Posted on 06/11/2007 11:02:54 AM PDT by Politicalmom
Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson is the most supportive of Israel out of a dozen or so politicians seeking to win the US presidential seat. The former actor, who has also served as a US senator, claims Israel has been too restrained in its responses to Palestinian terrorism.
“Israel is at war,” Thompson opined in a column for the conservative website Townhall.com. And the Jewish State has gone to “incredible lengths to stop the war against them without harming Palestinian non-combatants.”
Thompson is also recorded as supporting an Israeli military strike against Iran, should international boycotts and diplomacy fail to detour the Islamic Republic from its nuclear arms race.
Thompson is expected to make his first visit to Israel in the near future where he will meet with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and other senior officials.
Liberal political elements in Israel fear Thompson is too far-right in his opinions and may do eventual harm to Israel. There are many in Israel, however, who would welcome Thompson and his hard-line policy against terror onboard the US leadership team. (Sources: Israel Today/IHC)
Thompson Supports Senate Resolution on Israel
Says Israel is in a Struggle for Its Very Existence
WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Fred Thompson (R-TN) today spoke on the Senate floor to urge passage of a Senate resolution expressing solidarity with Israel. Text of his remarks follows:
“Thank you very much. I want to thank Senator Lieberman and Senator Gordon Smith for this resolution. I think it’s entirely appropriate for the legislative branch of government to express itself on something that is so important to so many Americans.
“The President has stated that this country is not going to abandon Israel. I know he means what he says, and I don’t think there’s very much doubt in terms of the Congress of the United States, but we need to make sure that there is none because, quite frankly, I am surprised at some of the misreadings that our friends in Europe and other places have sometimes of our body and our intentions.
“Madam president, it appears to me that Israel is in a struggle for its very existence. I don’t think that that is an overstatement. We read about skirmishes and we hear of the historical difficulties we’ve had in that region, and we tend to in our minds, I think, sometimes downplay the significance of what is going on there. And I think it’s more significant probably than most people realize.
“I think it is quite apparent that the Israelis themselves feel that they are in a struggle for their own existence because it is clear to them, as it is to me, that not all Palestinians, but what is right now the driving force among the Palestinians, is intent on driving the Israelis out of their country. If you look at Arafat’s map, as some people have done, you will see that it does not have Israel on it. When those people talk about a Palestinian homeland, they’re talking about Tel Aviv. They’re not talking about the West Bank.
“So, when the Israelis see that and they undergo the terrorist-organized, orchestrated, systematic terrorist activity where their children are being murdered, they take that very seriously. And they are doing right now what is necessary in order to protect themselves. I am afraid that their enemies in this region are not interested in just a Palestinian state, which I think the entire International community now is coming together and saying that that has got to be a part of any long-term resolution of this problem. Certainly, not interested in a peace process, not at this stage of the game anyway.
“Mr. Arafat was offered what in most people’s minds was the best deal that had ever been placed on the table during the prior Israeli Administration. The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia now has put a proposition on the table that the Palestinians have shown no indication that they want to accept.
“Is there any doubt — is there any doubt that if the violence stopped, the Israelis would be willing to sit down at the table? Of course not. Is there any doubt, on the other hand, that if the Israelis pulled back out of Jenin and all of other places in the West Bank, that the Palestinians still would not be willing to sit down at the table? The answer to that is no. Why is this the case? This is the case because they still think that they’re winning the battle, that they’re winning the struggle. How that be when they undergo the losses that they undergo. I think it is because they feel they are winning the battle in the international community.
“It has been absolutely amazing to me to watch this approach. It’s Orwellian to see person after person, young people being strapped up with dynamite, with the encouragement of their own families who are being paid off in many cases by Saddam Hussein and others, could go in there and kill innocent men, women, and children in public places in Israel and to see that kind of massacre of people who are not military people, they’re not government leaders, they’re just kids, you know, out have — having a good time; and to have this thing twist and turn a few times and it comes out as outrage against the Israelis in the world community.
“Somehow this brutal activity against the civilians is equated with military operations that the Israelis conduct against Palestinian militant leaders. I do not understand how that could come about. I’m sure it boggles the minds of the Israelis and I’m sure that it encourages the Palestinian leadership that would wish to drive the Israelis into the sea. That’s the reason why they still feel like they have a chance. Because our European friends are more critical of Israel as these kind of massacres than they are of the Palestinians. They feel that way because our moderate Arab friends feel the same way about it. They feel that way because the United Nations itself is more intent on investigating a war zone where people get killed, where the Israelis, instead of dropping bombs the way the United States often does, went in there from house to house to try to save innocent lives and get the guilty, and get the people who were responsible for so much of this destruction, losing people themselves that they didn’t have to lose if they had dropped the bombs. Instead, they conduct this house-to-house activity and bulldoze some buildings.
“This is the activity that the leadership of the United Nations wants to investigate. As it turns out, there wasn’t anything to investigate. The charges against the Israelis proved false before they even got there. But at the same time the blood is hardly dry in downtown Tel Aviv from innocent children who are murdered by the leadership of the PLO and other radicals among that group. As the Senator said, five-year-old children are being shot and killed in their bed, but it is a war zone that the United Nations wants to investigate. So that’s why I think the PLO and Mr. Arafat feel that they may be winning this thing. They’re willing to sacrifice any number of their people in order to have the political victory.
“Madam President, I am afraid that the toughest thing in the world to do, I think, for political leaders, is to acknowledge sometimes take there’s nothing that can be done in short order. It doesn’t matter in the end what the Europeans think or the United Nations or the moderate Arabs. Until these two parties are willing to sit down and work out a peace arrangement, we’re not going to have peace. And there’s nothing in the world that any of us can do to force them to do that. And in our opinion, nothing is going to force them to do that until they’re both either exhausted or they both feel like it’s in their best interest to sit down. And as I said, I am afraid that Mr. Arafat and the PLO do not see that in their best interest right now.
“I would suggest to our friends around the world to reassess what they’re doing. I think they’re contributing to the problem. They are keeping hope alive among these people. They’re endangering the entire region because Israel is not going to let that happen and Israel has the capability to keep that from happening. No one wants a conflagration in that part of the world but that will happen before Israel allows itself to once again be exterminated. And by encouraging the kind of activity that has driven Israel to that point, we are prolonging the conflict and making the world a more dangerous place.
“I would urge our moderate Arab friends, including our friends, the Saudis who we do have an important relationship with. They’re important to us. We’re important to them. It’s not one sided. We worked with each other for a long time. Hopefully we can work with each other again. But it is no testimonial to friendship to not be honest. And part of what our friends need to remember, it is their country who furnished most of the terrorists on September 11 that did so much damage to us. It was their diplomat to Great Britain who was quoted as praising these suicide bombers and terrorists. It is their country and some of their own people who are raising money or allowing money to be raised in that country that finds its way to terrorists all over the world. It is their people in many instances who are raising money for the families who send these children in to blow themselves up and kill innocent Israelis. And it is their leaders many times in their controlled press who call the United States along with Israeli terrorists. These are the folks we should be worried about, oil or no oil.
“The United States will not continue to be the United States that we all know and love and grew up in if we let these people dictate our policies contrary to our own interest and to the interest of our only democratic ally in that part of the world. I know that’s not going to happen. And our friends, the Saudis, need to understand that that’s not going to happen. The United Nations over the years has had every kind of conceivable condemning resolution against the Israelis while atrocity after atrocity has occurred against the Israelis. The United Nations, instead of investigating and looking into these places in the world where people are getting butchered by the tens of thousands, they’re more interested in what human rights violations the Israelis are conducting.
“Now, these are supposed to be the objective analyzers of the situation in Jenin and other places. I would urge that they take a look the at their own behavior and attitudes. And our European friends I would hope would reassess their attitudes and their public statements of their leaders at a time where anti-Semitism is breaking out once again in key European countries. As we watched the elections, as we watched the synagogues being burned, we’re getting condemning lectures from them because we’re supporting the only democracy in the Middle East. What in the world are they thinking and what do they think their behavior — what kind of reaction is it going to engender on our part?
“I think it’s very important that we send a strong, clear message as I think the president has done, that we in this body send a clear message that we will not bow to such wrongheaded public opinion no matter how universal it is at the present time. We should be the leaders and we should point out the error of their ways and they should change their opinions because we are not about to turn our back on an ally who has been our ally for so many years, that is a democracy, is not aggressively pursuing anyone except in self-defense and who is now being subjected to a new kind of warfare that is, I believe, designed to wipe them off the face of the earth in the end. Otherwise we would have had at least a peace process that meant something instead of one that is in name only and is violated as soon as the ink is dry on the paper.
“So I commend again my friends from Connecticut and Oregon for giving us an opportunity to vote on this and to add our voices to those who are so wishful for a resolution in this troubled part of the world, who understand that it’s in the interest of the United States to have a resolution in this part of the world. It’s the right thing to do. It’s the humane thing to do, to engage in that kind of a process if possible. It serves our interest with regard to our war and fight on terrorism in other countries in that region but at the same time realizing that it can’t happen — we can’t force it to happen until the parties are there and one of the parties is not going to be there as long as the entire world is encouraging them to continue terrorist activities that up until this point would have been universally condemned but for some reason is not being now. I thank the Chair and yield the floor.”
http://web.archive.org/web/20021027021138/thompson.senate.gov/press/2002/releases/pr050302.html
Which means most American Jews will vote against him. They’ll vote for Hillary or Osama (or is that Obama, I’m never sure) or Ellison before they’ll vote for a true supporter of Israel.
He actually has to run first to be considered the most supportive candidate. =p
That's still true, but the tide is turning. The old FDR worshippers are dying off.
claims Israel has been too restrained in its responses to Palestinian terrorism
Right on Mr Thompson! We need this man urgently for President.
Hunter IS very supportive of Israel. However, between the 2, there's not a whole lot of difference...and since Fred is FAR, FAR more electable, I'm in with Fred (also for a host of other reasons, like his lower taxes, generally pro-gun and anti-illegal immigration stances, plus his uncorruptability and his willingness/desire to WIN the war. He'll make a damned fine President, and kick Hillary all over the place (but mostly into retirement).
Hold your breath - it won't be long.
LOL! That’s a helluva cartoon!
Tweedledum and tweedledee. It matters not a whit of difference. All US Presidents [with the possible exception of Carter after he left office] have been totally supportive of Israel. And the same holds true for Congress. Trying to figure out who is the most supportive is like trying to assign degrees of virtue among whores.
That's a stretch. Cynthia McKinney, Dennis Kucinich and Keith Ellison friends of Israel? Eeeeeeek.
A very, very, very, very small minority. McKinney is gone. Take a look at any Congressional bill involving Israel, you will find the vote to be overwhelming on both sides of the aisle in support of Israel.
we had one in our local paper with Fred in his red pickup in front with the other candidates far behind him in another
Thompson is definitely supportive of Israel, but some would put Duncan Hunter at least equal to him.
"Liberal political elements in Israel" themselves are what should be feared as doing harm to Israel, as they already have done!
ping
Hunter would take care of it himself.
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