THE "JEWISH PRESS" ENDORSES BUSH

America's largest independent Jewish weekly newspaper, "The Jewish Press," has endorsed the incumbent for President of the USA.

George W. Bush For President
It was George W. Bush’s lot to have been elected president at a time when two defining developments were at work, fundamentally changing the world landscape. The European Union’s burgeoning determination to fill the international political void created by the collapse of the Soviet Union was one. And the unprecedented challenges presented by an international terror crusade on the move —underscored eight months into Mr. Bush’s presidency by 9/11 — was the other.

Both these developments required — and will continue to require — leadership not rooted in outdated geopolitical thinking; leadership cognizant of the reality that our ostensible friends do not necessarily share our interest in a strong United States and that our enemies do not risk as much as we do from confrontations gone seriously bad.

With this in mind, the choice Americans must make on November 2 should be an easy one. One can prattle about the significance of this or that difference between President Bush and Senator Kerry on the environment, Social Security, jobs, taxes and a whole slew of other domestic issues. But that avenue ineluctably ends up as a clash of partisan talking points about inherently insoluble problems. When it comes, however, to the war on terror — the overarching issue of our time — the choice of Mr. Bush over Mr. Kerry is a clear one from everything available in the public record. And for those with a special interest in Israel, the choice is even clearer....

Is there any question that President Bush can be relied upon to more forcefully prosecute the war on terror? When it comes to the Middle East, the contrast between the two candidates is even more striking.

In his 2002 State of the Union address, his first international affairs declaration after 9/11, President Bush noted that "Our military has put the terror training camps of Afghanistan out of business, yet camps still exist in at least a dozen countries. A terrorist underworld — including groups like Hamas, Hizbullah, Islamic Jihad, Haish-I-Mohammad—operates in remote jungles and deserts, and hides in the centers of large cities."

Viscerally, the president draws no distinction between international terror and terror directed against Israel. And indeed, the Bush administration has consistently acknowledged Israel’s broad right to defend itself against terror, even in the face of claims at the UN that it has overreacted to attacks by Palestinian terrorists.

Moreover, in addition to linking Israel’s response to the Intifada with the global war against terror, President Bush groundbreakingly declared that, respecting U.S. policy, there would be no Palestinian "right of return," since it would mean the end of a Jewish state in Israel, and that Israel had a legitimate claim to substantial portions of the West Bank.

On the other hand, Senator Kerry has spoken of former president Jimmy Carter and former secretary of state James Baker — both blatantly anti-Israel — as his choice for emissaries to the Middle East. He has also retained as advisers many of Bill Clinton’s discredited Oslo architects and others who have urged moral equivalence between the murder of Israeli women and children and Israel’s reaction to terror.

Nor can we forget that Mr. Kerry told an audience at an Anti-Defamation League dinner that he wanted to be an "honest broker" in the Middle East, despite all the political baggage that phrase has assumed and as if there were a moral equivalence between Israel and Palestinian terrorists. Or that Mr. Kerry told an Arab group that the Israeli defense wall — which has sharply curtailed the murder of Israelis — was an "impediment" to peace in the region and was "provocative and counterproductive."

Senator Kerry also called Yasir Arafat a "statesman" and a "role model." He has said that we must "look to Chairman Arafat to exert much greater leadership." On "Face the Nation," he said the Israel-Palestinian conflict is "an extraordinarily complicated, incredibly deep-rooted problem… Arafat has forces around him, underneath, close by him that don’t want peace, that are working against what he is doing." In short, Arafat, according to Kerry, is not the problem — some around him are.

Kerry also stated on "Meet the Press" that "Israel’s presence [in Gaza and the West Bank that] puts Israel in difficult circumstances and obviously creates an enormous handle for Osama bin Laden for all the radicals and extremists to hand on to."

For Kerry, the victims are the problem.

It should be noted that President Bush’s commitment to Israel was not merely a function of 9/11. In "The Price of Loyalty," Paul O’Neill, the former treasury secretary who left the Bush administration on less than friendly terms, reported that on January 30, 2001, just ten days after his inauguration, and well before 9/11, President Bush met with his senior national security team and declared: "We’re going to correct the imbalances of the previous administration on the Mideast conflict. We’re going to tilt back towards Israel. And we’re going to be consistent. Clinton overreached, and it all fell apart. That’s why we’re in trouble."

Secretary of State Powell reportedly objected to this approach, protesting that "such a move might be hasty," speaking of the "roots" of the violence in the Palestinian areas, and stressing that "a pullback by the United States would unleash Sharon and the Israeli army" and that "the consequences of that could be dire, especially for the Palestinians." President Bush responded: "Maybe that’s the best way to get things back in balance. Sometimes a show of strength by one side can really clarify things."

To our mind, based on their own statements, the imperative of responding to the worldwide terrorist threat, and the particular targeting of Israel, the choice this year is George W. Bush over John F. Kerry.

And this is not even to address Mr. Kerry’s shameful creating, out of whole cloth, politically motivated scares over a reinstatement of the military draft and a reduction in Social Security benefits. Mr. Kerry’s assertions are totally without foundation, and they put his credibility further into question. He should be ashamed of himself.All things considered, we all will be better off with George W. Bush as president for the next four years.

With this in mind, the choice Americans must make on November 2 should be an easy one. One can prattle about the significance of this or that difference between President Bush and Senator Kerry on the environment, Social Security, jobs, taxes and a whole slew of other domestic issues. But that avenue ineluctably ends up as a clash of partisan talking points about inherently insoluble problems. When it comes, however, to the war on terror — the overarching issue of our time — the choice of Mr. Bush over Mr. Kerry is a clear one from everything available in the public record. And for those with a special interest in Israel, the choice is even clearer.