ISRAEL ON CAPITOL HILL
Dine, Thomas A.
PERSPECTIVE ISRAEL ON CAPITOL HILL Thomas A. Dine Those who had become accustomed to swift Congressional approval of resolutions in aid and support of Israel felt deep concern at the lengthy and...
...A potent political push is necessary to take on a new foreign commitment and, without Israel as the driving force, America's national legislators might have rejected stationing our national honor in the sands of the Sinai...
...To preserve Congress's prerogatives, crucial parliamentary safeguards were written into the joint resolution...
...In fact, it is likely that Israel's recent flexibility in diplomacy has gained increased support within the legislative branch...
...The Committee spent eight hours with Kissinger and several more with Under Secretary of State Joe Sisco...
...commitments in the Middle East will undergo close Congressional scrutiny...
...I am not prepared to argue that executive agreements are ipso facto invalid under our Constitution...
...If the targets of American brokering had been India and Pakistan, or Turkey and Greece, or Brazil and Argentina, the debates over public disclosures and the validity of executive agreements would have been similar...
...The two most controversial questions concerned the Constitutional validity of Executive agreements made in connection with the Sinai disengagement, and public disclosure of all the documents...
...Part of his opposition to the agreement rested on the point that the obligations the U.S...
...He said, "The Constitution specifically acknowledges only one form of international agreement, the treaty...
...might eventually be drawn into armed conflict in the Middle East...
...Further, both Houses asserted that the resolution in no way signified approval or disapproval by Congress of any other agreements or understandings...
...Henceforth, U.S...
...are part and parcel of the overall arrangement...
...Of the 70 who voted for the Sinai resolution, there were 41 Democrats and 29 Republicans...
...Israel simply happens to be at the center of deliberations over the direction of U.S...
...some worried over historical analogy was this a League of Nations or Gulf of Tonkin situation...
...Majority Leader Mansfield agreed...
...In the Senate, proponents of the interim peace accord won all seven roll call votes...
...foreign policy for the remainder of this decade...
...However, Kissinger told NBC interviewers right after the vote that his negotiated documents were binding...
...The United States still bears the scars of the Indochina misadventure...
...An analysis of the vote displays the depth of support for Israel in the Senate...
...took second significance to the means of conducting foreign policy...
...Such development can strengthen the U.S...
...Yet Israel's security is still an acknowledged goal of American foreign policy, even in this altered context...
...Case, the most senior Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, took the political risk of leading the fight with the Administration to declassify the secret statements of agreement and assurances...
...We cannot approve a part of the package," he told reporters, "without seeing the contents of the entire package...
...this includes five out of the two parties' six floor leaders...
...Sen...
...had assumed toward Israel's defense were of "tremendous magnitude...
...His quip also summed up the position of Israel on Capitol Hill in the autumn of 1975 powerful and controversial...
...In testimony before the Committee on Foreign Relations, Abourezk urged the assurances and undertakings be dealt with as a treaty...
...His motion to recommit the resolution to the Committee on Foreign Relations was soundly rejected, 9-85...
...said, "It is the collective judgment of the Foreign Relations Committee that it is in our national interest to assign these 200 technicians to the Sinai as a substantial step toward a general peace settlement in the Middle East...
...But after a good deal of scrutiny, an overwhelming majority felt that the advantages of the resolution far outweighed the disadvantages...
...I think they could table the Lord's Prayer...
...Many expressed hesitation...
...participation in the Sinai early warning system...
...These commitments represent an important development in American approach to foreign policy in that area...
...For the first time in recent years in any debate involving Israel, speakers made repeated reference to the interest of the United States...
...A look at the two points of Senate decision-making in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and on the Senate floor shows the extent of the broad-based support for the early warning system in the Sinai...
...The House of Representatives approved the Sinai resolution by a margin of 341 to 69...
...After a tumultuous five-week debate, first in the Committee on Foreign Relations and then for two full days and nights in the chamber, the Senate voted 70-18 in favor of placing up to 200 civilian technicians on the new Israel-Egypt peace line...
...Israel did not sign the pullback agreement in isolation from the assurances contained in the secret agreements...
...The technicians are part of a package deal...
...who based his arguments on the lack of consultation and good faith on the part of the Executive branch...
...Dine is Senior Defense and International Affairs Analyst for the Senate Budget Committee...
...I believe that such agreements are valid when entered into pursuant to specific treaties or statutes...
...That concern, however, was misplaced...
...In addition, Republican national figures Senators Howard Baker, Bill Brock, Lowell Weicker, and Charles Percy voted in favor...
...For Congress, the substance of the interim Sinai accord between Egypt, Israel, and the U.S...
...Finally, all potential Democratic presidential contenders announced and unannounced supported the proposal and made strong statements on behalf of Israel...
...Reportedly, Kissinger was unsettled by his dogged, intelligent questioning...
...The obligations undertaken by the United States are serious enough for it to be debated as a treaty and approved as one...
...Senator John Stennis, Chairman of the Committee on Armed Services, said, "This is not merely a question of doing something for someone else...
...Most members privately analyzed the agreement in a similar fashion, but only those less sympathetic to Israel, like Mansfield, would say it openly...
...Clem Zablocki, ranking majority member of the House International Relations Committee and House author of the War Powers Act...
...For in this most recent chapter in Congressional-Israeli relations, debate has shifted from focusing solely on how to help Israel to the role of the United States in the Middle East the prime area for potential world conflict...
...Curiously, Congress's two chambers endorsed the agreement by greater margins than the Knesset's 70-43 vote...
...Rather, it is the suspicion that we might go about fulfilling that commitment in the wrong way...
...The Sinai debate did not show an erosion of support for Israel, as Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has suggested...
...Tempers heated over the Executive withholding public disclosure of all the negotiated documents...
...It is also a question of doing something that is highly beneficial to us...
...However, the votes might not have been...
...In fact, when Congress votes on the appropriations that arise from the agreements, the agreements themselves will become binding, blessed by both branches...
...Failure to disclose documents which would bind the United States was considered costly to our concept of democracy, more than momentarily bruising the foreign ministries in Cairo and Jerusalem...
...The issue which produced the most heat in the debate centered on the Constitutional struggle between the branches over who makes foreign policy...
...Pro-Israel Senators, Congressmen, and Administration adherents joined to hold the line against a combination of anti-Israel members and some determined dissidents, who were fearful that the Perspective Con' t. U.S...
...The manner in which the Legislative branch participated in concluding the Sinai compact is the first post-Vietnam test case of Congressional resolve to be a significant force in national policymaking...
...In the Committee, staunch Israel supporters Senator Clifford Case and Senator Hubert Humphry handled the management of the resolution, as they did on the floor as well...
...These...
...Members were aware of the necessity for approving the resolution...
...Israel's strongest proponents agreed, arguing that the more revealed publicly, the less able Kissinger would be to default on his promises...
...A critic, Senator Ernest Hollings, put it this way: "It is not that our commitment has diminished...
...and its system of government and the popular consensus that is the keystone of American support for Israel...
...The list of key members who sided with Israel contains the first and second tiers of the Senate's most powerful...
...PERSPECTIVE ISRAEL ON CAPITOL HILL Thomas A. Dine Those who had become accustomed to swift Congressional approval of resolutions in aid and support of Israel felt deep concern at the lengthy and difficult debate over the placement of American technicians in the Sinai...
...Just one hour later, the Senate followed Goldwater's advice and voted in favor of U.S...
...proposal for the Sinai early warning system only on the condition that American technicians will be removed immediately when an outbreak of hostilities between Egypt and Israel occurs, when Congress determines that the safety of our personnel is jeopardized, or when their role is no longer necessary...
...By the time the debate ended, only the secret memorandum prepared for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by the State Department's Legal Advisor (in which a number of the provisions of the agreements are interpreted as legally binding U.S...
...a vital interest of the United States...
...Then he added a viewpoint generally accepted by the Senate...
...The Committee reported the resolution to the full Senate by a vote of 14 to 2, Senators Mike Mansfield and Biden dissenting...
...At our request, Thomas A. Dine has analyzed the debate, and the vote, in this Perspective...
...Without it," Senator Robert Taft stated, "the Sinai agreement is abrogated...
...The reason for the intense controversy is the new Constitutional realism with which members of Congress approach Middle East issues...
...As the lengthy and legalistic debate dragged on, Senator Barry Goldwater intervened to attempt to stop opponents from offering obstructing amendments...
...Thirteen out of 15 standing committee chairmen who were present voted positively, while the three who were out of town said they would have voted "aye" had they been present...
...This latter group opposed the essential element of the accord because they oppose foreign policy-making in this country by secret covenants and by executive commitments not ratified by Congress...
...And Budget Committee Chairman Senator Edmund Muskie saw "enhancing the prospect of peace and stability between two belligerents...
...Opening the debate on the Sinai mission, Senator Hubert Humphrey The recent Congressional debate over the placement of American technicians in the Sinai perplexed many people...
...Members recognized the political and military risks and high financial costs...
...The legislation authorizes the President to implement the U.S...
...commitments) and the top secret agreements between Israel and Egypt remained classified...
...It is very obvious," Goldwater observed, "that any tabling motion is going to succeed...
...As debate continued, the Sinai message became clear: The people and the Congress would no longer accept being bound by one branch of government...
...The power of the Constitutional process and Congressional sympathy toward Israel prevailed in the Sinai debate...
...From the public record and private conversations, it is clear that a majority of members favored full disclosure...
...Thomas Eagle-ton noted, "It would be . . . unfair to Israel and/or Egypt to do nothing to clarify the legal status of the agreements that will consummate with our government...
...On the House side, the International Relations Committee passed a joint resolution by a vote of 31 to 0. In analyzing the House tally, the only high level Congressman of the 69 who voted against the legislation was Rep...
...He urged his conservative colleague, Senator Jesse Helms, no friend of Israel, to withdraw his amendment before it was decisively turned back, as every other measure had been, through the face-saving device of a tabling amendment...
...The South, traditionally more cool toward Israel than other regions, produced 23 votes in favor, six opposed...
...Although the resolution states that passage will not constitute approval of the underlying agreements, this is but an attempt to allow Congress to have its Perspective Con't._ cake and eat it too...
...The most significant anti-Israeli effort was an amendment offered by Jim Abourezk, the Senate's most outspokenly pro-Arab member...
Vol. 1 • December 1975 • No. 5
