on, but my point is not to criticize our newfound friend. I’m just trying to remind myself why the heck I spent 12 months, $150,000 of my own money and more than 150,000 miles on the road telling Arizonans what a right-winger McCain was. Perhaps it is a good thing I lost (actually I was trounced). I might have deprived the country of a valuable Democratic leader,” he said.
Republicans stick with Helms
Despite reports that Elizabeth Dole is being courted to run for Sen. Jesse Helms’ North Carolina Senate seat, Republican leaders said Tuesday they are committed to Helms until he decides to leave office.
Sen. Helms, 79, has said he and his wife, Dorothy, will decide whether he should pursue a sixth term. He is expected to announce his choice by September. Helms’ age and health problems have fed rumors that he may leave office. He suffers from a condition that numbs his feet and impairs his balance, and he had knee replacement surgery in 1998. Dan Allen, spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told the Associated Press on Tuesday that Helms has earned the right to decide without pressure. Sen. Helms has laid down a timetable,” Allen said. “We’ll wait until then before anything happens with that seat.”
‘Rude Europeans’
“We used to call the kind of boorish behavior exhibited this past week by Europeans when President Bush visited bad manners. Especially since the United States and Europe are supposed to be friends,” Richard Benedetto writes at USAToday.com. “But ‘manners’ is a word that seems to have faded out of fashion these days, both here and abroad. In Europe, bashing the US president has become quite fashionable indeed,” Benedetto said.
“And the more outrageous the protest, the more the US media seemed to love it, often giving more coverage to the sideshow than the actual substance of the president’s trip,” he said.
