Dead Congressman on Israeli Beach

A dead congressman on an Israeli beach - why no media reporting?

Former congressman Wayne Owens found dead on Tel Aviv beach

The US Embassy said Thursday that Wayne Owens, a former Democratic congressman from Utah, who was found dead on a Tel Aviv beach.

Owens, 65, a longtime opponent of Israel, served four terms in Congress and in 1989 helped launch the Washington-based Center for Middle East Peace and Economic Cooperation.

His body was found on the beach at about 9 p.m. on Wednesday, according to Stuart Patt, spokesman for the State Department's Consular Affairs Bureau.

Owens was accompanying a delegation visiting the occupied territories.

The US Embassy issued a statement saying Owens "spent many years working hard in pursuing a peaceful solution in the Middle East, and in that capacity traveled often to the region and maintained contact with our diplomatic missions."

"What Wayne Owens did was change people's lives. He did it in so many ways. He was dedicated to public service," said University of Utah political science professor Tim Chambless, who interned for Owens in the spring of 1973 and later worked on his campaign. "He changed my life. It's a great loss."

He is survived by his wife Marlene and five children. Funeral plans had not yet been announced at press time.

In Congress, Owens, a native of Panguitch, Utah, fought to protect more than 5 million acres of Utah wilderness, sponsored legislation to compensate those harmed by radioactive fallout from nuclear weapons tests in Nevada, and used his seat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee to advocate for peace in the Middle East.

He was first elected in 1972 and served as a member of the House Judiciary Committee, where he voted to impeach President Nixon, and was part of a group of freshman Democrats who forced a vote to end the Vietnam War.

He lost a bid for Senate in 1974 to Republican Jake Garn and made an unsuccessful bid for governor in 1984. In 1986, he regained Utah's 2nd District seat, which he held until 1992, when he again ran for Senate, losing to Republican Bob Bennett.

Owens helped launch the Center for Middle East Peace and Economic Cooperation in 1989 and served as its president, spending much of the last decade meeting with leaders in the region in an attempt to foster peace through economic development.

Utah Rep. Jim Matheson said he was "very shocked" to hear of Owens's death. Matheson, who ran Owens's campaign for governor in 1984, said Owens served as a political mentor to his whole family.
"I think that's true for a lot of people in public service," Matheson said. "The first memory I have of a campaign in Utah was when he walked the state in 1972. He brought a certain energy and enthusiasm to politics."

Starting in 1965, Owens worked as a staffer for Utah Sen. Frank Moss and Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy. He was the Rocky Mountain coordinator for Robert Kennedy's 1968 presidential bid. He spent six years as a full-time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.