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December 19, 2003/Kislev 24 5764, Vol. 56, No. 13
Dean e-mail controversy erupts
MATTHEW E. BERGER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
WASHINGTON - Howard Dean is smarting from e-mails that distort his views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and he has suggested that President Bush's right-hand man is behind the e-mail campaign.
Speaking Dec. 15 to the Pacific Council on Inter-national Policy, a leadership forum in Los Angeles, Dean said he believed Karl Rove, the White House's senior political adviser, is behind an e-mail campaign.
The White House referred calls about Rove's alleged involvement in the e-mail campaign to the Bush/Cheney re-election campaign. Scott Stanzel, a campaign spokesman, said the campaign does not respond to comments by the Democratic contenders.
The message in the e-mails is that Dean wants an "even-handed" policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Many Jews consider that a way of saying that the United States should be less supportive of Israel.
"I've discovered that 'even-handedly' is a code word to certain people who think that is being unfair, and I don't want to ever repeat that word again," Dean said in the question-and-answer session after the speech in which he outlined his vision for foreign affairs and national security.
The campaign later said Dean made the comments in a light-hearted exchange with a questioner, who wanted to know how he would deal more even-handedly with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The comments came as Dean announced a slew of foreign policy advisers, including one who has drawn some criticism from the American Jewish community.
Claude Prestowitz, presi-dent of the Economic Strategy Institute, will advise Dean on globalization and international economics.
Prestowitz says that U.S. aid to Israel should be made conditional on Israeli with-drawal from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a freeze on settlement development and the uprooting of most settlements.
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