Jews against Dean? (email from my wife's friend)

[T Roosevelt]

My wife (who is Jewish, and a Dean supporter) received this from a Jewish friend of hers. I hate to let it pass since to me it is the "head in the sand" approach and merely seeks to perpetuate the problem, but I feel that to address this in any way would be going down a road I'd rather not go (just look at the FA forum on a bad day). Be aware that this is out there.
(and yes it was in all caps)


HOWARD DEAN PROMISED THAT IF HE IS ELECTED PRESIDENT, THE UNITED STATES WILL NO LONGER SUPPORT ISRAEL THE WAY IT HAS IN THE PAST UNDER BOTH DEMOCRATIC AND REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTS.

IN HIS OWN WORDS HE WILL INSIST THAT THE UNITED STATES BE "EVEN HANDED". THIS IS A TERM REGULARLY EMPLOYED BY ARAFAT AND HIS COTERIE OF ADHERENTS THAT MEANS TO BE ANTI-ISRAEL!!

GOVERNOR DEAN MADE THESE COMMENTS ON CNN ON SEPTEMBER 10,2003 ON THE WOLF BLITZER SHOW. HE HAS REPEATED THOSE WORDS SINCE.

IF THIS WERE NOT ENOUGH, GOVERNOR DEAN ON THAT SAME SHOW CHARACTERIZED THE HAMAS TERRORISTS AS "SOLDIERS".

FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 9/11 WE HAVE SOMEONE RUNNING FOR THE OFFICE OF PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES CALLING TERRORISTS SOLDIERS.

I URGE YOU THAT IF YOU HAVE ANY LOVE FOR AMERICA AND ISRAEL YOU SHOULD NOT AND CANNOT VOTE FOR HOWARD DEAN FOR THE OFFICE OF PRESIDENT.

THIS COMING ELECTION MAY VERY WELL BE ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT IN DECADES.

PLEASE PASS THIS MESSAGE ON TO AS MANY OF YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS AS YOU CAN.

[frank frankly]

1. astroturf shit

garbage!

thanks for the headsup!

:hi:

[blm]

2. This is not Dean's current position, though. He backtracked on that remark

shortly after he made it. This email is just alarmist.

[w4rma]

13. These words? "The United States is not being evenhanded," Carter said

Carter Prods Bush on Mideast Peace Plan

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration must push harder - and be evenhanded - to revive sagging peace hopes in the Middle East, former President Carter said Monday.

In an Associated Press interview 25 years after the Camp David accords, Carter said Israel and the Palestinians had not only abandoned the U.S.-backed road map for peace but had violated it - Israel by threatening the "removal" of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. He suggested the Bush administration was tilted toward Israel.
…
Twenty-five years ago, Carter negotiated between Israel and Egypt to help produce their breakthrough peace treaty. The occasion will be marked on Wednesday by a gathering in Washington of former American, Israeli and Egyptian delegates.

"As I know from bitter experience at Camp David, the likelihood the two sides are going to come together voluntarily and make very troubling concessions is nil," the former president said of Israel and the Palestinians today.

"The only way this can be done is by the extreme, concerted commitment of the president of the United States or his top representatives - preferably himself - and a balanced approach between the two adversarial groups," Carter said.

"You have to let the Palestinians know we are representing their key interests," and you have to let the Israelis know the same, Carter said.

"The United States is not being evenhanded," Carter said by telephone from his home in Plains, Ga. "You have to have a mediator, willing to negotiate freely with both sides, and equally firmly with both sides."
…
Carter negotiated over 13 days in 1978 at the presidential retreat with the late Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to come up with the Camp David accords. Sadat was assassinated by Muslim fundamentalists in 1981. Begin died in 1992.
…
Arafat could be a stronger leader, and more forceful in his condemnation of the violent attacks on Israel by Hamas and other groups, Carter said.

"But I don't think he has ever had control over Hamas," the extremist Palestinian group that has struck Israel with terror attacks, Carter said of Arafat. "And I presume Hamas leaders will not accept his authority."

Arafat is sealed off by Israel in his battered West Bank headquarters, Carter noted. "I don't think he is in charge of everything among the Palestinians," he said.
http://www1.chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2003-09/16/content_264528.htm
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=115854

[blm]

36. Dean met with Jewish leaders after the remark.

Before his first major meeting with American Jewish communal leaders, presidential hopeful Howard Dean ducked into a Manhattan sukkah to shake hands with local children and admire the homemade rings of construction paper they had draped across the outdoor hut.

Later Friday afternoon, however, at a meeting at the Lincoln Square Synagogue, it took more than a photo-op and some handshaking to placate 26 representatives of Jewish groups. A former Vermont governor, Dean had vexed many members of the Jewish community last month when he recommended that the United States take a more “evenhanded” approach to brokering Israeli-Palestinian peace — a phrase generally taken to mean that the United States should not take Israel’s side.

Dean backers say the comment was distorted by his opponents.
Asked about his remarks during the closed-door meeting, Dean “covered his face with his two hands and shook his face as if to say ‘Oy, what a mistake that was,’ ” said David Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee.

According to Harris, Dean said, “Israel is not just an ally, but a beacon of hope for people who were abandoned 2,000 years ago and who are afraid of being abandoned again. I will not abandon Israel, ever.”

>>>>>>
http://www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?intarticleid=13346&intcategoryid=3

[Hep]

21. Thanks for that

I want to let you know that I see and recognize your fairness. Dammit, now I'm going to have to lay off you.

I will say that I think Dean clarified the statement rather than backtracking on it. Remember, half of the people claim he's in an embrace with IUPAT and the other half thinks he's in cahoots with Arafat. I still think that's a pretty good position to be in.

[loudnclear]

25. If he backtracked, he is not the man to lead this nation out of war.

What the hell is wrong with being "evenhanded?"
Our only way out of this war morass is to require that Israel also live up to the same standards that Israel is requiring of the Palestinians and all the other Arab nations. I haven't heard cries for Sharon to declare that the Palestinians have a right to exist as a nation the way the Israelis screamed about Arafat making such a statement (which he did on at least three occassions). If Dean can't stand up to the Likudniks, I can't stand up for Dean. Period! Our nation has lost much too much for its biased handling of the ME sitiutation.

[Eloriel]

32. Maybe you know, maybe you don't

that the term "even-handed" is some sort of code work for something totally intolerable to Israel. Dean used the term in the common-language way, and it set off alarm bells everywhere. He quickly clarified -- with people like Nancy Pelosi who IMMEDIATELY started circulating an anti-Dean letter to Congressional Dems after his comment (without discussing his position with him, which I find repugnant, but then I'm not nearly as pleased with her overall as I thought I'd be).

He may or may not be as pro-Palestine as you'd like. I don't know. He didn't start out quite as pro-Palestine as I'd like, but he has grown on the position, and I do know that an even-handed (common understanding of the term) approach is exactly what he intends. He wants peace and he recognizes that Palestinians have been getting a short shrift AND that we have to be what Clinton used to call "honest brokers" if we're to have any impact at all. In fact, he has said he'd ask Clinton to go back and broker that peace he almost reached before he left office.

Eloriel

[Selwynn]

3. Lame. Dumb. Totally without merit.

For some people, if you're not blindly and unquestioningly pro-israeli government then you are an anti-semite.

But I will not be intimidated by such people. The US policy towards the israeli palestinian situation should be even-handed. Truly even handed - one that recognizes both sides are in the right and both sides are in the wrong, and work for a solution that is honest to all.

[Scott Lee]

4. Garbage.

Plus, any "Israeli" that would scream and whine about the US wanting to be "even handed" in the region exposes their own problem.

[La_Serpiente]

5. They are trying to scare Jews

to leave the Democratic party.

Most Jews support APN instead of AIPAC.

[frank frankly]

9. bingo!

great point, LS!

[oasis]

6. Some of Bush's $200,000,000 campaign funds at work.

[Jacobin]

7. South Florida won't be in play in 2004.

[LittleDannySlowhorse]

8. Well THIS Jew

thinks that Dean's attitude towards the Middle East is right on. Tell your wife's friend in as patronizing a tone as possible that the only people really buying this bullshit are either going to vote for Bush no matter what or still thinks Lieberman has a shot.

Next!

[funkyflathead]

10. Do I smell vote for Lieberman? n/t

[pruner]

14. I've seen several articles from Florida press indicate that…

Jews are leary of a Lieberman presidency, fearing that anything that goes wrong would be blamed on the Jews.

my grandmother, a Jew who lives in FL, echoed this sentiment the last time I spoke to her.

[Jacobin]

19. There are a LOT better reasons not to vote for Holy Joe than that

[pruner]

24. I agree…

I didn't mean to imply that was my grandmother's reason for not voting for Lieberman (she's a Deaniac)… just that she's been hearing that from her Jewish friends.

[Jacobin]

16. That'll be hard since there's no way he'll get the nomination

I think the likkudniks like our cowboy dunce of a pretzledent. Very convenient.

[eileen_d]

11. Well, here's a red flag --

"PLEASE PASS THIS MESSAGE ON TO AS MANY OF YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS AS YOU CAN."

I have never, ever received an e-mail message with those words in it (not to mention the all-caps-ness) which was the unvarnished truth.

[Jacobin]

17. I have.

[eileen_d]

22. It wasn't "MAKE MONEY FA$T" was it?

If so, I have some bad news for you...

[Jacobin]

35. No.

Email chain thingies, pleas for money from friends doing "heart drives", etc.

Not saying its professional. Just saying I've seen that type of thing before, that's all.

[THUNDER HANDS]

12. believe me

Not all jews are 100% behind Israel at all costs. A lot of them WANT peace and believe being even-handed is the best way to bring that about.

Of course, I'll probably get labeled a "self-hating jew" for saying that.

[madfloridian]

15. Dean was not aware of the connotation of "evenhanded".

He does hold the view that we have to look at both sides of the issue. Many Jewish people hold that view as well. He apologized for the word, but still has the same stance.

Heck, I never heard of it being a naughty word either.

[bobbyboucher]

18. I thought "even handed" meant "even handed".

I didn't know it meant anti-Isreal.

[Jerseycoa]

29. My thought exactly

:shrug:

[Just Me]

20. Where is the "answer",...

,...to the problem?

[unfrigginreal]

23. In case you haven't seen it, here's an article that may interest you both

Taking first primary role seriously,
N.H. Jews are leaning toward Dean

MANCHESTER, N.H., Dec. 2 (JTA) — In an empty room where a small party for the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union is about to be held, Hilda Fleisher stands out.

It may be her bright pink turtleneck sweater, or the fact that the 72-year-old is wearing braces on her lower teeth. Or it may be the small pin that reads “Dean for America” on the collar of her fleece vest.

When asked why she is supporting Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor, Fleisher’s remark stands out, too. “I just sorta oozed into it,” she says.

Fleisher, a lawyer and art collector in Manchester, says she did not choose to support Dean because he spent a night at her house, although he did.

“He cleaned the bathroom,” Fleisher recalls of her houseguest. “He made his bed.”

The reason she chose Dean, the front-runner in New Hampshire polls, is because she thinks he can defeat President Bush next year, and that’s her top priority.

Tough words from a former Republican.

more...

http://www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?intarticleid=13520&intcategoryid=3

[T Roosevelt]

27. Thanks - we'll check it out later...

[legin]

26. That is the dumbest one I have ever heard

Steve Grossman an ex-head of AIPAC is a major player in Dean's campaign team, and he wouldn't work for Dean if Dean was 1/10th as bad as this email says.

In fact I/P is the one issue I have worries about Dean coming as I do from the opposite direction, but that is another story.

One for the dustbin this one.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

28. Heaven forbid we should have an "evenhanded" policy - LOL!

n/t

[Scott Lee]

37. See this is one big reason we have people trying to bomb us.

Incredible.

[Lurking Dem]

30. Rove Against Jews

would likely be a more accurate title for this crap meant only to divide us when we need to stand firm.

[Tinoire]

31. No only some Jews and they are not trying to get Jews to abandon Dems

they are trying to get Jews to get disgusted at Dean and examine another Dem candidate.

There were several posts along this vein posted at DU one night by a poster (since banned) who attacked "Deanie Jews" (his term) saying they were like the WWII Jews and that they should abandon Dean and get behind candidate X who had a more acceptable stance on a certain issue.

Those of you who care about this issue should start looking at all the candidates' stances on this very closely because not all words are as they seem. Words have a strange habit of morphing during election time even while the winks to the side are made.

I bookmark the stories and interviews and it's amazing what gets out there without being reported in the mainstream, for-average-consumption press. It's also amazing what goes totally undiscussed here.

Note closely that the ad doesn't attack all the Dems who we THINK have basically the same stance- only Dean.

The PsyOps in these Primaries make me laugh and cry at the same time. Keep a careful, watchful eye on the Christian Right- they are going to be the real swing voters in this election for whom a message is being carefully crafted as the groundwork you saw above is laid. My 2 cents- but hell what do I know, I was only in the military 20 years paying close attention to how + & - PR was done.

[AlFrankenFan]

33. Conservative Crap

*PROUD JEW FOR DEAN*

[evil_orange_cat]

34. because a Dean presidency doesn't bode well for...

the Christian Coalition and friends who wish to see Israel destroyed in a nuclear fire because they think that will bring jesus back...

[loudnclear]

38. This just might make up votes in the South for Dean

I count this as a plus, not a minus...especially after the revelations about the Israeli intelligence that helped Bush make his case for Iraqi invasion being bogus.

[blm]

43. Except Dean backtracked already with Jewish leaders.

He'll still be portrayed as under the thumb of Sharon based on his deals made with Sharon already. Especially promising Sharon MORE money for defense than Bush even.

[mrgorth]

39. Can you please post

some contact info? I'd like to address this group's concerns if they are a real group. Thanks.

[solinvictus]

40. Israel

I am so tired of radical American Zionism dictating our foreign policy in the Middle East. Always, the evangelicals and their allies in the Republican Party. AIPAC does not need to dictate our Middle East policy.

[Forkboy]

41. Hell,you see the same sentiment down in I/P

[Tinoire]

42. Hey! Check your in-box...

:hi:

:)

[HFishbine]

44. "even-handed" is apparently a code word

Here is an examination of the issue with Howard Dean on "Hardball" Monday night:
----------------

MATTHEWS: Is there any way to reduce the hostility between East and West, the hatred that’s growing toward us from the East?
DEAN: Yes, treat people with respect and they will treat you with respect. And that’s in short commodity.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
MATTHEWS: Why did you-if that’s the case, why did you abandon your statement that you were for an even-handed policy in the Middle East? What’s wrong with an even-handed policy, if you want respect from the other side?
DEAN: There may not be anything wrong with an even-handed policy, but even-handed is a code word, which I belatedly found out.
MATTHEWS: Well, then drop the code word. What about the principle? Are you for an even-handed foreign policy towards Arab countries, as well as Israel?
DEAN: What I-yes.
What I believe is that-look, Israel has a special relationship with the United States. It’s always had a special relationship with the United States.
MATTHEWS: Right.
DEAN: It’s the only democracy in the Middle East.
But we have to, at the negotiating table, have the confidence of both sides. Only an American president can ever be the catalyst for peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians, and the truth is that most people on both sides of the green line would very happily settle for a two-state solution if they could only guarantee the security of their borders.
Eighty percent of the Palestinians live below the poverty level now. There are Israeli mothers who have no idea if their kids are going to come back in one piece from school when they send them. These are two people who are ready for peace. Now we have got to get heavily and intensely involved in the peace process and bring the leadership together.
MATTHEWS: Was Clinton on the right track?
DEAN: Not only was Clinton on the right track. The first thing I’m going to do if I get to be president of the United States is call Bill Clinton and ask him to go to the Middle East and represent me so we can have the presence of an American president trying to bring peace to that region.


http://www.msnbc.com/news/1000254.asp