Congress: 105 · Status: active · Israel/Palestine classification: pro-Israel
Data (JSON) — machine-readable record of this bill (identifiers, sponsor, classification, actions, and the member-by-member vote breakdown).
Official record on Congress.gov — full text, actions, and cosponsor history for HCONRES 122.
Sponsor: Lantos, Tom (D-CA)
Calls upon: (1) Chairman Yasir Arafat and other officials in the Palestinian authority to use their good offices with Syria, Lebanon, and the other governments in the region to secure the safe return of one American-Israeli soldier and three Israeli soldiers captured in Lebanon, consistent with Chairman Arafat's obligation as specified in the May 4, 1994, Gaza-Jericho agreement between the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Israeli Government to cooperate with Israel in locating and working for the return of Israeli soldiers missing in action; and (2) the President, the Secretary of State, and other U.S. Government officials to pursue the resolution of these cases through all appropriate officials and channels. Urges: (1) the Government of Syria to use its good offices with the various paramilitary groups in Syria and in areas in which it has influence to bring about a resolution of this issue and secure the safe return of such soldiers; and (2) the President and the Secretary of State, as they formulate U.S. policy toward each government or authority in the Middle East, to take into consideration the level of assistance provided by that government or authority in resolving these cases.
This resolution calls on Palestinian Authority Chairman Arafat and Syrian officials to help locate and return four soldiers (one American-Israeli and three Israeli) captured in Lebanon, citing a 1994 PLO-Israel agreement obligating Palestinian cooperation. It also urges US officials to consider each Middle Eastern government's cooperation on these cases when deciding aid levels.
The resolution leverages US aid as leverage to pressure Palestinian and Syrian authorities to assist Israel on a specific military matter, while framing cooperation as an existing contractual obligation. This embeds Israeli interests into US aid policy calculations toward Middle Eastern governments.