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http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/07/politics/07ABRA.html
Abrams Back in Capital Fray at Center of Mideast Battle
By STEVEN R. WEISMAN
NYTimes 12/7/02
WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 — Elliott Abrams, a pugnacious conservative and
passionate advocate of Israel, is no stranger to Washington's policy wars.
But Mr. Abrams's selection this week as President Bush's director of Middle
Eastern affairs at the White House plunged him into one of the sharpest
disputes in the nation's capital — the one in the administration over how to
deal with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Mr. Abrams's appointment thrilled those who had criticized the
administration for being too tough on Israel and too deferential to the
Palestinians. But it dismayed those, especially at the State Department, who
want Israel to ease its crackdown in the West Bank and Gaza.
An administration official said Mr. Abrams's ascension had created "serious
consternation" at the State Department. It was seen there, he said, as
likely to impede the efforts of Secretary of State Colin L. Powell to work
with European nations to press Israel and the Palestinians to adopt a staged
timetable leading to creation of a Palestinian state in three years.
The timetable, known as a "road map," has been criticized by Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon, though he endorsed it in principle this week. Supporters of
Israel in Congress, who had also criticized the road map approach, welcomed
the appointment of Mr. Abrams.
"There are two foreign policy teams in this administration on a lot of
issues," said Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, who went to Harvard
with Mr. Abrams in the 1960's. "Clearly Elliott is coming out of the
hard-line team. But that is where Bush's heart is."
Mr. Abrams comes to his new job trailed by a cloud of controversy, most of
it having to do with his pleading guilty in 1987 to the charge that he
withheld information from Congress on the Reagan administration's efforts to
assist antigovernment guerrillas in Nicaragua.
He was pardoned by the first President Bush in December 1992. At the time,
plenty of people around Washington said Mr. Abrams would never be back as a
policy maker.
Now, not only is Mr. Abrams back — though not in a position that would
require confirmation by the Senate — but a raft of figures involved in the
battles over the Nicaragua guerrillas, known as the contras, are back, as
well. John M. Poindexter, a national security adviser to President Reagan
who was convicted in 1990 of five felony counts (the convictions were later
overturned), is directing a Pentagon project that would assemble information
on suspected terrorists.
John D. Negroponte, who was ambassador to Honduras during the time that the
contras were being given aid through that country in defiance of a law
barring such aid, is ambassador to the United Nations.
And Otto J. Reich, who was charged with running a covert domestic propaganda
campaign against the Nicaragua government, is a special envoy for western
hemisphere affairs at the State Department.
Administration officials say Mr. Abrams was picked for the Middle East and
North Africa portfolio under Condoleezza Rice, the national security
adviser, because a strong manager was needed and the previous director,
Zalmay Khalilzad, had been preoccupied with the reconstruction of
Afghanistan.
"Everybody has enormous confidence in him," a senior administration official
said. "He is not just a good manager. He is an intellectual force in many
policy areas. Whatever controversy there was in the past is in the past."
Many of those critical of Mr. Abrams speak with admiration for his intellect
and management skills, which will be tested not only in the
Israel-Palestinian conflict but also if there is a war with Iraq, followed
by a long occupation and reconstruction.
But others say he has rankled some colleagues in the administration already.
For instance, during Secretary Powell's efforts to negotiate a resolution on
Iraq at the United Nations, Mr. Abrams spent some weeks at the United
Nations headquarters in New York.
Two officials critical of Mr. Abrams said his role was to make sure that
Secretary Powell did not make too many concessions to the Europeans on the
resolution's wording, pressing a hard-line view that was shared by Vice
President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Andrew Card,
the White House chief of staff.
One of these officials said Mr. Negroponte was upset by Mr. Abrams's
interventions. But a spokesman for Mr. Negroponte, Rick Grenell, said that
this was not true and that the ambassador "values Elliott's input." Another
official said cooperation between the State Department and the White House
was "as good as we've had in quite a while."
For associates and acquaintances, Mr. Abrams's new responsibilities reflect
the intensity of his ambitions and political passions. Like many so-called
neoconservatives, he began life as a liberal Democrat on many issues but
became disenchanted with the left, and especially in his case by student
protests at Harvard.
On Capitol Hill, he worked for two of the most prominent Democrats with
strong anti-Communist views, Senator Henry Jackson of Washington and Daniel
Patrick Moynihan of New York, before becoming a Republican and supporting
Mr. Reagan for president in 1980. Mr. Reagan appointed him to various
positions in the State Department in the 1980's.
Of his admission that he misled Congress on aiding the contras, Mr. Abrams
has defended himself by saying he was following administration policy at the
time. He has also said he was a victim of abuses by a special prosecutor, in
a way that Democrats later came to understand during President Clinton's
impeachment.
Mr. Abrams also has family ties to the neoconservative movement. His wife's
mother is Midge Decter, and her stepfather is Norman Podhoretz. Both are
leading members of the neoconservative pantheon and stern critics of liberal
cultural attitudes.
Five years ago, Mr. Abrams wrote a book, "Faith or Fear: How Jews Can
Survive in Christian America," which argues against the loss of religious
faith among Jews and criticizes intermarriage as a danger to their survival
in America. He also urged Jews to make greater common cause with evangelical
Christians in rallying support for Israel.
He was a fierce opponent of the Oslo peace negotiations between Israel and
Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, even while they seemed to bear fruit.
He wrote in the 1990's that it was a mistake for Mr. Clinton to trust Mr.
Arafat. He advocated that position from the start of this Bush
administration, until it became Mr. Bush's position last June.
With the Middle East consumed by the spiral of suicide bombings and Israeli
retaliations, Mr. Abrams is certain to be among those advocating that Israel
be given wide latitude to battle terrorism.
Associates say he is also considered likely to side with pro-Israel
Americans who say that the road map pressed by Secretary Powell does not
make it sufficiently clear that Mr. Arafat must be removed, and that
terrorism must cease entirely, before Israel makes any irretrievable
concessions on withdrawal from Palestinian territories.
Israel is also critical of the role being played in the drafting of the road
map by Europe, Russia and the United Nations, as well as by Egypt, Saudi
Arabia and Jordan. Critics say that these nations and groups are unlikely to
support removal of Mr. Arafat as a precondition of peace, as Mr. Bush does.
Longtime advocates of an aggressive American effort to support Middle East
peace negotiations say the administration appears to have pulled back from
pressing the road map, out of sensitivity to Mr. Sharon's objections — but
not to have abandoned it entirely, out of sensitivity to the Europeans and
Arabs.
"It does seem that the White House has decided to back off," said Martin
Indyk, a former adviser to Mr. Clinton. "If the administration were
preparing for a new push on the road map, this would be an unusual
appointment," he said, referring to Mr. Abrams.
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