Aipac Official Says Israel ‘was the Engine’ That Passed the Foreign Aid Bill in the House

Thomas Dine, executive director of the American Israel Public Affairs Commitee (AIPAC), claimed here today that “Israel was the engine that passed the foreign aid bill” in the House of Representatives.

The measure, adopted by a close 211-206 vote last Thursday was controversial because it contained aid for Central America, Dine said in a briefing at the office of the New York Jewish Community Relations Council. Many Congressmen supported the bill because it also contained an aid package for Israel, Dine said.

He noted in that connection that 21 of the 31 Jewish members of the House voted in favor of the measure and the 10 who voted against it did so because of the controversy over Central America.

The foreign aid bill includes $2.5 billion in aid for Israel in fiscal 1985, all of it in grants. Dine noted that it is the first time that the entire aid package for Israel is in the form of grants. It includes $1.4 billion in military aid and $1.1 billion in economic aid.

The Senate will consider its own foreign aid bill early next month and there is already a move there to increase the aid to Israel by $100 million, Dine said.

ISRAEL-U.S. RELATIONS TERMED ‘VERY STRONG’

He stressed in his briefing that relations between Israel and the U.S. are “very strong” on the legislative level and that “things that are taking place in U.S.-Israel relations now were unthinkable only a few years ago.”

Dine said the good-will toward Israel in the House was further demonstrated recently when an amendment to the foreign aid bill introduced by Rep. Nick Rahall (D. W. Va.) which would have cut appropriations for development of the Lavie, Israel’s second generation jet fighter plane, was rejected by a vote of 379-40.

Another issue that points to the strong relationship between Washington and Jerusalem today is the Free Trade Area agreed to by President Reagan and Premier Yitzhak Shamir on November 29, 1983.

Congressional action is required to provide the authorization and implementation of the project. AIPAC is “pushing very hard” on this issue, Dine said. He noted that there was opposition to the Free Trade Area from various business groups in the U.S.

Reagan and Shamir also agreed on strategic cooperation between the U.S. and Israel. Representatives of both countries are presently engaged in negotiations on this and while both governments are “tight lipped,” the negotiations are progressing, Dine said.

AIPACT TO CONTINUE PUSHING ON EMBASSY ISSUE

The AIPAC official also spoke of pending legislation to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and to transfer the U.S. Embassy there from Tel Aviv. This matter enjoys broad bi-partisan support in both houses of Congress, he said. But it is a “controversial” issue and the Administration is opposed.

Nevertheless, Dine said, AIPAC will continue to press the matter and will push for legislation even “if it takes a couple of Congresses to pass such a controversial issue.”

Dine predicted that U.S.-Israel relations will grow even stronger toward the end of this year “in kind, not only in rhetoric.” “We are going to keep up the momentum,” he said.