COMMENTARY - Frank versus Israeli democracy
The Providence Journal. Providence, R.I.: Jan 1, 2004. pg. B.07
Copyright Providence Journal/Evening Bulletin Jan 1, 2004

BROOKLINE - U.S. REP. BARNEY FRANK is often undemocratic in his approach to government. A recent example of this approach was Frank's ardent support of a decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to, in effect, declare gay marriage legal. The democratic approach to this issue would have been to let representatives, elected by the people, decide such questions by vote.

Another recent example of Frank's disregard of the democratic approach was his attempt to stop the appointment by Congress of an independent chairman of the Investment Company Institute, a mutual- fund lobbying group. According to the Dec. 7 issue of Business Week, the ICI asked Frank to remove the independent-chairman clause from reform legislation that was crafted to clamp down on unethical practices by certain mutual-fund companies. These practices, such as after-hours trading, have had the effect of fleecing small investors. Frank appears to have violated the public trust in an attempt to stop an independent investigation of these unethical and possibly corrupt practices.

Business Week describes the ICI as a "Democratic [as in the party] lobby," which means that Frank appears to have placed the interests of his corporate friends over those of private investors, many of whom are people living on fixed incomes.

Now Frank is applying an undemocratic approach to Israeli policy with his support of the recent so-called Geneva Accord. This agreement was arrived at by a former Israeli official and a Palestinian official with ties to Yasser Arafat. While Frank accurately points out that Israel is the only true democracy in the Mideast, he proceeds to undermine that democracy by recognizing an agreement made by a representative who was not elected by the Israeli people and who did not represent the government of Israel.

By reading this private agreement into the Congressional Record, Frank has effectively undermined the authority of the democratic Israeli state. It is illegal for U.S. citizens to negotiate such agreements.
And what is this Geneva agreement that Frank entered into the Congressional Record? It is nothing more than a rehash of the 2000 Camp David talks held between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority President Arafat in the waning weeks of the Clinton administration. At Camp David, Barak agreed to turn over 98 percent of the West Bank and Gaza along with an enclave in Jerusalem to Arafat, thus effectively withdrawing to the 1948 armistice lines.

These borders had been described as Auschwitz lines by former Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban. Barak also agreed to evacuate Jews from the region, thus leaving the territory ethnically cleansed of Jews. All of this would be in exchange for a piece of paper from Arafat promising to stop killing Jews.
We know what happened immediately after the conclusion of those talks. Over 1,000 innocent Jewish men, women and children were murdered since then, a fact that was ignored at Geneva. The conference itself was a crude display of anti-Israel and anti- American sentiment, a fact that Frank seems to have ignored, along with the fact that the Geneva Accord was rejected by a considerable majority of Palestinian Arabs on the West Bank and in Gaza, who would rather hold out for the complete destruction of Israel.

I don't claim to have a definitive solution to the Israeli- Palestinian Arab conflict, but I would rather place my trust in the Israeli people and their democratically elected representatives than in a self-appointed group of experts. As a matter of fact, I would likewise rather place my trust in the American people and their elected officials when it comes to the crafting of American law.

Chuck Morse, of Brookline, is a Republican candidate for Congress in the 4th Congressional District of Massachusetts. He is a talk- show host, writes columns on the Web and is the owner of an advertising-distribution service.