(fwd from Lenni Brenner) Dean Does Damage Control: Supports Israeli assassinations and wall

[Les Schaffer <schaffer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.thejewishweek.com/
http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=8528

Friday, October 3, 2003 / 7 Tishri 5764 

Dean Does Damage Control 

In exclusive Jewish Week interview, 
he lays out Mideast vision, raps Bush. 

James D. Besser - Washington Correspondent

Democratic presidential frontrunner Howard Dean, in an exclusive
Jewish Week interview, promised if elected to roll back "every single
one" of President George W. Bush's executive orders opening up
government grants to religious groups providing health and social
services.

In a wide-ranging 45-minute interview last Thursday in the newspaper's
Times Square offices, Dean also slammed the Bush administration for
its refusal to confront Saudi Arabia on its support for terrorism and
said he would like to send former President Bill Clinton to the Middle
East to lead negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

Dean's campaign sought the interview in response to a barrage of
damaging stories focusing on the candidate's recent comments
suggesting the United States "not take sides" in the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In the interview, during which he seemed confident, personable and
well prepared, Dean said the controversy stemmed from his not
understanding the "shorthand" of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"I was a little surprised because people who know me know very well I
am a strong defender of Israel," he said. "But after I thought about
it for a while I wasn't surprised. I think that the connection of the
Jewish community to Israel is so strong, and the feeling in Israel
that someday they may be abandoned is enormous."

But Dean repeated his assertion that the U.S. must be an "honest
broker" respected by both sides in the conflict. Pressed about what
that means, the former Vermont governor outlined several broad
principles he said would govern his handling of the Mideast conflict.

"The first thing we have to do is have an American president pay full
attention to it, which this president did not do for the first 18
months," he said.

Dean also promised to appoint a special negotiator, and said his top
choice is Clinton, whom he would ask "to go over there and to stay as
long as he can, or shuttle back and forth, until we begin to narrow
the gaps."

Those new efforts, he said, would not involve Palestinian President
Yasir Arafat.

"This is an area I agree with the president on," Dean said. "I do not
think we will get to peace in the Middle East as long as Arafat is in
power."

Dean said Arafat is "essentially a survivor, not a statesman. He
subjugates his desire for whatever is good for his people to his
desire to stay in power, and is willing to do things that are not good
for his people."

But the candidate expressed opposition to any outside effort to
"remove" the longtime Palestinian leader, who has moved back into the
international limelight after the Israeli government's decision to do
just that.

Dean expressed strong reservations about giving the United Nations a
bigger role in Mideast peacemaking and cautious interest in using NATO
peacekeepers in the region â?? something suggested earlier this year
by his new chief rival, retired Gen. Wesley Clark.

But neither international body can have "the respect and trust of both
sides at the negotiating table," he said. "Thatâ??s why the United
States is the only [party] that can bring peace between Israel and the
Palestinians."

He refused to criticize Bush for declaring his objective of creating a
Palestinian state.

"I find it unusual for me to defend the president in any way, but
everybody knows that in the end that's going to have to happen," Dean
said. "It has to be negotiated by the parties."

Dean expressed support for Israel's controversial military strikes
against Palestinian terrorist leaders.

"I've been very clear, I support the targeted assassinations," he
said.  "These are enemy combatants in a war; Israel has every right to
shoot them before they can shoot Israelis."

An earlier statement to that effect got Dean in trouble when in a CNN
interview, he referred to Hamas terrorists as "soldiers," a statement
that produced a sharp attack from a top rival, Sen. John Kerry
(D-Mass.)

Dean was unrepentant, saying he used the word deliberately because
"under international law, you are not allowed to assassinate
terrorists. â?¦ That was not a naive gaffe. It was to keep Israel's
policy within the bounds of international law."

Dean also stirred controversy in some pro-Israel circles last month
when in an exchange with supporters in New Mexico, he said "an
enormous number" of Israeli settlements would have to be removed.

In his Jewish Week interview he stepped back from any blanket
statement about settlements.

"I think ultimately the settlements are going to have to be negotiated
with the parties," Dean said. "I know that some of the settlements are
essentially suburbs of Jerusalem, where the vast majority of the
population is."

He suggested he would be willing to accept a border agreement that
"both preserves the security and allows for border adjustment that
make sense." He said settlements will be an impediment to peace only
"if Israel were to insist that every single settlement stay exactly
where it is â?¦ but I don't think Israel will insist on that. Sharon
is publicly committed not to insist on that."

Dean said he supports Israelâ??s security fence based on "the original
maps of the fence I saw when I was over there a year and a half ago,"
but said he is now concerned that "the fence curlicues around into the
West Bank."

But he declined to say whether the United States should deduct the
costs of those portions of the fence intruding into Palestinian
territory from the loan guarantees approved by Congress earlier this
year, as the Bush administration is now considering.

Asked if it is a "provocation" for Israel to expropriate more
Palestinian land, Dean was cautious.

"It depends on how it's done," he said. "Additional settlements are a
provocation. I think the fence is a security matter." He said he would
like to hear from Israeli leaders "about why they are changing the map
before I say what I would do about it."

Dean leveled his strongest charges at the Bush administration for its
"abysmal failure" to confront the nations that support terrorism in
the Middle East and around the world.

"The terror is funded by the Syrians, the Iranians and the Saudis," he
said.  "This president still will not confront the Saudis."

He also criticized the Bush administration for not pressuring Russia
to end its role as Iran's top supplier of nuclear materials.

On the domestic front, Dean hit hard at Bush's faith-based efforts and
tax cuts.

Asked about a number of executive orders implementing parts of the
administration's faith-based initiative without congressional consent,
he said: "I would undo every single one of the president's
initiatives. I would want some partnership with the churches, on the
condition that under no circumstances would there be hiring
discrimination or proselytization using any kind of government funds."

Last week, the administration announced a series of new regulations
lowering barriers for religious groups to participate in grant
programs. And the Department of Health and Human Services announced
$30.5 million in grants to support 81 community groups and faith-based
charities, and another $24 million for programs that received funding
last year under the administration's Compassion Capital Fund.

Dean also expressed strong opposition to school vouchers and a
preference for "public school choice."

As the Bush administration pushes for even more authority to track
down and prosecute terrorists, Dean expressed reservations about the
Patriot Act, the law passed in the days after the Sept. 11 attacks
vastly increasing the power of federal law enforcement authorities.

"There are a couple of things I do not like about the Patriot Act, but
I would not get rid of [it] in its entirety," he said.

And he echoed the views of several of his Democratic rivals in
criticizing the Bush administration's tax cuts, which critics say have
ballooned the deficit and led to big cuts in social programs.

"I think the tax cuts are a disaster, and I'd repeal all of them," he
told The Jewish Week, saying that the resulting budget crisis is
shortchanging homeland security and social programs.

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