PROFILES IN COURAGE: CENTER SALUTES EFFORT TO HOLD HEARINGS ON SYRIAN DEAL, URGES REP. GILMAN TO AGREE

(Washington, D.C.): On 20 March, four chairmen of House
International Relations subcommittees wrote to the Committee’s
chairman, Rep. Benjamin Gilman (R-NY) with an urgent request: “…To
express our strong desire for Full Committee hearings to be held
soon on the subject of the Golan Heights and the prospect of
stationing U.S. troops there as part of a settlement between
Israel and Syria.”

The chairmen of the subcommittees on the Western
Hemisphere (Rep. Dan Burton, R- IN), Africa (Rep. Ileana Ros
Lehtinen, R-FL), International Operations and Human Rights (Rep.
Christopher Smith, R-NJ) and Asia and the Pacific (Rep. Doug
Bereuter, R-NE) went on to note that: “Statements by senior
Clinton Administration officials indicate a predisposition in
favor of stationing U.S. troops on the Heights. This is a very
serious matter which demands close consideration by the U.S.
Congress.”

Most importantly, these influential legislators expressed a
concern that has long animated the Center for Security Policy’s
work in this area: “We would strongly prefer to have such
hearings soon, because we are concerned that if and when a
deal is announced between Syria and Israel, it will be too late
to consider this issue in a thoughtful manner. The security of a
close and loyal ally and the safety of U.S. troops are at stake
here.“

The Center commends Reps. Burton, Ros Lehtinen, Smith and
Bereuter for their courage in seeking the opportunity to pose —
and obtain answers to — hard questions that some, notably the
Clinton Administration and the Israeli government, would prefer
not to address before an Israeli-Syrian agreement is
reached. As the attached column
by the Center’s director, Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., which appeared
in the Washington Times on 21 March, indicates, such
questions would not only illuminate the serious strategic and
political problems associated with placing U.S. monitors on the
Golan but also:

the folly of removing Syria — as the Clinton
Administration evidently intends to do — from the list
of state-sponsors of terrorism and drug-trafficking
nations despite its insidious, ongoing activity in both
areas;

the irresponsible promise of U.S. financial assistance to
Syria, notwithstanding the expressed opposition of such
key legislators as the chairman of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee (Sen. Jesse Helms, R-NC) and the
chairman of the House Foreign Operations Appropriations
Subcommittee (Rep. Sonny Callahan, R-AL);

the dangers associated with assisting Syria — either
directly through U.S. military sales or indirectly
through financial assistance and/or debt relief that
frees up resources for weapons purchases — in pursuing
its offensive arms build-up.

The Center for Security Policy calls once again on Rep.
Gilman and his Senate counterpart, Senator Helms, to hold
hearings at once into these matters. By so doing, they may yet be
able to ensure that the Congress is “in on the
take-off” and not just the “landing” of the
Israeli-Syrian negotiations. And let there be no doubt: Unless
dramatic course corrections are undertaken as a result of
congressional hearings and debate on the foregoing (and related)
points, such a landing is likely to be a crash-landing —
one that represents a serious set-back in the quest for a genuine
and durable peace in the region.