Washington Watch Articles From 1998
A CONFUSING WEEK
This has been an extraordinary week of conflicting events and confusing emotions.
THREE VISITS AND THEIR IMPACT
During the next month the Middle East will host a number of prominent American political leaders. Some of these visits could play an important role in reshaping the U.S. discussion of the Middle East conflict.
REPUBLICANS AND IMPEACHMENT
The Republican Party is in a quandary. On the one hand it is clear that the Republicans’ impeachment strategy backfired in the 1998 elections.
CAMPAIGN AGAINST CHEMICAL & BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS MUST BE CONSISTENT
Last August the United States destroyed a Sudanese pharmaceutical plant mistakenly suspected of producing chemical and biological weapons (CBW).
WILL CLINTON’S TRIUMPH AT WYE SAVE MIDDLE EAST PEACE?
The nine-day ordeal at the Wye Plantation produced an agreement that can only be described as Bill Clinton’s triumph.
THE MEANEST AND DIRTIEST CAMPAIGN
New York State will be the scene of this year’s meanest and ugliest Senate race. Republican Senator Al D’Amato, long known for his ruthless campaign tactics, has met his match.
OUR ADVICE TO MADELEINE ALBRIGHT
In recent discussions with U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and other White House and State Department officials, Arab Americans have presented a consensus view on the current state of U.S.-Middle East policy.
THE UNPREDICTABLE 1998 ELECTIONS
As they are occurring under the cloud of the continuing preoccupation with the President’ scandal, this November’s congressional elections will be both unique and unpredictable.
THE CONSUMING SCANDAL
The Independent Counsel’s (IC) report on the President’s scandal hit Washington like a hurricane last week—and the storm is not over yet.
REAL DAMAGE HAS BEEN DONE
The Lewinsky affair comes to a head this week with the President’s testimony before a Washington grand jury.
U.S. PUBLIC READY FOR AN ARAB CAMPAIGN
An August 1-3, 1998 poll conducted for the Arab American Institute in Washington show that the attitudes of U.S. voters toward Israel and the Palestinians are now dead even.
THE GROWING DEBATE AGAINST SANCTIONS
The U.S. Senate put the Freedom from Religious Persecution Act (FRPA) on indefinite hold last week.
JEWISH VOTERS IN THE 1998 ELECTIONS
U.S. electoral politics can be a crass and unprincipled business. A reminder of this fact came last month with the release of a strategy report by Frank Luntz, a leading Republican pollster.
CHINA AND STARR: COMPETING FOR NEWS
President Clinton returns from his nine-day visit to China the nation’s press still consumed with the twists and turns of the Monica Lewinsky affair.
A BLEAK MOOD
It is difficult not to feel some degree of despair over the current demise of the Middle East peace process and its impact on the broader region.
GINGRICH AND THE NOVEMBER CAMPAIGN
Republican congressional leader Newt Gingrich’s recent behavior must be understood as part of his party’s strategic approach to the upcoming 1998 congressional elections.
ZE’VI SHOULD GO
On the eve of yet another round of peace talks with U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has invited the leader of the Modelet Party to join his coalition government.
THE BATTLE OF LETTERS
The Clinton Administration’s as yet unannounced, but much talked about, proposal to break the impasse in the peace process may only call for an inadequate 13 percent Israeli withdrawal, but it has already created a war in Washington and deep divisions within the U.S. Jewish community.
REMEMBERING DEIR YASSIN
It was 50 years ago that the Zionist terrorist groups Irgun and Lehi (Stern Gang) committed a massacre in the Arab village of Deir Yassin.
PAULA JONES AND THE PRESIDENT
President Clinton returned from an historic African visit to a somewhat brighter Washington than the one he left.