Embassy Row

Bible Belt tour

An Israeli official who opposes President Bush’s road map for Middle East peace is due to visit Christian conservatives throughout the United States next week to seek support for his plan for the expansion of Israel.

Benyamin Elon, Israel’s tourism minister, calls his plan “The Right Road to Peace” and proposes the creation of a Palestinian state in Jordan, not in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, as envisioned in Mr. Bush’s plan.

Mr. Elon, a rabbi, also is promoting a campaign he calls “Deter Terrorism, Not Tourism” to bring more visitors to Israel.

An aide called the rabbi’s visit his “Bible Belt tour.”

“Our Christian evangelical friends understand quite clearly the importance of Israel fighting terror and not giving in to the whims of Palestinian Arab terrorists,” he said in a statement.

“There can be no double standard. Just as America confronted Iraq, so too we must confront terrorists without limits. During times such as these, our Christian and Jewish friends in the United States understand that we cannot reward terrorism.”

Mr. Elon predicted Israel will not remove the settlements on the occupied West Bank, which he referred to by the biblical name of Judea and Samaria.

“We will not remove settlements or make concessions as our stay in Judea and Samaria is not temporary, and we will not permit the creation of a terrorist state in our biblical heartland,” he said.

On his seven-day U.S. visit, beginning Tuesday, Mr. Elon will meet with Gary Bauer, a former presidential candidate and former chairman of the Family Research Council; Roberta Combs, president of the Christian Coalition; Mike Evans, chairman of the Jerusalem Prayer Team; Ed Macateer, founder of the Moral Majority; and Janet Parshall, a Christian radio talk-show host.

His stops include Atlanta; Columbia, S.C.; and Memphis, Tenn.

Mr. Elon’s tourism campaign, which opened in June, appears to be working. About 90,000 visitors came to Israel that month, nearly 30,000 more than in June 2002. He is hoping for 1.2 million tourists this year, which would exceed the 860,000 last year but still would be below the 2.6 million in 1999 before the latest Palestinian uprising began.

Burma protest

Three female protesters were “roughed up” by Burmese diplomats in Washington yesterday as they attempted to hang a banner on the Burmese Embassy calling for the expulsion of Ambassador U Linn Myaing.

The Free Burma Coalition said the protesters were arrested later by U.S. diplomatic security officers.

Embassy staffers “roughed up and grabbed” the women after they climbed a ladder to an embassy balcony to unfurl the banner, the coalition said in a statement.

“They treated these women like criminals, yet it is the regime who are the criminals,” said Min Zaw Oo, a coalition member.

“The international community must forcefully respond to the regime’s ongoing assault on democracy. The regime is responding to peaceful calls for liberty inside Burma with brutal violence just as they did in 1988.”

About 70 other demonstrators gathered across the street from the embassy at 2300 S St. NW to demand an end to the military dictatorship in Burma, which crushed a pro-democracy movement 15 years ago.

They also demanded the release of Burma’s most famous democratic activist, Aung San Suu Kyi, and other members of the National League for Democracy.

An embassy spokesman could not be reached for comment.

Kenya remembers

The flag at the U.S. Embassy in Kenya flew at half-staff yesterday, as Kenyans gathered to observe the fifth anniversary of the bombing of the U.S. mission.

The bombing, blamed on Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda terrorist network, killed 213 persons and injured more than 4,000. The victims were mostly Kenyans.

“The embassy and U.S. government are deeply honored by the sacrifices made by all embassy employees who survived the bombing,” U.S. Ambassador Mark Bellamy said.

“Wreaths placed at the embassy memorial will honor all those who died or were scarred by the attack five years ago.”

The embassy, which was located in downtown Nairobi, has been rebuilt in a more secure location in a suburb of the capital.

• Call Embassy Row at 202/636-3297, fax 202/832-7278 or e-mail jmorrison@washingtontimes.com.