Anger builds in Congress, Pentagon over funds required for treaty

WASHINGTON -- Congressional staffers and Pentagon officials have dismissed Israel's military requests for a Golan Heights withdrawal as unrealistic and estimated the total aid required by Washington's allies at more than $100 billion.

The U.S. officials said Prime Minister Ehud Barak is being misled by President Bill Clinton regarding the willingness of Congress and the American people to allocate unprecedented amounts of aid to the Middle East.

"Clinton is just interested in wrapping this agreement up," a senior congressional staffer who is dealing with the aid issue said. "He will promise Barak anything just to get a treaty. The Israelis, however, don't understand the mood in Congress."

The Washington-based Center for Security Policy agreed. "The president has effectively normalized relations, or set in motion a process that will have that result, with Angola, Vietnam, Libya and North Korea," the center said. "A deal between Barak and [Syrian President Hafez] Assad would clear the decks for adding Syria to that list, something the president wants very much to do with Cuba as well before year's end."

Staffers said many members of Congress plan to whittle down the Israeli military aid request, estimated at $17 billion. They said House and Senate members would oppose military and significant amount of economic aid to Syria.

"Until the Syrian regime changes, Congress sees no justification to give aid to Assad," a U.S. official said. "After the troubles we had with China, Syria will not get a better break."

Israel has already told the United States and some allies in Congress that the Jewish state would not oppose military aid to Syria. Israeli officials said U.S. aid to Syria would link the two countries and provide Washington with leverage over Damascus.

U.S. officials said, however, the Clinton administration is not expected to request military aid for Syria. Instead, the administration would remove Syria from the State Department's list of terrorist nations and allow such U.S. allies as Egypt and Saudi Arabia to transfer military equipment to Damascus.