WASHINGTON, 25 November — A Capitol Hill hearing turned into a shouting match between two pro-Israeli officials last week, when a former deputy secretary of state and veteran congressman attacked each other over their Jewish partiality.
Congressmen Henry Waxman, D-California, attacked Lawrence Eagleburger, a 27-year State Department veteran, of "disdaining" Holocaust survivors.
"Don’t you tell me that I’m disdainful of these people who have suffered so much, shouted Eagleburger, who chairs an international panel assigned to resolving unpaid Holocaust-era insurance claims.
Eagleburger, who has often been mistaken for a Jew because of his last name and devotion to Israel, was enraged with Rep. Waxman.
Eagleburger, 71, was chosen in 1968 by national security adviser-designate Henry Kissinger to oversee his White House transition team. Since then, he has remained Kissinger’s trusted lieutenant, serving under him at the State Department, heading his consulting firm in the 1980s and defending his honor against accusations, by journalists Seymour Hersh and Christopher Hitchens among others, that he ordered war crimes during the Vietnam War.
Eagleburger has been pushing Jewish causes for decades. His latest struggle — despite a myriad of health problems — has been on behalf of Israel’s campaign for membership in the International Committee of the Red Cross.
But his credentials did not save him from Rep. Waxman’s attacks. Last week’s 15-minute shouting match began after Waxman demanded to see a breakdown of the insurance commission’s $40 million administration expenses. Eagleburger told him that it was none of the congressman’s business, as Congress has no jurisdiction over the commission’s process.
Eagleburger later told journalists that prior to Waxman’s outburst on the floor, the congressman had made no attempt to discuss his concerns privately with the organization. Waxman has criticized the insurance commission for spending $40 million on administrative expenses but only offering $21.9 million in claims to survivors.