Defense Secretary-designate Mainly Supportive of Israel

Rep. Dick Cheney (R-Wyo.), who was nominated by President Bush to be secretary of defense, is considered a supporter of Israel who has, on occasion, been critical of Israeli policies.

Cheney was named by Bush on Friday, a day after the Senate rejected the president’s first choice, former Sen. John Tower (R-Texas) by a 53-47 vote.

Cheney is one of the most respected members of the House and, as Republican, whip, the No. 2 member of the GOP leadership there.

The 48-year-old Cheney has one of the more impressive resumes in government on Capitol Hill, but does not have much experience in defense matters. He did not serve in the military.

However, he is considered the leading House Republican in intelligence matters and is a member of the House Intelligence Committee.

Cheney has not taken a leading position on the Middle East, but Hyman Bookbinder, former Washington representative of the American Jewish Committee, said Cheney is a team player and he sees no grounds for the Jewish community to be concerned about him.

Bookbinder said he has known Cheney since he was special assistant to the director of the Office of Economic Opportunity during the Nixon administration, and then later as President Ford’s chief of staff. He praised him for his “outgoing personality.” Thomas Dine, executive director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, said that he and his staff have worked with Cheney over the years.

“We look forward to continuing our relationship with him in this and other areas of mutual concern, ” said Dine.

III-FATED TRIPS

Cheney has visited Israel several times. His first visit was as a member of Congress on the official U.S. delegation to the funeral of Moshe Dayan. During his second visit to Israel, Prime Minister Menachem Begin resigned.

Presenting the Republican perspective during the 1984 presidential campaign in an address to the annual policy conference of AIPAC, Cheney said that “there is no Republican or Democratic position on the security of Israel — only an American position.”

He said both parties are committed to the “belief that the future prosperity, security and survival of Israel and the United States are inextricably interwoven.”

As one of the most militant conservatives in the House, Cheney has voted against the overall foreign aid budget several times during his five terms in the House.

Cheney has supported arms sales to Arab countries, arguing they do not threaten Israel’s security.

At the same time, he has argued that there is no question about the importance of an Israeli presence on the West Bank. He said a way should be found to give the Palestinians there “some political rights, probably with Jordan’s government.”

Cheney criticized Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982 “as opportunistic.”

At the same time, he initiated a House letter to them Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, urging him to reach an agreement with Israel to obtain military date garnered by Israeli forces in Lebanon.

He co-sponsored a 1985 sense-of-the-House resolution urging Egypt to return its ambassador to Israel, who was withdrawn because of the Lebanese invasion.

Cheney also co-sponsored a House letter urging President Reagan not to go to the military cemetery in Bitburg, West Germany, because members of the Waffen SS are buried there.

Cheney was elected to Congress in 1978, and in 1981, was chosen as a member of the Republican leadership, one of the few to hold such a post after only one term in Congress.

He was the ranking Republican on the House select committee that investigated the Iran-Contra affair.