House Set To Follow Senate in Backing Israel Action
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
The House is set to vote today on a resolution endorsing Israel’s aerial bombardment of Lebanon and urging the president to use all diplomatic, political, and economic sanctions against Iran and Syria.
The resolution is almost certain to pass by a wide margin, as a similar one Tuesday passed the Senate nearly unanimously. It asserts Israel’s right to self-defense and urges the government of Lebanon to abide by U.N. resolution 1559, which requires that Hezbollah disarm. Israel estimates the terrorist organization has 13,000 missiles largely provided by Iran.
But nonetheless, the resolutions in Congress contain a small caveat that may affect opinion on Israel’s latest offensive in the capital. At the end of the Senate version, the resolution urges both sides to consider the effects on civilians and “recognizes that thousands of American nationals reside peacefully in Lebanon, and that those American nationals in Lebanon concerned for their safety should receive the full support and assistance of the United States government.”
The mention of the evacuation of Americans could signal uneasiness with the fact that Israel’s bombing campaign is so widespread that 8,000 Americans and countless French, Canadians, and other Western citizens are being evacuated from the country.
The House draft of the resolution so far “expresses its condolences to all families of innocent victims of recent violence,” but makes no mention of the evacuation of Americans from a country being bombed by an ally.
One stumbling block in the Senate was the usually pro-Israel lawmaker and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, John Warner, a Republican of Virginia. This week he said President Bush ought to consider the effect that Israel’s “extraordinary reaction” would have on American fighting forces in Iraq.
“This is a very critical time for the United States in the Middle East, and the Israeli actions will certainly have an impact beyond just Lebanon and Gaza,” he said Tuesday.
The resolutions in the Senate and House are supported by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
