US Jewish Lobby snubs Bush as House Sets Limits on Palestinian Aid and DeLay Defies Calls of Bush, Rice as "he became more Jewish than the chief rabbi"
Defying the wishes of the Bush administration, Congress approved a foreign-aid package this week forbidding any direct assistance to the Palestinian Authority and, in a rare snub, denying the president the authority to waive restrictions in the interest of national security. The legislation was approved 388-to-44 in the House of Representatives and is expected to sail through the Senate. The House approved $200 million in aid, to be channeled to nongovernmental projects outside the control of the P.A., as part of an $81 billion in emergency spending bill to help pay the costs of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The limits on Palestinian aid were the product of a deal brokered by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The pro-Israel lobbying powerhouse, known as Aipac, was called to mediate talks involving administration officials and lawmakers from both parties, including New York Rep. Nita Lowey, an influential Jewish Democrat, congressional sources said. Sources also said that the driving force behind the rejection of direct aid was House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a Texas Republican, who at one point threatened to cut all aid to the Palestinian territories out of the bill. “DeLay became more Jewish than the chief rabbi – if you can twist the phrase that way – and he was not going to let it through,” said Rep. Gary Ackerman, a Democrat from New York who supported direct aid.
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