White House Chief of Staff John Sununu discussed a number of pressing Jewish concerns during an hour-long meeting Monday with Jewish leaders in New York.
The meeting, described by participants as warm and cordial, touched on a range of issues, including arms sales to Arab countries, Soviet Jewry and how the U.S. government will respond if Yasir Arafat asks it for an entry visa to address the U.N. General Assembly in New York.
The meeting was arranged by prominent Jewish Republican Jacob Stein and attended by other Republican figures, including Max Fisher of Detroit and New Yorker George Klein, as well as members of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
Sununu demurred on the most controversial topic currently on the U.S.-Israel agenda: whether or not the United States would grant a visa to the Palestine Liberation Organization leader if he should ask for one.
Sununu said official U.S. policy was not to comment on the visa as long as Arafat has not made an official request. The final decision, he said, would be up to President Bush and Secretary of State James Baker.
Many of the Jewish leaders stated their opposition to granting Arafat a visa because of his links to terrorism, a position voiced by 68 senators who signed a letter sent to Baker Monday.
The senators said they opposed granting a visa to Arafat or elevating the ongoing U.S.-PLO dialogue. Doing so would be granting the PLO “unearned concessions” that “could be seen as generally rewarding the PLO at this time.”
SHEIKH’S CAPTURE MENTIONED
Jewish leaders pressed Sununu about reports of a possible State Department request to sell 315 MIAI tanks to Saudi Arabia and asked whether or not Israeli or Jewish leaders would be consulted on the sale.
Sununu said the Bush administration would like to consult with Jewish groups about all arms sales, but it fears generating opposition to sales before they are formally proposed.
Participants said Sununu restated White House policy that some arms sales to Arab states are better conducted by the United States, which can place controls on the use of weapons that other countries would not impose.
The chief of staff said the administration welcomed close cooperation with Israeli leaders. In that regard, he said there was disappointment within the Bush administration about Israel’s handling of the abduction in August of Shiite leader Sheikh Abdul Karim Obeid.
Israel has not fully answered a number of questions the government has asked about the operation, he said.
The Jewish leaders expressed concern over reports that a number of refuseniks had been arrested in Moscow. Sununu said human rights remain on the agenda of all U.S.-Soviet contacts.
The meeting was Sununu’s second with the Conference of Presidents. Malcolm Hoenlein, the group’s executive director, said it was a “constructive discussion” that demonstrated the administration’s “great emphasis on keeping open” its dialogue with Jewish groups.
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