http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/11682/
Future House Power: Dems Back Talks With Iran and Syria December 28, 2006 Ron Kampeas Jewish Telegraphic Agency WASHINGTON Encouraging contact with Syria and Iran will be a central plank of the new Democratic Congress, said the U.S. House of Representatives' incoming majority leader, outlining an agenda that differs radically from the Bush administration's on domestic and foreign policy. U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said that both parties' support for Israel would remain unstinting. "[Rep.] Roy Blunt and I will continue to make it clear that there is a bipartisan overwhelming commitment to Israel's defense and security," Hoyer said, referring to the incoming minority whip, a Missouri Republican. While a number of the marquee domestic items that the Democrats hope to pass in Congress' first 100 working hours already have explicit Jewish backing, the leadership's openness toward Syria and Iran conflicts dramatically with much of the mainstream pro-Israel community. "Not talking is not particularly useful," Hoyer said in a wide-ranging, 45-minute phone interview. "It may be symbolic, but it doesn't get to solutions." He said that the Democratic Party embraced such contacts -- one of the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, the congressionally mandated commission headed by former Secretary of State James Baker and former U.S. Rep. Lee Hamilton. Hoyer scored a decisive win in a caucus vote last month to become majority leader. Jewish groups watched the race closely, since Hoyer has proven to be one of Israel's best friends in Congress, leading multiple delegations to the Jewish state and isolating the caucus' few anti-Israel voices. In the interview, he said commitment to Israel was unflagging, noting that Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), a Holocaust survivor who is one of Israel's staunchest defenders, was set to chair the House International Relations Committee. In one of its final acts this year, Congress passed the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act. Hoyer suggested that the 110th Congress -- the first led by Democrats since 1994 -- would continue to advocate the isolation of a Palestinian Authority led by the terror group Hamas, while seeking ways to bolster Mahmoud Abbas, the relatively moderate P.A. president of the Fatah Party. "Hamas has no willingness to give up its major intention, its policy of eliminating Israel," said Hoyer. "There is a majority in the Congress that oppose and sanction Palestinian terrorists, whether or not they're pretending to be politicians." Hoyer is especially close with Howard Friedman, a Baltimore-area constituent who is president of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. AIPAC has made clear -- obliquely, through backgrounders distributed to the media -- that it opposes the Iraq commission's call to open channels to Iran and Syria. Bush has already bluntly rejected the commission's recommendation that greater engagement with Syria and Iran could help contain Iraq's burgeoning civil war. Those nations will remain off limits, Bush has said, until they stop backing terrorism and -- in Iran's case -- cooperate with nuclear inspectors. And both nations want compensation for merely talking, according to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice -- "and that's a problem." That approach is a dead end, according to Hoyer. Talking "does not mean you talk to make a deal that is not in the interests of America or its allies, and Israel is an important ally," he said. He said that Congress would use all of its tools to encourage such talks, including hearings, resolutions and appropriations. That could raise concerns in some sectors of the pro-Israel community and encourage others. Groups like the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League already have excoriated the Iraq Study Group, saying that it handed an undeserved plum to rejectionists. Hoyer also said that Congress would remain vigilant about Iran's nuclear capability. "The mere fact of talking does not mean you're going to agree with an Iran that says, 'If we get out of Iraq, you'll get off our backs on nuclear weapons,' " he said. "We believe a nuclear-armed Iran is a danger to the Middle East, to America and to national security." [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. 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