REPRESENTATIVES DEBATE PEACE PLAN.

Byline: Lisa Friedman Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - As violence erupted again in Israel, Southern California congressional representatives drew their own conclusions Wednesday on where President Bush's ``road map'' to peace in the Middle East should lead.

In a hearing before the House International Relations Committee, lawmakers agreed they want to see the newest Middle East peace plan work, but they parted ways on dismantling Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza and whether Palestinian refugees have the right to return to their original homes.

``It is possible to move ahead,'' Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs William Burns assured the committee. ``The president is absolutely determined to remain personally engaged in this area.''

Those statements came just minutes after lawmakers received word of yet another suicide bombing on a Jerusalem public bus.

Hours later an Israeli helicopter missile attack killed a top Hamas militant and other Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach, who recently returned from a congressional delegation trip to Israel where he discussed the peace plan with both Israeli and Palestinian leaders, said he thinks the key to peace is hard sacrifices on each side.

``Palestinians and their allies have got to give up the right of return and recognize Israel's right to exist, and Israel has got to give up the West Bank,'' Rohrabacher said. ``The settlements have got to go, for peace's sake.''

Rep. Howard Berman, D-Van Nuys, asked Burns if Hamas has been receiving financial support from U.S. allies like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

Burns said that was ``absolutely the case'' and said both nations have made ``some progress'' cutting off the flow of funding to the terrorist organization.

Rep. Diane Watson, D-Los Angeles, said she remains unclear on what exactly the White House plan is, despite the high-profile U.S.-led summit in Aqaba, Jordan in which both Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas agreed to a cease-fire.

``The ink wasn't even dry on the agreement when we saw an attack,'' Watson said, referring to a post-peace summit raid by Palestinian gunmen that killed five Israeli soldiers and the subsequent Israeli assassination attempt of the Hamas leader.

``Is there a counterstrategy? What does the White House truly believe in terms of its road map?'' Watson asked.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena said he does not believe Abbas, known popularly as Abu Mazen, has directly given up - or prepared Palestinians to give up - their demand that refugees be allowed to return to their homes, now inside Israel.

``If he is unwilling to speak directly to the right of return, he will not be preparing the Palestinian people for something they will have to confront,'' Schiff said. Equating the so-called ``right of return'' with the ultimate dismantlement of Israel as a Jewish state, Schiff said, ``The road map doesn't lead there.''

Ten Californians sit on the foreign relations panel, eight of them from the greater Los Angeles region.

Burns called the issue of right of return ``an enormously difficult issue'' and said the Bush administration was confident that even this current spate of violence would not upend the peace process. ``The premise of the road map is to get started.''

Lisa Friedman, [phone]

lisa.friedman(at)langnews.com