Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 58, No. 7, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 12, 2004 Page: 4 of 32
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4 Texas Jewish Post
In Our 58th Year
February 12,2004
By fames D. Besser
TJP Washington Correspondent
Kerry attacks mount
Now it’s John Kerry’s turn; the
Massachusetts senator and fron-
trunner for the 2004 Democratic
presidential nomination is starting
to get pounded by Republican and
right-wing Jewish forces on
Mideast-related questions.
And as it was in the case of for-
mer Democratic frontrunner
Howard Dean, much of the criti-
cism is anonymous, through widely
circulated E-mails. In those
unsigned messages, critics repeat
several well-publicized gaffes by the
candidate, including his suggestion
that former Secretary of State James
Baker might make a good Israeli-
Palestinian negotiator.
The anti-Kerry effort comes
despite agreement by a broad spec-
trum of pro-Israel leaders that the
veteran lawmaker reflects the
strongly pro-Israel mainstream in
Congress.
“He’s voted with us pretty consis-
tently,” said Morris Amitay, a hawkish
pro-Israel leader and treasure of the
Washington PAC, a pro-Israel politi-
cal action committee.
Some pro-Israel leaders have
qualms about Kerry, Amitay said,
“but I don’t think they’re jumping
up and down about it. His record
has been good.”
Still, pro-Israel leaders report a
mounting barrage of e-mails in
recent days trying to poke holes in
Kerry’s pro-Israel credentials.
Some messages point to Kerry’s
suggestion in a Council on Foreign
Relations speech in December that
he would send Baker, Jimmy Carter
or Bill Clinton to the region as a spe-
cial envoy to deal with the
Israeli-Palestinian crisis.
In recent weeks Kerry has men-
tioned Clinton and Carter, but
dropped Baker from his list of sug-
gested negotiators.
Kerry is also being slammed for
comments in New Hampshire that
were interpreted in radically differ-
ent ways by the press.
Speaking to a rally before that
state’s primary, Kerry said that “It’s
very difficult for Israel to negotiate
because in Israel there is nobodv to
negotiate to actually deliver."
A prominent Israeli newspaper
interpreted that as a blast at the gov-
ernment of Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon But most other media
accounts made it clear Kerrv was
echoing the argument of pro-Israel
groups — that Israel lacks a viable
peace partner because of the Pales-
*
Washington Watch
tinian Authority’s refusal to curb
terror groups.
Still, the original, repudiated
story has been widely circulated in
pro-Israel circles in recent days.
“That’s immoral,” said an official
in the Kerry campaign. “They know
it’s not true."
Other attack e-mails focus on
Kerry’s revelation last year that he
had a Jewish grandmother, imply-
ing that he had known that fact for
years but concealed it until it was
politically expedient to reveal it.
Still others cite praise of Kerry by
Arab American Institute president
Jim Zogby — although the AAI Web
site, in a voters guide for Arab-
American voters, mostly cites
Kerry’s pro-Israel statements and
actions, including his insistence that
if America “has a right to respond in
Afghanistan to suicide bombers in
New York City, and we do, then
Israel has a right to respond to sui-
cide bombers in the West Bank.”
Steve Rabinowitz, a top Democ-
ratic consultant, said that a
“whispering campaign" against
Kerry has already started, but said it
is unlikely to gain much traction.
“There isn’t a lot of‘there’ there,”
he said. “But there are fierce Bush
partisans who live to paint the
(Democratic) party as anti-Israel,
when its decades-long record says
the opposite, and I assume they will
do the same with Kerry. But it will
be harder because his record of sup-
port inoculates him to a degree.”
Several Democrats said the anti-
Kerry campaign is likely to intensify
as the March 2 New York primary
approaches.
But a GOP source said that while
Kerry “isn’t very vulnerable on
Israel, he is on the whole question of
national defense. That represents a
weak point with Jewish voters, many
of whom no longer buy the anti-
defense arguments of the
Democrats.”
Specter Challenger;
Republican, Conservative
Also on the political front, a fix-
ture in Jewish politics faces an
unexpected challenge this year —
from a member of his own party.
Sen. Arlen Specter (R Pa.) will
lace off in an April 27 primary
against a Republican House mem-
ber who has accused the four-term
incumbent of trying to “under-
mine" the GOP agenda.
Rep. Pat Toomey, a three-term
House member, is an ardent abor-
tion foe; Specter is one of a
dwindling number of pro-choice
Republicans. The challenger sup-
ports school voucher plans; Specter
has generally been opposed. Specter
has been a leader in the effort to
expand existing hate crimes legisla-
tion; Toomey opposes it.
Toomey is also making much out
of a recent award to Specter by Cit-
izens Against Government Waste:
Porker of the Year. That facetious
honor was meant to draw attention
to Specter’s success in winning
pork-barrel appropriations for his
state.
But those projects, to the tune of
$1.4 million, are a big reason Specter
is so popular; one person’s pork is
another’s “constituent service.”
Specter, a tough-talking former
prosecutor, has several other big
advantages, including a nationwide
fundraising network that includes
many Jewish givers, and the
endorsement of the Bush adminis-
tration, which has apparently
forgiven him his moderation.
If he survives the primary chal-
lenge, Specter — who ran
unsuccessfully for the 1996 Repub-
lican presidential nomination —
will face Rep. Joe Hoeffel, a liberal
Democrat.
Jewish coalition meets
in Washington
This week a coalition of Jewish
groups, led by United Jewish Com-
munities, was due to meet in
Washington to look for ways to help
nonprofit groups around the coun-
try meet the staggering costs of
beefing up security for a new era of
domestic terrorism.
But that effort will be compli-
cated by the budget crisis in
Washington and the fierce competi-
tion for homeland security dollars.
And complex church-state ques-
tions could add to the difficulty of
finding an appropriate formula.
With next year’s budget under
discussion in Congress, critics are
charging that the most basic home-
land security needs are being
underfunded by the Bush adminis-
tration.
This week Sen. Joe Lieberman
(D-Conn.), speaking at a Senate
hearing on homeland security, said
that the “administration’s fiscal year
2005 budget, which includes a stun-
ning 30 percent cut for first
responders, is the latest evidence of
shortchanging the homeland side of
the war against terrorism.”
Capitol Hill sources say Congress
is likely to restore much of that
money — but finding more home-
land security money to help local
Jewish groups could be a tough sell
as lawmakers desperately try to in a
Congress that will be desperate to
cut spending before the election.
And the effort is generating quiet
but urgent debates over delicate
church-state questions, especially
when it comes to assistance for syn-
agogues and Jewish day schools.
“I don’t think there have to be
church-state implications — if it’s
done the right way,” said Marc Stern,
legal director for the American Jew-
ish Congress.
Providing money for increased
police patrols at synagogues that are
at risk is an appropriate response, he
said; helping a synagogue remodel
to make it more security may not be.
And Stern said that any appeal for
funding be based on real needs.
“Its critical that the money be
given out according to an objective
risk analysis,” he said.
But with the federal budget on
life support, there may not be much
money to give. UJC officials, work-
ing with other Jewish groups here,
are also looking for alternative fund-
ing mechanisms — including
federally guaranteed loans.
New book on Judaism,
public policy
Jews confused about what Jewish
law and tradition have to say about
today’s hottest controversies have an
additional resource: a new book
edited by Marshall Breger, a profes-
sor of law at the Catholic University
of America, a former White House
liaison to the Jewish community
during the Reagan administration
and a leading Jewish conservative.
The book, “Public Policy and
Social Issues: Jewish Sources and
Perspectives,” deals with some of the
day’s hottest issues — including
abortion, stem cell research,
euthanasia, environmentalism and
welfare programs, all from a tradi-
tional Jewish perspective.
While there is a strong Orthodox
cast to the book, it also offers the
views of Conservative and Reform
thinkers on some issues.
“The essays focus on how norma-
tive principles of Judaism apply to
today’s public policy problems,”
Breger said. “In general, they suggest
that while sociologically the Ameri-
can Jewish community remains
liberal in its politics, in many ways
normative Judaism is more conser-
vative in its principles.”
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Wisch, Rene & Wisch-Ray, Sharon. Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 58, No. 7, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 12, 2004, newspaper, February 12, 2004; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth754203/m1/4/: accessed May 9, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .