NEW SENATE INITIATIVE ON US EMBASSY MOVE

Senators led by Jon Kyl (Rep-AZ) and Joseph Lieberman (Dem-CT) plan to send a letter to the White House urging Clinton not to exercise his right to waiver the embassy move on the grounds of national security.

If Clinton does invoke the waiver, a draft of the letter says, "we will see no option but to amend the Jerusalem Embassy Act to remedy this unacceptable delay in moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem, and recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel."

The envisaged amendment would remove the president's waiver right, and extend the deadline for the embassy to be moved from Tel Aviv for not more than 12 months.

Despite Clinton's 1992 campaign promise to move the embassy, once he became president - with considerable Jewish support - he changed tack.

The administration says the embassy shift would be seen as an end to America's longstanding policy of neutrality on the dispute over controlling Jerusalem. It also warns the move may result in violence, and hinder a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Arab conflict.

The future of Jerusalem is one of the highly contentious issues the Oslo Accords left for "final status" negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, which have yet to begin. Israel maintains Jerusalem is its "undivided, eternal capital," while the Palestinians want to establish the capital of a future independent state in the city.

The waiver built into the 1995 Embassy Act enables the president to delay action on the law for six-month periods, and thus prevent Congress from penalizing the administration by cutting off funding for U.S. embassies around the world.

The Jerusalem Post today quotes a White House official as criticizing the Kyl-Lieberman initiative, saying it was "shoving things down people's throats" rather than working with the administration on a compromise.

Yet Congress has suggested several possible compromises, and found the White House aloof.

Several weeks ago, HA'ARETZ reported that U.S. ambassador Edward Walker has set up a presence at a Jerusalem hotel to host official delegations - an attempt, the report said, to head off congressional pressure to move the embassy.

The report came after Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (Dem-NY) suggested a compromise whereby the rooms could be declared a temporary embassy in the capital.

But officials quickly shot down the implication that this suggested a change in policy, an action an advisor to Lieberman said was a lost opportunity to show goodwill to Congress.

Moynihan had also suggested that government documents could list Jerusalem as Israel's capital and that passports of American citizens born in Jerusalem could read as place of birth "Jerusalem, Israel" and not simply "Jerusalem" as is presently the case.

The Lieberman aide said the administration and Congress were to have held concrete discussions on the subject ever since the Israeli elections 11 days ago, but that none had taken place.