Peril to Mideast Talks Seen in Bush Move to Repeal U.N. Zionism Stand

WASHINGTON — A leading House lawmaker on Sunday warned that President Bush could endanger the prospects of a Mideast peace conference in a United Nations speech today by calling for the repeal of a 17-year-old resolution equating Zionism with racism.

In comments that reflect the debate taking place within the Bush Administration, Rep. Lee H. Hamilton (D-Ind.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s subcommittee on the Middle East, expressed fear that Bush’s move at this point could discourage some from participating in the peace process. The broad participation of interested parties, he added, should be the “focal point” of Administration efforts.

“It’s a question of timing,” Hamilton told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I’m not quite sure, frankly, whether the timing is correct now or not. It (the U.N. resolution) surely has to be repealed at some point.”

Hamilton’s comments came as Bush put the finishing touches on the U.N. address in which he is expected to make the appeal as part of a broad statement on the “new world order.”

But officials warned that the President still could delete his reference to the 1975 Zionism resolution this morning if a final nose-count in the chamber demonstrates that a vote to repeal the controversial measure would be defeated.

Bush’s expected initiative has two goals. Officials say that one of Bush’s principal objectives is to mend relations with Israel, which have been damaged because of Bush’s request that Congress delay consideration of $10 billion in loan guarantees for Israeli resettlement efforts.

The other is to fulfill a long-standing U.S. goal to repeal the resolution by taking advantage of diplomatic shifts throughout the world. With the Soviet Bloc largely dissolved, many of the 72 nations that originally voted for the resolution--including the Soviet Union itself--have signaled they would change their position.

Many Bush Administration officials hailed such changes as an historic opportunity to overturn a resolution that branded Israel as a pariah within the United Nations.

Times staff writer Douglas Jehl contributed to this story.