It's not just about Israel

At the moment, polls show that more Jews would support President George W. Bush than did so four years ago. This is understandable given the president's backing of Israel. But there are other factors in the important process of choosing the right leadership for our country.

First: Fighting Al-Qaida in Af-ghanistan and capturing Osama bin Laden should have been our priority, but attention was diverted to fighting a war in Iraq, a war that should have been delayed until the proper time and with the assistance of other nations. Now we are overextended and cannot use pressure to negotiate with North Korea or stop Iran's nuclear program, the greatest threat ever for Israel.

Second: AIDS is overrunning large parts of Africa. Condoms could greatly reduce the rate of infections, but our president, concerned with religious views, chooses to let millions die rather than subsidize condom use.

Third: Being gay is, for an estimated 10 percent, or 27 million of us, a fact of nature and not something chosen by those involved. Gays and lesbians should be permitted at least the benefits, if not the nomenclature, of marriage. Bush wants a constitutional amendment to prevent this.

Fourth: Should an accident of preg-nancy force every woman to produce a child, no matter how terribly this may affect the life of that mother or of that unwanted child? Our current president believes abortion has no place in our society. This could mean a (pre- Roe v. Wade) return to women dying from abortions performed in some dark alley.

Fifth: Many stricken by severe illness might recover if the promise of stem cells can be fulfilled. But stem-cell research in the United States is crippled by the imposition of a presidential ban on use of additional lines, a ban based not on any scientific data or fear of harm to anyone, but on Bush's opinion that use of embryos constitutes destruction of human life.

Sixth: Our president and the Senate and Congress enjoy the finest, fully paid medical care in the world. But 40 million Americans have no medical insurance. We are the only industrial nation in the world, and the richest at that, without medical insurance for all.

Seventh: Most important by far, especially to Jews, is our con-stitutional separation of church and state, which has made possible the freedom, equality and relative absence of anti-Semitism enjoyed by Jews in the United States. This important tenet has been con-siderably undermined during the past four years.

It is also of interest that Bush is the only president since Herbert Hoover who has appointed not one Jew to his cabinet.

We have a presidential leadership for which the word "inept" is a compliment. It is a leadership that is disastrous, a leadership that neither we nor the rest of the world can afford.

Herb Nathan is a Phoenix physician and a member of the Jewish Com-munity Relations Council on the Israel Affairs Committee.

Home