A strange thing happened on the way to House passage of the Religious Liberty Protection Act (RLPA) last week:
Most Jewish members — once among RLPA’s strongest supporters — voted no, although every major Jewish group, along with representatives of numerous other religious faiths, supported the measure.
The list of opponents included Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-Manhattan), one of the original authors of the measure, which seeks to make it harder for state and local governments to infringe on religious practices, even inadvertently.

The Clinton administration is pulling out all the stops this week to provide Prime Minister Ehud Barak with a warm Washington welcome intended to signal a new and more congenial bilateral atmosphere.
Barak, while pleased with the symbolic thaw, has some hard-edged items on his agenda — including his desire to preempt the Israeli politicians who are already working Congress to stir up an anti-Barak, anti-administration backwash.