Democratic presidential hopeful former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean greets supporters after his address during his caucus night party in West Des Moines, Iowa, Monday, Jan. 19, 2004. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Posted on 02/18/2005 7:37:02 AM PST by SJackson
Former Vermont governor Howard Dean's election Saturday as chairman of the Democratic National Committee has prompted a fierce fight between two partisan Jewish groups about Dean's record on Israel and how it could impact Jewish support for the Democratic Party.
The Republican Jewish Coalition, a grassroots group of Jewish Republicans, published an advertisement in US newspapers this week suggesting Dean supported Hamas. A photo of Hamas suicide bombers, camouflaged in white and wearing explosive belts – alongside a child wrapped in an explosive belt – is topped with a quote from Howard Dean from September 2003, which reads: "DNC Chairman Howard Dean says: 'It's not our place to take sides.'"
The ad then lists quotations from Democrats who criticized Dean in the past. Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, who ran against Dean in the Democratic presidential primary, is quoted as saying that Dean's statements "break a 50-year record in which presidents, Republican and Democrat, members of Congress of both parties have supported our relationship with Israel based on shared values."
A quotation is taken from a letter to Dean from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, also from September 2003, which criticized Dean's call for an "evenhanded" approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "It is unacceptable for the US to be 'evenhanded' on these fundamental issues," she wrote.
And Jay Footlik, John Kerry's liaison to the Jewish community during the presidential campaign, is quoted as saying last month that if Dean were elected, "a lot of mainstream, middle-of-the-road, centrist, Jewish Democrats would be very turned off and concerned and would be left wondering whether they have a home in the Democratic Party."
During the presidential primary campaign, Dean frequently stressed to Jewish audiences that his wife, Judith Steinberg Dean, was Jewish, in an attempt to signal that he would be supportive of issues of concern to the Jewish community. But he alienated some pro-Israel Democrats when he said he would pursue an "evenhanded approach" to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and other comments that pro-Israel advocates deemed hostile to the cause.
Asked if he would oppose the Israeli policy of selectively killing leaders of Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups, Dean referred to members of Hamas as "soldiers" in the Israeli-Palestinian "war," but then gave a lukewarm endorsement of the practice saying, "it seems to me that they are going to be casualties if they are going to make war."
After being criticized by Israel supporters for his evenhanded comment, Dean noted, "I never use the word anymore. I've discovered that 'evenhandedly' is a code word to certain people who think that is being unfair and I don't want to ever repeat that word again." He then said that terror must end before Israel should withdraw from the West Bank.
Abraham Foxman, national chairman of the Anti-Defamation League, chastised the RJC for trying to make Israel a partisan issue and described the photo in the ad as "over the top."
"First, I just don't understand why they're dealing with the past. He doesn't 'say' ['It's not our place to take sides.'] He said it. So it's inaccurate to say 'says.' He has taken those words back," Foxman said.
"Second, the photograph is over the top. And three, I don't know why they are playing the Israel issue. If you look at the Israel part of the platforms of the parties, they are mirror images of one another I don't think it's productive."
The National Jewish Democratic Council, a rival group to the RJC, called the RJC effort "a vicious smear campaign against [Dean] within the American Jewish community – a campaign that dangerously politicizes support for Israel," and "blatantly mischaracterizes Howard Dean's record of support for a strong US-Israel relationship."
DNC Vice Chair Susan Turnbull, speaking on behalf of the DNC, said, "Howard Dean has a strong record, as does the Democratic Party, of working to support peace in the Middle East."
She said the RJC campaign seemed "a response to the tremendous success the Democrats had in the Jewish community in November."
"The negative propaganda won't stick," she added.
Steve Grossman, former DNC chairman and also a former president of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, likened the campaign against Dean to what he said was the character assassination of Ron Brown in 1989, after Brown was elected DNC chair.
"The Republicans (citing Brown's relationship with Rev. Jesse Jackson) immediately started this drum beat about how bad Ron Brown would be for the Jewish community and the pro-Israel cause. It was proven to be absolutely without foundation."
Grossman added, "As someone who has devoted his life to the pro-Israel cause I would not have supported Howard Dean as chairman of the party if I did not believe he would be supportive of Israel."
Lieberman also criticized the RJC ad. "This Republican ad prints my critical reaction to something Howard Dean said about the Middle East in the presidential campaign, but fails to complete the story," Lieberman said in a statement released by his Senate office. "Governor Dean responded to me and others by calling his comments a mistake. I'm confident that, as party chairman, Howard will uphold the Democratic Party's historic commitment to support and strengthen our democratic ally Israel."
Steve Rabinowitz, a Democratic strategist and former Clinton White House staffer, said it was disturbing that "Republican partisans are willing to go so far as to associate [Dean] with terrorists, and that they seek to make Israel a partisan issue at a time when the country and the region have coalesced around a process."
But Kenneth Baer, another Democratic strategist and former Clinton White House staffer, said the attack was predictable. "This comes as no surprise. The Republicans were going to exploit this. They were going to resurrect all the old quotes of Howard Dean and use it as part of their continued drive to make inroads in the Jewish community," Baer said.
Dan Gerstein, a former speechwriter for Lieberman and now an independent consultant in New York, said Dean's election was a "big mistake for the party," since "he can't solve the huge credibility problems we have on national security and values."
President George W. Bush won roughly 25 percent of the Jewish vote in the last election. Different polls in 2000 showed Bush winning between 19% and 22% of the vote.
RJC Executive Director Matthew Brooks defended the attack on Dean in an opinion piece distributed this week. "The National Jewish Democratic Council's hurried and politically motivated defense of the new DNC Chairman Howard Dean should worry not only the American Jewish community, but everyone who hopes for a bipartisan commitment to stand with Israel in the war on terror."
The RJC and the NJDC fired off competing lists of quotations from Dean – and about Dean – each trying to make their respective points about the new chairman's record.
Baer said Dean and the Democrats needed to rid themselves of the impression that the Democrats "either aren't good for Israel or aren't strong on terrorism."
Dean ran in the presidential primary as an anti-war candidate and some Democrats have expressed concern that his position could hurt the Democrats in the 2006 mid-term elections and the 2008 presidential election as they compete in an environment when national security and the war on terrorism is a top concern of Americans.
"He felt, and I think a lot of Americans feel, going to war against Iraq this time around simply was not in America's best interest," Grossman said in Dean's defense.
"Howard Dean's job over the next three to six months is to sit down with groups of [Democratic] leaders around different parts of the country and have some conversations so that people will be very clear about who he is and what kind of chairman he'll be."
Howard Dean on Israel: Why We Should All Be Concerned
Thursday, February 17, 2005 By: Matthew Brooks
The National Jewish Democratic Council’s hurried and politically motivated defense of new DNC Chairman Howard Dean should worry not only the American Jewish community, but everyone who hopes for a bipartisan commitment to stand with Israel in the war on terror. While NJDC may be willing to ignore the unpleasant facts about Dean, leading Democrats have joined the Republican Jewish Coalition in expressing deep concerns over Dean’s weak record of support for Israel and for the war on terror.
These concerns, as addressed in our recent advertising campaign, are fully justified, based upon Dean’s past statements. While he was campaigning for president, Israel was suffering regular terror attacks encouraged by Yasser Arafat, Hamas and others. Yet Dean said, “I don’t believe stopping the terror has to be a prerequisite for talking, you always talk,” clearly indicating that he would force Israel to negotiate while under the threat of terrorist attacks (The Associated Press, 9/10/03).
It’s no surprise, given such statements, that Clinton White House aide Kenneth Baer warned, “The pro-Israel community would be very worried if Dean became DNC chair” (The Forward, 1/28/05). For their part, President Bush and his Administration have made clear that stopping terrorist attacks is absolutely a prerequisite for moving forward in the peace process.
Dean went even farther, adding, “I don’t find it convenient to blame people. Nobody should have violence, ever. But they do, and it’s not our place to take sides” (The Associated Press, 9/10/03, emphasis added). These comments suggest Dean has accepted the dangerous moral equivalency shared by many on the American and European Left.
As Senator Joe Lieberman noted, “Dean’s statements break a 50-year record in which presidents, Republican and Democrats, members of Congress of both parties have supported our relationship with Israel based on shared values and common strategic interests” (Congressional Black Caucus Democratic Debate, 9/9/03). Now the Democrats have chosen Dean to lead their party.
Previously, Dean described Hamas terrorists as “soldiers” in a war, legitimizing their cause and their tactics while they murdered innocent Israeli citizens, including Arabs (CNN, 9/10/03). In one television interview, Dean even indicated that a Hamas takeover of Palestinian territories might be a “good” thing (CBC/PBS, 1/3/98). It is deeply disturbing that the Democrats have elected a national chairman so willing to welcome terrorists to power.
Jay Footlik, who was Senator Kerry’s presidential campaign liaison to the Jewish community, warned that once Dean was elected DNC chairman, “a lot of mainstream, middle of the road, centrist Jewish Democrats would be very turned off and concerned and would be left wondering whether they have a home in the Democratic Party” (The Forward, 1/28/05).
Indeed, many Jewish Democrats are left wondering whether they have a home in their party, and not just because of Dean. As Democrat strategist Kenneth Baer wrote, “[T]he broader group of Democratic elected officials, and those who advise them, seem to wish the whole topic [of terrorism] would disappear, allowing Democrats to focus on the domestic concerns … To this group, foreign policy is merely a base to be touched and then ignored” (The New Republic Online, 2/14/05). As long as America and Israel face terrorist threats, Jewish voters must support leaders who will bravely confront terrorists, not hope they will go away.
Even more disturbing, Baer notes, is “a faction, which coalesced around Dean in the primaries, that takes foreign policy seriously but has a view antithetical not only to Republicans but also to a majority of the electorate. This group shies away from employing force abroad, almost instinctively doubts America's stated intentions in foreign affairs, and tends to look inward at what the United States has done to incite and fuel hatred rather than focus on causes intrinsic or unique to America's enemies” (The New Republic Online, 2/14/05).
Just one example of this faction’s worldview is Dean’s insistence that “the capture of Saddam has not made America safer” (Remarks to Pacific Council of International Policy, 12/15/03). If it were up to Dean and this group, Saddam Hussein would still be paying terrorists to kill Israelis and Americans. With Dean’s election as DNC chairman, it is this group that has seized control of the Democrats’ agenda, and all defenders of freedom should be concerned.
Despite the criticism of Dean’s views coming from leading Democrats, Dean’s unanimous election is an important barometer of the Democratic Party’s direction. Regrettably, that direction is towards indifference, if not outright opposition, to the war on terror. As The New Republic’s Peter Beinart wrote, “[P]ost-September 11 liberalism has produced leaders and institutions – most notably Michael Moore and MoveOn – that do not put the struggle against America's new totalitarian foe at the center of their hopes for a better world,” and the Democratic grassroots increasingly “views America's new struggle as a distraction, if not a mirage” (The New Republic, 12/13/04). In Dean, these grassroots activists may have found their oasis, but Jewish Democrats have found themselves wandering in the desert.
Matthew Brooks is Executive Director of the Republican Jewish Coalition
…………………………………..
RJC Fact Sheet: Howard Dean and Israel
Contact: Matthew Brooks
Saturday, February 12, 2005
Dean: It’s Not America’s Place To “Take Sides.” “I don’t believe stopping the terror has to be a prerequisite for talking, you always talk … I don’t find it convenient to blame people. Nobody should have violence, ever. But they do, and it’s not our place to take sides.” (Ron Fournier, “Front-Runner Finds Words Can Be His Political Friend And Enemy,” The Associated Press, 9/10/03)
Dean Calls Hamas Soldiers At War, Not Terrorists Killing Innocent Civilians. “I will say, however, that there is a war going on in the Middle East, and members of Hamas are soldiers in that war.” (CNN’s “Wolf Blitzer Reports,” 9/10/03)
Dean Sees Good In Possible Hamas Take Over Of Palestinian Authority. “Sooner or later … Arafat is going to leave the scene, either by the usual means in the Middle East, which is some sort of political violence, or the fact that he’s in his late 60s and he’s got a lot of miles on him. When that happens, I think Hamas will probably take over. There will probably be good and bad out of that. The bad, of course, is that Hamas is a terrorist organization. However, if they have to run a quasi-state, they may actually have to be more responsible and start negotiations …” (CBC/PBS’ “The Editors,” 1/3/98)
Sen. Joseph Lieberman: Dean Would End 50 Years Of US Mideast Policy. “I will simply say that Howard Dean’s statements break a 50-year record in which presidents, Republican and Democrats, members of Congress of both parties have supported our relationship with Israel based on shared values and common strategic interests.” (Congressional Black Caucus Democratic Debate, Baltimore, MD, 9/9/03)
House Minority Leader Pelosi And More Than Two Dozen House Democrats: “It Is Unacceptable For The U.S. To Be 'Evenhanded' On These Fundamental Issues.” (Nedra Pickler, “Pelosi, Other House Democrats Criticize Dean's Israel Comments,” The Associated Press, 9/10/03)
Sen. John Kerry Criticizes Dean’s Comments. “‘We are an ally of Israel. And when you say things like “We don’t take sides,” you send messages that have profound implications on people’s perceptions. I’ve never heard an American politician call Hamas “soldiers,” like Governor Dean did,’ Kerry said. ‘I think those are the kinds of mistakes that I’m talking about that if you don’t have experience, you don’t understand it, that you make.’” (Kathie Obradovich, “Kerry Says Dean Lacks Foreign-Policy Experience,” The Des Moines Register, 11/17/03)
Kerry’s Campaign Liaison to Jewish Community Jay Footlik Worries Dean Will Turn Off Jewish Voters From Democrat Party. If Dean becomes DNC Chairman, “a lot of mainstream, middle of the road, centrist Jewish Democrats would be very turned off and concerned and would be left wondering whether they have a home in the Democratic Party.” (E.J. Kessler, “Ancient Woes Resurfacing As Dean Eyes Top Dem Post,” The Forward, 1/28/05)
Democrat Strategist And Former Clinton-Gore White House Aide Kenneth Baer Says Dean Is “Flat-Out Wrong” For Pro-Israel Community. “He's just flat-out wrong on foreign policy … The pro-Israel community would be very worried if Dean became DNC chair …” (E.J. Kessler, “Ancient Woes Resurfacing As Dean Eyes Top Dem Post,” The Forward, 1/28/05)
"DNC Vice Chair Susan Turnbull, speaking on behalf of the DNC, said, "Howard Dean has a strong record, as does the Democratic Party, of working to support peace in the Middle East."
She said the RJC campaign seemed "a response to the tremendous success the Democrats had in the Jewish community in November."
"President George W. Bush won roughly 25 percent of the Jewish vote in the last election. Different polls in 2000 showed Bush winning between 19% and 22% of the vote. "
uh...
pinging for later
Mr. Foxman obtained his diploma from the William Jefferson Clinton School Of Damage Control Parsing.
The only logical conclusion is that Dean is willing to negotiate with terrorists.
"First, I just don't understand why they're dealing with the past. He doesn't 'say' ['It's not our place to take sides.'] He said it. So it's inaccurate to say 'says.' He has taken those words back," Foxman said.
Sounds like more "that depends on what the meaning of 'is' is" nuancing to me. Everyone knows it's disingenuous to directly quote a Dim, while it is totally appropriate to misquote a Republican if it makes him/her look bad...
Democrats - no longer just the party of gays and abortion... now also the party of terrorists and anti-semites.
At least it's fun watching! hehe
I agree. Dean will be a fun guy to see out front.
I like Dean. Because theres no BS about him. He's a Left wing Global socialist. And he's not going to hide that. He stands for everything the Democratic Party stands for but refuses to say. I want people to see that. I want people to see the Democratic party for who they are collectively. Yes, you have Decent people in there like Lieberman, I want this thrust in Lieberman's face. Europe's anti-semetism is disgusting and all the Democratic party has is Token Jews.
Does this mean that some Jews are noticing that anti semitism resides in the Left?
John Kerry should work on shutting his Stepson up instead of Howard Dean. His step son was quoted saying something like
'lets stop treating Isreal like the 51st state'
The Left is about Globalisation and creating a Global community. Well, the Global community is Anti Semetic. You have little Jewish children in France getting called Racist slurs on their way to school.
The USA loves their Jews and has provided the safest haven for them since the colonial era when Jewish groups colonized here.
This jerk sure can't stand free speech, can he? Witness his attempts to silence Mel Gibson and defame his character.
I pretty much agree with everything you are saying. It is an irony, though, that Jews tend to be part of the Left. I believe that is changing, though. OTOH, my opinion is that America as a whole continues to move leftwards, partly through the efforts of leftists, and partly because, as Jefferson noted, government power tends to increase, while freedom and liberty tend to recede. Maybe someone can provide the exact quote.
I always wonder if, by the time Jews get around to discarding leftism, America will have adopted it.
Democratic presidential hopeful former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean greets supporters after his address during his caucus night party in West Des Moines, Iowa, Monday, Jan. 19, 2004. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
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