Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, January/February 1998, Page 83

Diplomatic Doings

KILLGORE SPEAKS AT YOUNGSTOWN U.N. DAY OBSERVANCE

Israel's power and influence in Washington has grown to the point where, at international conferences, the United States seems to be pushing the Israeli agenda rather than its own, according to Ambassador Andrew I. Killgore. Publisher of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. Killgore, a career foreign service officer, was ambassador to the State of Qatar when he retired from the U.S. foreign service in 1980.

He addressed the Youngstown, Ohio chapter of the United Nations Association of the United States on Oct. 22. Speaking on the failure of the United States to push Israel for real progress in the Middle East peace process, Killgore attributed this to the power of the Israel Lobby in both the Republican-dominated Congress and in Democratic President Bill Clinton's White House. Hosts for his appearance were U.N. Association President Tom Fernea and his predecessor, Ray Nakley, Jr.

On the following day Ambassador Killgore appeared on a Youngstown radio show with prominent talk show host Dan Ryan. The visiting publisher's radio appearance was extended to three hours to enable him to deal, in depth, with some 30 call-in questions and comments from the listening public.

—Ruth E. Steele

TUNISIA EXHIBIT COMMEMORATES FRIENDSHIP

Newly-appointed Tunisian Ambassador to the United States Noureddine Mejdoub arrived in Washington just in time to open an exhibition as part of a series of observances entitled "Tunisia and the United States: 200 years of Cooperation and Friendship." The exhibition of photos of archeological sites and treasures unearthed in Tunisia was set up in the rotunda of the Senate's Russell Office Building and was inaugurated with an Oct. 21 reception.

The exhibition also was scheduled for a showing at the Department of State and in various parts of the United States. The event is one of a series of activities commemorating the negotiation in 1797 of a treaty to regulate navigation and commerce in the Mediterranean between the Bey of Tunis and the newly independent United States. Written in Turkish with a French translation, the treaty specified that "There shall be a perpetual and constant peace between the United States of America and the magnificent Pasha, Bey of Tunis; and also a permanent friendship which shall more and more increase."

A Tunisian Embassy booklet provided visitors to the exhibit noted: "While treaties proclaiming 'perpetual and constant peace' and 'permanent friendship' have rarely withstood the test of time, Tunisian-American-relations have made good the terms of the treaty in an exemplary way. Since 1797, peace between the two nations has been indeed perpetual and constant, and their permanent friendship did 'more and more increase over the years.'" For more bicentennial information turn to the World Wide Web at http://www.TunisiaOnline.com/bicentennial.

—Richard H. Curtiss