Speech #1020150126

I commend my colleague. Mr. OWENS from Utah. for holding this special order on the Bush administrations absurd policy of refusing to grant humanitarian loan guarantees to Israel for the absorption of Soviet immigrants. The administrations actions are an outrage and must be reversed. It is in Americas interest to prevent any further deterioration in our special relationship with this strategic and only democratic ally in the Middle East. While the volatile environment in the former Soviet Union and the growing antiSemitic tide threatens the very lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent Jewish refugees. the Bush administration is playing politics with humanitarian aid to assist Israel in absorbing these newcomers. Free and unfettered immigration has been a conerstone of American policy since the State of Israel was created. This policy has now been put into question by this administrations immoral policy. After appearing to negotiate a compromise which would allow the loan guarantees to go forward. the administration rejected the very compromise it had previously suggested it would support. The compromise attempted to address the administrations concerns over Israeli settlement activity while allowing the guaranteeswhich are not grants or loans and would have minimal impact on the budgetto go forward to help Israel absorb the immigration of up to I million Soviet and Ethiopian Jews by middecade. The administrations actions make clear that it was never really interested In negotiating a compromise and was instead interested only in public posturing and playing politics with aid to Israel while carrying favor with the Arab nations of the Middle East. The administrations actions threaten to prolong the suffering of 1 million refugees and erodes confidence in the United StatesIsrael relationship. It is shortsighted and counterproductive. It is astounding that the Bush administration could approve millions in aid and loan guarantees to Saddam Husseins Iraq before August 2. 1990. and even make $360.7 million in payments to private banks on the loans. while turning its back on Israel.