Reply #80: I'm still looking for the answer to your question but in the meantime ....

[hedda_foil]

Somewhere in my files is an excellent response to your questions, but I haven't been able to find it (though I'll keep looking). Here's what I recall, however. Grossman is, a former head of the Democratic National Committee, which means he's a heavy hitter in Democratic circles. (Not the DLC -- the DNC.) That's his biggest credential. He worked in foreign policy in the first (much more liberal than the 2nd) Clinton admin.

He was briefly appointed to the AIPAC presidency after the then-current president was involved in some kind of scandal. Apparently he was tapped because he was Mr. Clean. However, his (Grossman's)association with Israel has been in connection with a liberal, peace-and civil rights oriented group. I'm quite sure of this because when I first learned of it, before I committed to Dean, I looked Grossman up to see just what his position has been and who he had worked for. And I went to the website of the organization itself to see just what it stood for.

Dean isn't an Israeli Hawk like Lieberman and * cabal by any stretch of the imagination.

Tamara Baker of American Politics Journal did a very good job on many of the Israel/AIPAC questions in their mailbag on July 11.

http://www.americanpolitics.com/Letters.html

<snip>

Yeah, Dean's dealt with AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and he has AIPAC members who support him, just like virtually every other US elected official of prominence. But Dean isn't afraid to tell AIPAC when he disagrees with them on deal-breaking issues like invading Iraq, even if it means that he has to brave a harsh reception from them:

The liberal Dean, who was ferried about the Aipac parley
by a high-profile supporter, former Aipac president
Steven Grossman, drew a good crowd there, even if his
anti-war stance was generally unpopular with the hawkish
group. He defended it forcefully, telling the Forward
that "Iran is more dangerous to Israel than Iraq is...
I don't think you have to be pro-war or pro-unilateral
intervention to be pro-Israel."

Not exactly the behavior of an AIPAC tool, eh? And the AIPACers in attendance gave Dean a coolish reception, nowhere near the love-bombing they reserved for Joe Lieberman. (That's OK: Dean, whose favorite novel is Ken Kesey's *Sometimes a Great Notion*, has never been afraid to talk to people who disagree with him on fundamental issues. Preaching solely to the converted isn't his style.)

But when Dean talked to a more liberal group of Jewish leaders and activists, he was greeted far more warmly:

At the Reform gathering, however, Dean's trademark cheeky,
shoot-from-the-hip manner electrified the crowd, which
heartily applauded his platform to make health insurance a
right for all Americans. "We have had enough in this
country of blaming government for what goes wrong," he
said. "Let's lift up government and not be afraid to be
Democrats!"

Leaving the gathering, Dean practically had to beat back a
number of young people who eagerly volunteered for his
campaign. "It would be an honor to work for you," gushed
one youth, a leader of the Reform movement's National
Federation of Temple Youth.

<snip>

Hopefully, you guys are aware that the vast majority of Jews are liberals and far more likely to be consistently antiwar (and particularly anti THIS war) than most Americans ... and even most Democrats.