The Final Solution
03-02-2004, 04:47 PM
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/01/politics/campaign/01KERR.html
March 1, 2004
In Meeting, Kerry Emphasizes His Strong Support of Israel
By DAVID M. HALBFINGER
Senator John Kerry told dozens of Jewish leaders in New York on Sunday
that
he would continue the Bush administration policy of vetoing any United
Nations Security Council resolutions seen as one-sided against Israel,
participants in a closed 90-minute meeting said.
At the meeting, attended by the heads of major Jewish groups and Jewish
politicians, he also repeated what he said in the televised debate
earlier
on Sunday: that the barrier Israel is erecting to separate Palestinian
territories from Israeli ones is a fence, not a wall.
Mr. Kerry noted that if elected he would be the first president with a
Jewish heritage and a Jewish relative, people at the meeting said. His
brother, Cameron, who also attended, converted to Judaism. His paternal
grandparents were Jews who converted to Roman Catholicism in fleeing
Europe.
In Vienna yesterday, an Austrian genealogist said two Jewish relatives
of
Mr. Kerry's — his grandmother's sister and half-brother — had died
in Nazi
concentration camps.
Mr. Kerry, making a push for an important Democratic constituency that
has
warmed to the Bush administration over its Middle East policy, sought
to
assure the attendees that he was as strong a supporter of Israel as Mr.
Bush.
In part, Mr. Kerry was doing damage control from a speech to an
Arab-American group in Dearborn, Mich., last October in which he called
the
Israel-Palestinian partition a "barrier to peace," several people at
the
meeting said. "Today was the first time he seriously addressed it,"
said
Malcolm Hoenlein of the Conference of Presidents of Major American
Jewish
Organizations.
But Jack Rosen, the president of the American Jewish Congress, said Mr.
Kerry, while reassuring, had not entirely won him over.
Mr. Rosen said Mr. Kerry had said he would be far more engaged in the
Middle
East peace process than Mr. Bush. "What does more engagement mean?" Mr.
Rosen asked. "Because typically when Democrats accuse Bush of not being
engaged enough, it's an excuse for not bullying the Israelis enough."
Mr. Kerry "said he'd push other Arab countries harder" to help bring a
new
Palestinian partner to the negotiating table, Mr. Rosen said. "But the
question is whether a different set of politicians, as well meaning as
they
are, will be asking Israelis to give something up with no one on the
other
side to respond to them."
Mr. Rosen, a longtime Democrat who gave $100,000 in so-called soft
money to
the Republican National Committee in 2002 to show support for the
administration's Israel policy, said he did not expect to decide whom
to
support until November.
He also said that if American Jews continued to see terrorism as a
priority,
particularly terrorism against Jews, "it will be harder for Democrats
to
maintain the high percentages of the Jewish vote that they have in the
past."
But Suzy Stern, a philanthropist active in the United Jewish Appeal,
said
Mr. Kerry earned her vote by impressing her with his command of the
subject.
She said Mr. Kerry related how he had scolded President Hosni Mubarak
of
Egypt for allowing newspapers to print anti-Jewish diatribes. Mr.
Mubarak
said he did not control their editors, Mr. Kerry said, to which he
retorted,
"You know that's not true," Ms. Stern said.
"He is so knowledgeable, he's been doing this so long, he knows the
players
and the situations — and he's a grown-up," she said. "He really was
listening to us."
Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League,
said Mr.
Kerry added the names of two former Clinton administration officials
—
Samuel R. Berger, who was national security adviser, and Dennis Ross,
who
was a special Middle East envoy — to the list of people he might send
to the
region as emissaries.
Mr. Kerry angered some Israel supporters in December by suggesting two
men
for such a mission thought by some Jews to be biased against Israel:
James
A. Baker III, the former secretary of state, and former President Jimmy
Carter.
Mr. Foxman said that Mr. Kerry "came very close to where the president
is"
on several fundamental positions. "There was very little room between
him
and Bush," he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/01/politics/campaign/01KERR.html
March 1, 2004
In Meeting, Kerry Emphasizes His Strong Support of Israel
By DAVID M. HALBFINGER
Senator John Kerry told dozens of Jewish leaders in New York on Sunday
that
he would continue the Bush administration policy of vetoing any United
Nations Security Council resolutions seen as one-sided against Israel,
participants in a closed 90-minute meeting said.
At the meeting, attended by the heads of major Jewish groups and Jewish
politicians, he also repeated what he said in the televised debate
earlier
on Sunday: that the barrier Israel is erecting to separate Palestinian
territories from Israeli ones is a fence, not a wall.
Mr. Kerry noted that if elected he would be the first president with a
Jewish heritage and a Jewish relative, people at the meeting said. His
brother, Cameron, who also attended, converted to Judaism. His paternal
grandparents were Jews who converted to Roman Catholicism in fleeing
Europe.
In Vienna yesterday, an Austrian genealogist said two Jewish relatives
of
Mr. Kerry's — his grandmother's sister and half-brother — had died
in Nazi
concentration camps.
Mr. Kerry, making a push for an important Democratic constituency that
has
warmed to the Bush administration over its Middle East policy, sought
to
assure the attendees that he was as strong a supporter of Israel as Mr.
Bush.
In part, Mr. Kerry was doing damage control from a speech to an
Arab-American group in Dearborn, Mich., last October in which he called
the
Israel-Palestinian partition a "barrier to peace," several people at
the
meeting said. "Today was the first time he seriously addressed it,"
said
Malcolm Hoenlein of the Conference of Presidents of Major American
Jewish
Organizations.
But Jack Rosen, the president of the American Jewish Congress, said Mr.
Kerry, while reassuring, had not entirely won him over.
Mr. Rosen said Mr. Kerry had said he would be far more engaged in the
Middle
East peace process than Mr. Bush. "What does more engagement mean?" Mr.
Rosen asked. "Because typically when Democrats accuse Bush of not being
engaged enough, it's an excuse for not bullying the Israelis enough."
Mr. Kerry "said he'd push other Arab countries harder" to help bring a
new
Palestinian partner to the negotiating table, Mr. Rosen said. "But the
question is whether a different set of politicians, as well meaning as
they
are, will be asking Israelis to give something up with no one on the
other
side to respond to them."
Mr. Rosen, a longtime Democrat who gave $100,000 in so-called soft
money to
the Republican National Committee in 2002 to show support for the
administration's Israel policy, said he did not expect to decide whom
to
support until November.
He also said that if American Jews continued to see terrorism as a
priority,
particularly terrorism against Jews, "it will be harder for Democrats
to
maintain the high percentages of the Jewish vote that they have in the
past."
But Suzy Stern, a philanthropist active in the United Jewish Appeal,
said
Mr. Kerry earned her vote by impressing her with his command of the
subject.
She said Mr. Kerry related how he had scolded President Hosni Mubarak
of
Egypt for allowing newspapers to print anti-Jewish diatribes. Mr.
Mubarak
said he did not control their editors, Mr. Kerry said, to which he
retorted,
"You know that's not true," Ms. Stern said.
"He is so knowledgeable, he's been doing this so long, he knows the
players
and the situations — and he's a grown-up," she said. "He really was
listening to us."
Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League,
said Mr.
Kerry added the names of two former Clinton administration officials
—
Samuel R. Berger, who was national security adviser, and Dennis Ross,
who
was a special Middle East envoy — to the list of people he might send
to the
region as emissaries.
Mr. Kerry angered some Israel supporters in December by suggesting two
men
for such a mission thought by some Jews to be biased against Israel:
James
A. Baker III, the former secretary of state, and former President Jimmy
Carter.
Mr. Foxman said that Mr. Kerry "came very close to where the president
is"
on several fundamental positions. "There was very little room between
him
and Bush," he said.