House Panel Increases Aid for Israel, Palestinians

WASHINGTON —  The House is moving to back up its words of support for Israel with hard cash, as a key committee approved an additional $200 million in aid to the Jewish state Thursday.

The bipartisan proposal would raise to nearly $3 billion the amount of U.S. aid that Israel receives this year.

The Bush administration was initially resistant but agreed to the new spending after persuading lawmakers to package it with $50 million in additional humanitarian aid for Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

On a voice vote, the Appropriations Committee added the combined aid package to a $29.1-billion anti-terrorism spending bill.

That bill, which was nearing committee approval late Thursday, also generated debate on the U.S. role in Colombia and congressional oversight of military affairs and homeland security.

But the action on the Middle East drew the most scrutiny, coming just a week after both houses of Congress overwhelmingly approved resolutions expressing solidarity with Israel and condemning Palestinian suicide bombers.

Although Secretary of State Colin L. Powell agreed to the aid package in a telephone conversation with Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee that handles foreign aid, it was clear that the impetus for the action came from Congress, not from the administration.

President Bush did not ask for more aid for either Israel or the Palestinians when he sent Congress a $27.1-billion emergency spending request in March. And his budget director recently urged lawmakers to keep Middle East aid proposals out of the spending bill.

But lawmakers contended that Israel urgently needs more money to combat a campaign of terror against its citizens. Many compared the Jewish state’s situation with what the U.S. confronted after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“Whether it’s Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah or whatever ... it’s the same war,” said Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), who sponsored the Israel aid amendment.

Kolbe said Powell told him that the proposed aid to Israel would be “much more useful” if balanced with humanitarian aid for Palestinians. Kolbe’s plan, which the committee adopted, would appropriate the $200 million to help Israel with “activities relating to combating international terrorism.”

The money for the Palestinians would be for “humanitarian and refugee assistance.” But Kolbe said that it would be channeled through international organizations and that no funds would go directly to the Palestinian Authority. Some lawmakers supported the aid reluctantly; a few opposed it.

Rep. David R. Obey of Wisconsin, the top Democrat on the committee, said he would back the proposal but was concerned that Congress was undercutting Bush’s leadership at a sensitive moment.

“We have a special obligation not just to the state of Israel, but to the president of the United States not to put him in a box,” Obey said. “It does a disservice to this country for us to pressure the president in any way to provide aid to any of the parties in this dispute.”

Rep. Sonny Callahan (R-Ala.), who opposed the proposal, said it was politically motivated--a conclusion he claimed most lawmakers privately shared. “I wish we could have a secret ballot” on the amendment, he said.

Not counting the proposed $200 million, the U.S. will provide $2.76 billion in aid to Israel in the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30. No money is allocated for the Palestinian Authority, but an aide to Kolbe said that Palestinians indirectly receive $75 million in U.S. relief aid.

With the additional Middle East money, the total cost of the anti-terrorism bill would rise to $29.4 billion, most of which would fund military operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere; domestic law enforcement; disaster relief in New York; and homeland security.

On Thursday, lawmakers also debated aid to Colombia. Rep. Jose E. Serrano (D-N.Y.) criticized a provision that would allow U.S. military aid to be spent not only on a Colombian campaign against drug traffickers--as Congress recently agreed to--but also on certain counter-terrorism activities.

“Colombia will become a Spanish-speaking Vietnam for us if we continue to go down this route,” Serrano said.

The panel also defeated, on a party-line vote, a nonbinding proposal to urge the homeland security chief, Thomas J. Ridge, to testify before Congress. The administration has refused to allow Ridge to give formal testimony on anti-terrorism plans, angering many lawmakers.