Peres Visits Dole on Capitol Hill, Discusses Truce

Seeking to counterbalance his close association with President Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres met for 25 minutes Monday with Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, to discuss the uneasy truce on Israel’s northern border.

“Both Sen. Dole and President Clinton are great friends of Israel,” an Israeli official said after the meeting, insisting that Peres was maintaining strict neutrality in the U.S. presidential election.

For the Kansas senator, the session with Peres was a chance to make inroads into Clinton’s overwhelming support in the American Jewish community.

Although Dole supports legislation to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem--a high priority for both Israel and American Jews--he has found it difficult to compete with Clinton’s uncritical support for Israel in its skirmishes with Hezbollah guerrillas based in Lebanon. American Jewish leaders have said that the president seems to have a commanding lead among Jewish voters.

Dole’s closed-door session with Peres on Capitol Hill contrasted sharply with what amounted to a joint Clinton-Peres reelection rally Sunday night, when the president and the prime minister exchanged lavish words of praise before several thousand cheering members of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the mainstay of the pro-Israel lobby in Washington.

The Clinton administration has made no secret of its preference for Peres in Israel’s May 29 elections, when he faces Likud Party nominee Benjamin Netanyahu. Peres has been somewhat more circumspect, insisting that Israel does not take sides in American elections, although he seldom missed a chance to heap praise on the administration’s Middle East policy.

Answering questions after a breakfast sponsored by the pro-Israel Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Peres extended an olive branch to the Beirut government, saying Israel would consider helping Lebanon repair the damage caused by Israeli bombs and shells during the 16-day conflict that ended Saturday. But he gave no details.

In a related development, the White House announced that Clinton will meet Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat on Wednesday, the day after Peres completes his three-day visit.