Thursday, Aug. 7, 2003 | 9:30 a.m.
WASHINGTON -- Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said Wednesday that her trip to Israel this week has convinced her to support that nation's construction of a controversial security fence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Palestinians object to the fence, and it has U.S. officials considering reducing loan guarantees to Israel.
Berkley said she will fight any fence-related effort to reduce the loan guarantees.
"The fence is an important security tool necessitated by continued Palestinian terrorism," Berkley said in a statement from Israel. "Israel has he same obligation to protect its citizens as any other nationa, including the United States. If we were faced with an near-constant stream of attacks from our northern or southern border, how long would it be before we built a fence to protect our borders from bombers?"
The fence or barrier consists of concrete walls, barbed wire fences, ditches, sensors and other devices designed to keep Palestinians from crossing into Israeli territory or Jewish settlements under attack in the last two years by suicide bombers. Berkley, who is in Israel with other House Democrats, will visit the fence Friday.
Congress approved $9 billion in loan guarantees for Israel earlier this year, but administration officials on Monday said they could reduce the loans in order to stop construction of the fence. The loans are meant for housing and commercial projects along with $1 billion in military aide slated to help Israel help with the aftermath of the war with Iraq.
Under the law passed by Congress, none of the money from the loan guarantees is to be spent to help Jewish settlements in the West Bank or Gaza Strip and the law requires that if Israel spends any money on such settlements, the loan guarantees must be reduced by that amount, American officials said.
It is not clear how much of a reduction would be approved or whether it would affect money that has already been spent, which has been in the tens of millions of dollars.
Administration officials, who disclosed the potential move, in the New York Times on Monday, called it a response to a campaign by Palestinian leaders, who say the barrier has cut Palestinians off from farms, homes, schools and workplaces.
The officials added that what is being considered is whether money spent to build the barrier constitutes money spent illegally. Officials argue that it is, at least to the extent thatthe barrier veers into the West Bank and Gaza to protect settlements.
The Palestinians also see the fence as a de facto border for Israel in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The future boundary line between Israel and a Palestinian state is supposed to be negotiated in talks between the two sides, however.
After his meeting with President Bush at the White House last week, Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon promised to look for ways to make the wall less onerous to Palestinians, perhaps by building more gates. Aides to the Israeli leader said that the disagreement between Sharon and Bush over the barrier has been friendly.
Bush has suggested that while the barrier may be justified in security terms, it has created problems in the current phase of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Berkley, who is on a congressional trip with about 29 other House Democrats, wrote a letter to the White House Tuesday urging the President Bush to support the security effort and "not to use U.S. assistance to dictate how the State of Israel addresses its security needs."
Berkley's staff said 25 Democrats, including Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., signed the letter.
The American Israel Educational Foundation, an affiliate of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobbying group sponsored the trip. Past trips for Berkley and her husband Larry Lerher, who joined her on this trip, have cost $9,192, according to travel records. Berkley sits on the House International Relations Committee and has been to Israel three times since being elected to the House in 1998. She heads back to Las Vegas on Saturday, aides said.
Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., will be on a Republican trip sponsored by the same group later this month. Spokeswoman Traci Scott said he would definitely be examining the issue closely while he is there.
The New York
Times News Service contributed to this report
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