No more venomous attacks

GORDON M. WEINER

I have been disheartened by the venomous letters attacking Dennis Ross, lauding President Bush, and calling on American Jews to vote Republican in November. The impression created by these neo-con Jews is that Israel is at the top of Bush's priority list, which it is not. Forgotten, of course, are W.'s close links to other friends of Israel in the region, like Saudi Arabia's ruling families. Where was Bush's condemnation of the recent anti-Semitic statements by senior Saudi government officials?

Any American Jew who has visited Israel in the four years of the Bush administration, and they have been few and far between, can easily answer the salient question posed by the neo-cons' favorite hero, Ronald Reagan: "Is Israel better off now than it was four years ago?"

Four years ago were heady times. The peace process was in full swing, the intifada had been abandoned and the Israeli economy was flourishing. I had the opportunity of going through the Arab and Christian quarters of the Old City of Jerusalem with the first Hebrew University graduate class to visit it in eight years. All this we should blame on Dennis Ross and the peace process.

Then came the crash, Arafat's rejection of Barak's offer and the election of George Bush. Rather than seizing the moment to explore ways of supporting anti-Arafat Palestinian moderates, the administration placed Israel on the back burner and explored war in the Middle East. Bush's ill-planned Iraq war has created a groundswell of new fundamentalist Islamic terrorist recruits with whom we will have to deal in the years ahead.

The Jewish Republicans argue in their strident letters that "if people want to help Israel, they should vote for Bush" ("Strength does matter," Jewish News, Aug. 20). The Israeli paper Ha'aretz, on the other hand, declared on July 2 that Kerry's position paper on Israel "shows consistent support for Israel on all issues at hand."

Kerry vows not to negotiate with Arafat; supports Israel's right to defend itself against terrorists and build the fence; supports Israel's disengagement plan; opposes cutting Israeli foreign aid; calls for a more balanced approach to Israel at the United Nations; supports moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem; and, unlike Bush, supports creating a framework to get moderate Palestinians into positions of power and to the negotiating table.

If you believe that all Arabs and Palestinians hate Jews and that they will never accept the existence of a Jewish state, then you should vote for Bush. If, however, you believe that it is worth trying to pursue a just and lasting peace with Israel's Arab neighbors and moderate Palestinians, then vote for Kerry. And let's stop demonizing people who are committed to the survival of Israel but hold positions with which we disagree.

Gordon M. Weiner is professor emeritus and former director of Jewish Studies at Arizona State University.

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