|
|
May 7, 2004/Iyar 16 5764, Vol. 56, No. 33
Kerry vies for Jewish vote
RON KAMPEAS AND MATTHEW E. BERGER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
WASHINGTON - A Kerry administration would avoid the pressure other presidents have used to nudge Israel in peace negotiations, and would consult closely with the Jewish state before launching any new Mideast peace initiative.
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, out-lined his approach to Middle East peacemaking in an interview with JTA on May 3, the same day he launched his campaign to win Jewish votes with a major policy speech to the Anti-Defamation League.
Kerry has been working hard to mitigate the effect in the Jewish community of President Bush's extraordi-nary concessions to Israel last month, when the president recognized some Israeli claims to the West Bank and rejected any right of Palestinian refugees to return to Israel.
The Jewish vote could play a crucial role in 10 swing states in what is likely to be a close election this fall, and Kerry is on a fund-raising drive that needs a strong turnout among the Democrats' broad base of Jewish donors. His ADL speech sounded a range of notes aimed at pleasing Jewish ears - on civil rights, anti-Semitism and Israel.
"For the entire 20 years that I have been in the United States Senate, I'm proud that my commitment to a secure Jewish state has been un-wavering; not even by one vote or one letter or one resolution has it wavered," Kerry said to the applause of the ADL audience. "As president, I can guarantee you that that support and that effort for our ally, a vibrant democracy, will continue."
In his subsequent interview with JTA, Kerry sought to elaborate on what would distinguish his presidency vis-…-vis Israel.
"I'm very sensitive to the pushback that came from overly aggressive presidents who tried to just advance the title" of a peace process, "without the substance," Kerry told JTA. "There's always been a feeling of concessions driven without a return on it. I will never voice a concession that somehow puts Israel's judg-ment of its security at risk."
Kerry also said his belief in a multilateral approach to foreign affairs did not apply to Israel.
"The multilateral com-munity has always been very difficult with respect to Israel, and we have always stood up against their efforts to isolate Israel," he said.
Kerry reiterated his en-dorsement of Bush's recent concessions to Israel in exchange for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's commitment to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and a portion of the West Bank.
"'Right of return' is a non-starter. We need to get a note of reality into these dis-cussions," he said.
In his speech to the ADL, Kerry sough to extend a prominent campaign theme - that Bush's conservative agenda has divided the country - into one that resonated with an organi-zation championing dialogue and conciliation.
He celebrated the "notion that we don't try to have a politics that goes down to the lowest common denominator, but rather lifts people up to the highest common denominator; that doesn't try to drive wedges between people in order to govern and conquer, but recognizes the words of Abraham Lincoln - that a house divided against itself cannot stand," Kerry said in his speech.
"And we should ask ourselves in this country why it is that we are so divided today," Kerry said.
|
|
