T A B L E+T A L K No smoking in California bars: Cool or absurd? Huff and puff in Headlines. D A I L Y+Q U O T E Tears and taps for Karla Faye Tucker R E C E N T L Y The worst show on earth By Ros Davidson Ted Kaczynski should be in a mental hospital. Instead, he's about to become the star in a grotesque courtroom circus (01/15/98) Dream girls By Jonathan Broder Why we watch figure skaters go through puberty on national television (01/14/98) The man behind Paula Jones By Jonathan Broder The head of the Rutherford Institute says he's not political. An examination of his record suggests otherwise (01/13/98) Lord of the dance By William O Beeman The Iranian president's carefully choreographed interview with CNN carried a large message to the U.S., and to his own people (01/12/98) Slaughter of the innocents By Erik Marcus The killing of 1.3 million chickens in Hong Kong is child's play compared to the massacres that occur on American farms every day (01/09/98) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Browse the Newsreal Archives - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
		The end PAGE 2 OF 2 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - According to administration officials, President Clinton is keenly aware of Netanyahu's game and is in no mood to humor him. Their meeting has been scheduled for one hour on Tuesday morning. There will be no joint news conference afterward, no lunch, none of the diplomatic niceties that normally accompany an Israeli leader's visit. At some point after their talks, officials say, Clinton will publicly comment on Netanyahu's proposals, and there is every indication he will be sharply critical. The only question is whether the president will then unveil some new plan to revive the peace process or abandon it altogether -- with a message to Israeli leaders similar to the one the Bush administration sent to the Shamir government: You have the White House telephone number, call when you're serious. If Clinton has any sense, he will do the latter. A U.S. plan will simply be picked apart by both Israelis and Palestinians. The phone number strategy brought down the Shamir government. It could do the same to Netanyahu. And a crucial difference this time is that Israel no longer has those "powerful forces" it can automatically count on -- the Jewish lobby and a sympathetic U.S. Congress. According to an internal Israeli Foreign Ministry report on congressional attitudes toward Israel, a growing number of lawmakers -- Democrats and Republicans -- have become deeply suspicious of Netanyahu and his intentions toward the peace process. This assessment was driven home last week when a U.S. congressional delegation met with Netanyahu's aides in Jerusalem. According to those who participated in the meeting, the delegation, which included traditionally pro-Israel Reps. David Skaggs, D-Colo., Bill Barrett, R-Neb., and Ray LaHood, R-Ill., asked tough questions about Israel's policy on troop withdrawals. In the end, LaHood expressed the view that Netanyahu was not interested in moving the peace process forward and warned that unless Netanyahu arrives in Washington with proposals for "substantial steps," Israel would no longer be able to count on his support. And LaHood warned he was not alone in Congress in this view. Moreover, the America-Israel Public Affairs Committee, (AIPAC), the once all-powerful pro-Israeli lobby in Washington, has not been able to stop this erosion of support. In Jerusalem, senior AIPAC lobbyists advised several members of the Israeli Knesset that anyone who thinks that Congress can be turned against the administration on the issue of peace simply does not comprehend Israel's poor image on Capitol Hill. The AIPAC officials added that Netanyahu's support for a proposed law banning the authority of Reform and Conservative Judaism in Israel has so enraged American Jews that the lobby can no longer count on their support on the peace issue. One concrete test will be the number of Republicans who show up when Netanyahu goes courting on Capitol Hill next week. He is set to meet with House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who has said he will make himself available despite the congressional break that doesn't end until Jan. 27. Despite urgent phone calls and invitations from the Israeli embassy, it is far from clear how many fellow Republicans will follow Gingrich's lead and how many will prefer to stay away. To compensate for his flagging support among Israel's traditional American bases, Netanyahu will spend a significant chunk of his two and a half days here meeting with fundamentalist Christians. On Monday evening, before his meeting with Clinton, Netanyahu is scheduled to address a fundamentalist Christian group called Voices United For Israel. His first media interview will be held on a Christian television station owned by Cal Thomas, a right-wing newspaper columnist who was formerly Jerry Falwell's press secretary. He is also set for a television interview with Pat Robertson, whose written musings on the power of Jewish bankers is considered by some to be expressions of classic anti-Semitism. When they are not angry or dismayed, administration officials are confused and saddened by the turn of Middle East events and most blame Netanyahu for it. The fervent wish at the State Department and the White House is for his government, currently hanging by a razor-thin majority, to collapse and be replaced by a more moderate leadership. But some officials are beginning to acknowledge that Netanyahu's government may not fall so easily, and that even if it does, the next government may be no less obstructionist. In his office, President Clinton keeps the yarmulke he wore during the funeral of one his greatest heroes and friends, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, assassinated in 1995 by a Jewish extremist whose motive was to scuttle the peace process. The question is, what can Clinton do to make sure that his dear friend did not die in vain. SALON | Jan. 16, 1998 Jonathan Broder is Salon's regular Washington correspondent.