US House wants to shut PLO Washington office, Senate refuses
The Republican-dominated US House of Representatives passed a motion calling for the
closing of the PLO's Washington office in response to the 'Palestinian Authority's unilateral action at the United Nations last month. Unfortunately, the Senate did not go along.
An attempt to force the issue through legislation is not likely to
succeed, given a failed attempt in the Senate earlier this month to
downgrade the status of the PLO’s delegation in Washington.
The House campaign followed a letter sent to President Barack Obama
by four senior Republicans and Democrats, who asked him to order the PLO
offices to be closed.
The letter was a response to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ violation of
the Oslo Accords by circumventing talks with Israel and going to the
United Nations for de facto recognition.
The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly granted the PA non-member
observer status and passed a non-binding resolution recognizing a future
PA country on the basis of the Temporary Armistice Lines drawn by the
UN in 1949.
After the vote, three senators, Democrat Sen. Chuck Schumer of New
York and Republican Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and John
Barraso of Wyoming, failed to win approval for an amendment to a defense
spending bill that would have closed the PLO offices as well as cut aid
to the Palestinian Authority.
The liberal Forward newspaper quoted Philip Wilcox, a former
U.S. consul general in Jerusalem and president of the Foundation for
Middle East Peace, as saying, “This is no more than posturing. It shows
how congressmen are willing to bow to the wishes of (the Israel lobby)
knowing the legislation will not go anywhere.”
Once upon a time, the United States barred all contact with the PLO. When the Oslo accords were signed in 1993 that changed. Blame our foolish leaders for it.
Labels: PLO, PLO mission, United States Senate, US House of Representatives
Surprise: J Street had nothing to do with Senate failure to shut PLO mission
On Wednesday night, I reported that under pressure from the Obama administration, the Senate had rejected an amendment to the defense appropriations bill that would have
shut down the PLO's Washington mission. In the same post, I noted that
J Street JINO's for 'Palestine' had taken credit for the amendment's defeat. Now, Alana Goodman reports that it was neither Obama nor J Street that brought about the amendment's defeat, but rather
the US Senate's procedural rules.
The amendment was dropped from the bill because of a technicality in
Senate procedure, according to Senator Lindsey Graham’s office, which
sponsored it.
“Once cloture was invoked, the amendment was not eligible for a vote
because it was not technically germane to the legislation,” said Graham
spokesperson Kevin Bishop.
Bishop added that Graham “will continue to explore opportunities for passing the legislation.”
More than 400 amendments were filed on the defense authorization bill and debated for days.
More than half of them were dropped,
either because they were considered technically non-germane (like the
amendment to close the PLO mission) or overly contentious (the Obama
administration threatened to veto
the bill if certain provisions were included). Typically, there is a
lot of conflict over the defense authorization bill, but this year it
passed easily through unanimous consent, largely because amendments that
may have raised objections were taken out. Senators were eager to rush
this thing out the door and focus on the fiscal cliff debate.
Was this because of J Street? I’m sure that’s what J Street would
like people to believe. In fact, the amendment was one of hundreds that
disappeared because of a procedural technicality or administration
objection. “Mystery” solved.
Heh.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Palestinian state RIGHT NOW syndrome, PLO mission, United Nations General Assembly
Under pressure from Obama, Senate rejects bill closing PLO office
Under pressure from the Obama administration, the Senate failed on Tuesday to pass a bill that would have
closed the PLO's Washington office in response to last week's UN General Assembly decision.
The National Defense
Authorization Act, passed late Tuesday, did not include among its
amendments one that would cut funding to the Palestinians should they
use their status, gained last week, to seek charges against Israel in
international courts.
The amendment also would have shuttered the
Palestine Liberation Organization office in Washington until the
Palestinians returned to peace talks with Israel.
The amendment
had been introduced by Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Lindsey Graham
(R-S.C.) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) on Nov. 29, the same day as the vote
in the UN General Assembly enhancing the Palestinian's statehood
status.
...
Other amendments favored by
pro-Israel groups, including one approving additional funding for the
Iron Dome anti-rocket system and one tightening Iran sanctions, passed.
Times of Israel reports that the amendment was defeated due to
pressure from the Obama administration (Hat Tip:
Stephen D).
According to Capitol Hill observers familiar
with the amendments, they were removed due to pressure from the White
House. While the Obama administration actively opposed PA President
Mahmoud Abbas’s UN General Assembly move — which saw a vote of 138-9
last Thursday in favor of upgrading “Palestine” to a nonmember observer
state — it was concerned that the proposed amendments would limit its
options when dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian issue going forward.
“Any administration will oppose amendments
that will limit their prerogatives,” said a senior pro-Israel Capitol
Hill source, noting however, that the amendments were not necessarily
dead.
“Any reports of its ultimate demise are
premature,” the source quipped about the Graham amendment. “It can be
attached to another piece of legislation down the road. Senate
amendments can resurrect themselves in other forms.”
Groups on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian issue have weighed in.
“Thanks to your outstanding efforts, the US
Senate did NOT include a measure to expel the Palestinian diplomatic
mission from the United States in the defense authorization bill which
was passed a few minutes ago,” read a J Street letter to supporters
Tuesday night.
A J Street campaign against the amendment
generated 14,250 emails and 950 calls to Senate offices, the group said,
“urging [senators] to oppose this and other attempts to punish the
Palestinians for their approach to the United Nations by ejecting their
official mission from our country.”
The group added: “This is a critical victory for the prospects for peace.”
In a statement Wednesday morning, the
right-wing Zionist Organization of America said, “With its latest
negation of Oslo and circumvention of negotiations, the PA should be
subject to the sternest possible penalties in terms of U.S. funding and
diplomatic support. We praise Senators Graham, Schumer, Barrasso and
Menendez for taking a very important step in this direction.”
There is nothing the 'Palestinians' can do that will cause the Obama administration to react. Nothing.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Palestinian state RIGHT NOW syndrome, PLO mission, United Nations General Assembly
PLO Washington office to be shut if they pursue unilateral statehood?
The House Foreign Operations Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee has proposed
shutting down the PLO's Washington office in the event that it unilaterally pursues 'statehood' in the United Nations.
The bill, referred Wednesday by the foreign operations subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee to the full committee, for the first time restricts the broad presidential waiver that applied to the 1988 law that originally banned setting up a Palestine Liberation Organization office on U.S. soil.
Instead of simply saying the president may waive the ban if doing so "is important to the security interests of the United States," the bill also requires the president to certify that "the Palestinian Authority is not attempting to establish or seek recognition at the United Nations of a Palestinian state outside of an agreement negotiated between Israel and the Palestinians" and "the Palestinian Authority is moving to halt anti-Israel incitement in Palestinian Authority-controlled electronic and print media and in schools, mosques, and other institutions it controls, and is replacing these materials, including textbooks, with materials that promote tolerance, peace, and coexistence with Israel."
Presidents have routinely waived the ban since the launch of the Oslo process in 1993. What had been known for years as the "Palestine Affairs Center" was renamed the PLO mission in 1994. Last year the Obama administration allowed the mission to fly the Palestinian flag for the first time.
...
Restrictions on Palestinian aid take up 10 pages of the 186-page bill, and the language has the backing of Democrats and Republicans, who otherwise are sharply divided over the Republican majority's introduction of cuts in assistance to other parts of the world and of bans on assistance to family planning clinics that provide information on abortions.
Maybe the PLO house of cards will finally fall. Unless the Israeli government stops it.
What could go wrong?
Labels: House Foreign Operations Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, Palestinian state RIGHT NOW syndrome, PLO, PLO mission, unilateral declaration of statehood
