c. 1998 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Friday (May 22) that Palestinian threats should not stop the United States from moving its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem _ even as he backed away from a planned visit to the proposed embassy site after comments from a high-ranking Palestinian that his going there could lead to”many deaths.””I don’t think the United States should be intimidated by the mob, any mob,”the Georgia Republican said in an interview in his Capitol office just hours before he was scheduled to fly to Israel.

Gingrich said Palestinians”are either … for a peace process that leads to some legitimacy or they are for reacting violently. You can’t be for both. I would think that one of (Palestinian leader Yasser) Arafat’s duties would be to begin to draw a sharp distinction between peaceful dissent and reacting violently.” Despite his tough talk, Gingrich also said he would bow to a White House request and not go to the embassy site during his four-day stay in Israel, where he is to arrive Saturday. He had planned to visit the embassy site in west Jerusalem on Monday and call for the start of construction.

However, Saeb Erekat, a close aide to Arafat, warned that Gingrich’s planned visit to the site was”playing with fire”and could trigger Arab violence.”I urge Mr. Gingrich to resort to sanity, wisdom and far-sightedness and not to pour oil on the fire,”Erekat said in Jerusalem. He said”many deaths”could result from a visit and”all the blood that will be shed _ he’ll bear it on his conscience.” Gingrich was to visit the site proposed for an eventual U.S. embassy in Jerusalem along with House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., and other members of Congress in Israel to mark that nation’s 50th anniversary. More than two dozen members of Congress are scheduled to fly to Israel during the congressional Memorial Day break.

Both Gingrich and Gephardt support moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem _ although Gephardt has said he does not favor an immediate start of construction.

In 1995, Congress voted overwhelmingly to build a Jerusalem embassy by May 1999, although lawmakers also said the president may delay the move indefinitely for national security reasons.

President Bill Clinton opposes the move until Israel and the Palestinians agree in negotiations to Jerusalem’s final status. Both claim the city _ holy to Jews, Muslims and Christians _ as their capital, making Jerusalem one of the most difficult issues in the troubled Middle East peace process.

Earlier in the week, Gingrich told a pro-Israel rally on the Capitol steps that Israel has chosen Jerusalem as its capital and”we should be appropriately responsive”by placing the U.S. embassy there.

While mainstream American Jewish groups agree the United States should eventually move its embassy to Jerusalem, they are split over whether such a move should take place now. The split follows the Jewish community’s usual divide between hawks and doves on the peace process.

For example, Americans for Peace Now, a dovish group, sent a letter to members of Congress urging them not to take any”unilateral U.S. action”on the embassy issue”that jeopardizes the delicate (Israeli-Palestinian) negotiations and risks Israeli security.” At the same time, the hawkish Zionist Organization of America said a visit to the proposed embassy site would”expose the fact that President Clinton is violating U.S. law, which requires him to have already begun building the embassy.” While in Israel, Gingrich and others in the congressional delegation plan to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Gingrich said he also hopes to meet with Arafat.

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