THE ANTI-ZIONIST:

Pinning down Howard Dean (JONATHAN S. TOBIN, Dec. 25, 2003, Jerusalem Post)

[E]ven if we stick with Dean's official policy statements on Israel, some serious questions remain.

Dean claims that on the Israel issue, he will model his presidency on that of Bill Clinton, and thinks Bush has erred at times by allowing the parties to negotiate without US involvement. That would mean a Dean presidency might repeat many of the same mistakes that helped bring about the latest Palestinian terror war and left Israel stranded.

Would Dean, as Clinton did, invite Yasser Arafat to the White House more times than any other foreign leader? Others might ask why he thinks it's so important to use the power of the presidency to create a Palestinian state when he was so reluctant to use US power against Saddam Hussein.

Why did he name as one of his foreign-policy advisers Clyde Prestowitz, an author who advocates ending all US aid to Israel to pressure it to make concessions?

And, most importantly, how will a candidate whose base of support is on the left wing of the political spectrum - where hostility to Israel is now commonplace - deal with the anti-Israel sentiments expressed by many of his supporters?

The truth is that there are a lot of reasons, other than a few stray remarks, to question the direction a Dean presidency might take on the Middle East. And voters who care about Israel - Jews and non-Jews alike - have the responsibility to try and make him answer these questions.

Howard Dean seems to be playing a bizarre form of solo Russian Roulette in which all six chambers are loaded.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 26, 2003 11:35 AM