Lantos's
list
By
Janine Zacharia
(April 13) - Tom Lantos, the only Holocaust Survivor ever elected
to the US Congress, tells how his personal background has inspired
his advocacy of Israel's defense in the halls of Capitol Hill
While of only modest physical stature, in the halls of Congress
Tom Lantos cuts an impressive figure.
The only Holocaust survivor ever elected to Congress, Lantos has
racked up two decades of legislative experience as a representative
from northern California, along the way becoming one of the top
congressional experts on international affairs, a leading human-rights
activist, one of the most eloquent orators, and arguably one of
the brightest minds on Capitol Hill.
Lantos's personal odyssey by now is well known. Born in Hungary
in 1928 to assimilated Jewish parents, he escaped from a forced-labor
brigade, joined the resistance and was eventually, with his later-to-be-wife
Annette, among the tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews rescued by
the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg.
His experiences during World War II have informed the way Lantos
approaches his job as a legislator. Today, as always, Lantos's commitment
to free and open democratic societies is fueling a plethora of personal
initiatives, including a drive to keep the 2008 Olympics out of
China, which is regularly chastised by the US for its human rights
abuses.
In recent weeks he has also proposed dramatic plans to restructure
US aid and support to Middle Eastern governments. Among the legislation
Lantos has pledged to introduce are bills to prohibit US military
assistance to Lebanon unless Beirut deploys its troops to its border
with Lebanon; to phase out all military assistance to Egypt; and
to prohibit all US aid from any country that joins a renewed Arab
boycott against Israel. He has also co-sponsored a letter to President
George W. Bush calling on him to reevaluate the US relationship
with the Palestinian Authority in light of the Palestinian violence
against Israel.
Many of his goals may seem unachievable at a time when the Bush
administration is striving to break the popular perception in the
Arab world that the US is biased toward Israel, and is eager to
cultivate ties with Arab countries as part of its drive to reassemble
a strong, multinational coalition against Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein.
But Lantos hopes to use his new, high-profile job as ranking Democrat
on the House International Relations Committee to focus attention
on these and other initiatives of importance to him.
"I'm not a religious person. But it is sort of a near miracle to
me that at my stage in life given my very unpromising background,
I should now be able to function as the top Democrat on the House
International Relations Commit- tee."
To walk into Lantos's second floor office in the House Rayburn
building is to be overwhelmed with stimuli.
A massive promotional poster for the Academy-Award winning documentary
film, The Last Days - which features Lantos in its depiction of
Hitler's drive to exterminate Hungarian Jewry in the waning days
of World War II - greets the visitor upon entry.
The cramped four-room chamber is filled with the bustle of aides
shifting around, including his petite wife Annette, who is officially
listed in congressional directories as Lantos's executive assistant
and helps him develop many of his initiatives. Lantos knew Annette
as a child in Hungary before the war. They met again shortly after
liberation, married, and had two daughters who married Mormons and
bore 17 children between the two of them.
Lantos refers frequently and proudly to his 17 grandchildren, the
oldest of whom is currently completing a master's degree in Jewish
studies at Oxford University. A self-described secular Jew, but
at the same time one immensely proud of his heritage, Lantos refuses
to talk about his children's religious affiliation.
In his personal office a massive map of the world stretches across
one wall behind a model of a 19th-century ship. The map is a fitting
symbol of Lantos's passion for international affairs; the ship conjures
up images for the visitor of his voyage to freedom after World War
II aboard a US steamer.
Lantos's passion for Israel is evident from the lithographs of
Jerusalem scenes that line another wall and the colorful Israeli-made
pottery that is used to serve coffee to guests.
His dog Gigi - a photo of whom is featured on Lantos's Web site
- roams freely throughout the office, stumbling slightly with a
front-paw injury, and is an instant reminder of his and Annette's
advocacy on behalf of animals.
But above all, the office is a living tribute to Wallenberg, whom
Lantos calls the dominant person in his life and a "quintessential
righteous human being." High above one of the doorways is a green
street sign that reads "Raoul Wallenberg Way" and images of him
abound. When Lantos was first elected to Congress in 1980, his first
proposed legislation was to grant honorary US citizenship to Wallenberg.
He later led a successful effort to name part of a Washington street
for his wife's savior.
Dressed in a casual, gray warm-up suit, Lantos discusses how his
personal history has affected his actions as a legislator. Much
of it has to do with Wallenberg.
"Wallenberg has taught me really the most important things I've
ever learned," Lantos says. "That you've got to rise above yourself,
your family, your group, and to have broader goals. Wallenberg was
a Lutheran Swede who came to Budapest to save Hungarian Jews. He
solved a problem while he had no connection to it except his common
humanity."
Lantos has actualized this philosophy by helping ethnic and religious
groups besides his own. Beyond being the co-chair and founder of
the Congressional Task Force Against Anti-Semitism, he is better-known
as one of the loudest advocates for human rights. In the early 1980s,
Lantos and his wife founded the Congressional Human Rights Caucus.
Among the disparate causes he has fought for is freedom for Tibet
from Chinese rule. The Dalai Lama is one of many famous political
leaders he cites as a friend.
Lantos has worked to help fleeing Christians emigrate from the
former Soviet Union and traveled once to the Bulgarian-Turkish border,
where some Turks were being expelled by Bulgaria, to physically
help Turkish refugees find assistance.
Brought up with a passion for international affairs from a young
age, Lantos remembers crouching over a barely audible radio to listen
to wartime broadcasts on the BBC banned by the Nazi occupiers.
Now, as then, only now with a bachelor's, master's degree and Ph.D
under his belt, Lantos spends almost six hours daily devouring books,
journals and newspapers.
"Really the only reason I wouldn't enjoy dropping dead tomorrow
is because there's still so many books I want to read," Lantos says.
Admittedly, he reads practically no fiction and spends most of his
time poring over biographies and hefty volumes on history, politics
and economics.
"I am enormously conscious of my own limitations in many, many
fields," he says with a bit of self-criticism that contrasts with
the overwhelming self-confidence he generally exhibits.
Lantos says his parents "were incredibly political and pro-American;
extremely intelligent about free and democratic and open societies.
I sort of sucked it in at a very young age," he says, adding that
today he is probably one of the most patriotic people he knows.
For 33 years Lantos worked as a professor before a brief stint
as foreign policy adviser to Democratic Senator Joseph Biden of
Delaware in 1979. He says he knew his temperament was not suited
to the scholarly life.
"I have always been an activist," says Lantos.
With receding white hair and a heavy Hungarian accent, he has acquired
the playful moniker among some of his congressional colleagues of
"The Count." He admits to being a "sort of throwback to an earlier
century," because he says he still "believes in the perfectibility
of the world."
Since beginning his new job, Lantos has convened meetings with
fellow Democrats on the International Relations Committee to formulate
strategy and hear ideas. He frequents meetings of the Jewish caucus.
But overall, he tends to avoid close relationships with his fellow
legislators and goes his own way, colleagues and lobbyists say.
"He's very much a loner," says one former pro-Israel lobbyist who
worked closely with Lantos in the past. "While so many of his colleagues
play tennis or paddleball with one another, Tom is a swimmer. He
doesn't have the comradeship."
"I think that Tom Lantos is one of the smarter members of Congress,
particularly when it comes to international relations," says Congressman
Eliot Engel (D-New York). "Tom doesn't pull any punches. He just
says what he thinks."
Much of what he thinks is delivered in powerful extemporaneous
remarks before congressional committees and audiences, like the
one he delivered to AIPAC's annual conference last month, when he
outlined many of his priorities regarding the Middle East in a powerful
off-the-cuff speech in which he lambasted Palestinian Authority
Chairman Yasser Arafat for having "walked away from an incredibly
generous offer without making any counteroffer and resorting to
preplanned, premeditated violence." The comments were striking coming
from Lantos, long a supporter of the peace process, and the first
congressman to meet with Arafat in Gaza after his return to the
area in 1994.
But since September, Lantos's feelings have shifted dramatically.
Now they reflect those of the majority on Capitol Hill - that Arafat
is responsible for the unabated violence of the past six months.
"He's true blue and white," said one former AIPAC leader of Lantos,
referring to his devotion to Israel. Lantos made his first trip
to the Jewish state in 1956 and has been there nearly 60 times since.
He is returning over the congressional spring recess to meet with
Israeli officials. In the past, Lantos is said to have served as
an intermediary between Israel and other governments with whom it
did not have full diplomatic relations.
Regarding Lebanon, Lantos admits that his drive to eliminate military
aid to Lebanon - a paltry sum that funds the training of a few officers
and helps with the dismantlement of mines - is primarily symbolic.
"We pretend, and Lebanon pretends, that Lebanon is a sovereign
country.
"We know that the Syrian influence is overwhelming and the Lebanese
certainly know that. But I am outraged by the anti-Israel drivel
coming from high-ranking Lebanese public officials and I want to
make the point that they are a country [whose] military today has
one potential function which has value, and that is to seal the
Lebanese-Israeli border so there is peace and security following
the withdrawal of Israeli forces," he says.
Regarding Egypt, Lantos is distressed by the perpetuation of antisemitic
images printed in Egyptian newspapers and accuses the Egyptian leadership
of "bringing up a whole new generation of Egyptians who are dripping
with hate for Israel."
"I think [Foreign Minister] Amr Moussa is in fact strongly anti-Israel
and I have serious doubts about [President Hosni] Mubarak too,"
he says.
Lantos raised the antisemitic cartoons in a meeting Mubarak held
with congressional leaders this week. He acknowledges that "strategically
and politically" it is not realistic to talk about cutting military
aid to Egypt.
"But the issue needs to be raised. Nobody in the US questions why
we give so much military aid to Egypt. Giving military aid to Egypt
is counterproductive because it builds up a potential military which
if there is a change in regime" can turn its might on Israel, he
says.
He describes his plan to turn all of Egypt's $2 billion in annual
funding into pure economic assistance as a long-term goal.
"Maybe the first year out of 435 votes I'll have 100. And the second
year I may have 200. And the third year I may have a majority,"
he says.
He's got time. Despite his age, Lantos says he has no plans to
retire any time soon.
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