This Week
Insight
Remember
When • •
,Capitol Connection
From the pages of the Jewish News for
this week 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50
years ago.
Ex-President Bush is a key player in both presidential campaigns.
JAMES D. BESSER
Washington Correspondent
I
n the emerging competition
between Texas Gov. George W.
Bush and Vice President Al Gore
for the Jewish vote in this year's
presidential election, the candidates
have at least one thing in common.
Both are running against former
President George H.W. Bush.
For both, the senior Bush is an
invisible, but palpable presence
in this year's race, at least in a
Jewish community that still
remembers his administration
with suspicion and hostility.
Gore will do his best to stick
"W" with the legacy of a father who
bitterly confronted the Jewish commu-
nity in 1991. Bush will try to portray
himself as Ronald Reagan's heir, not his
father's. It's not just a semantic game.
The Bush administration legacy is a
major impediment to the Texas gover-
nor's plan to whittle down Gore's
Jewish margin of victory in a few key
states where small shifts in the Jewish
_
vote could prove important.
The focus on President Bush was
evident at last week's American Israel
Public Affairs Committee policy con-
ference. Both candidates spoke to the
pro-Israel lobbyists; both clearly
referred to the former president,
.
though never by name.
W's message was that he would be
different — that he would work with
the pro-Israel lobby, not against it.
Every delegate understood what he was
talking about. In 1991, when his father
tried to use badly needed loan guaran-
tees as a cudgel to get Israel to change
its settlements policies, pro-Israel
groups responded in force.
That triggered a memorable news
conference in which the elder Bush casti-
gated the "powerful forces" lined up
against him. The implication was that
there was something disloyal and
Machiavellian about the pro-Israel lobby.
In his AIPAC speech, Bush also crit-
icized the Clinton administration for
interfering in the 1996 and 1999
Israeli elections, but again there was
6/2
2000
24
unspoken content; he seemed to be
repudiating his own father, who
worked hard for the defeat of Yitzhak
Shamir early in the decade.
Gore also referred to those turbulent
days. He talked about "standing up" to
Bush administration officials who were
battering Israel.
"I stood with you, and together we
defeated them," he told the group.
Gore supporters say he will return
again and again to the patrimony theme
in his appearances before Jewish groups.
The respective strategies
reflect some of the problems
the two candidates face.
Bush has no illusions about
beating Gore among Jewish
voters, but he would like to -win back
some of the "Reagan Democrats" who
gave the Gipper the highest vote ever
from Jewish voters.
More importantly, he has to keep get-
ting Jewish money, an important ele-
ment in the financial health of his cam-
paign. So he has to distance himself
from the policies and attitudes that infu-
riated the pro-Israel community a decade
ago. He has to make it clear that he will
not treat pro-Israel forces as an invading
alien army, and that he will not appoint
officials hostile to their agenda.
It's no accident that former Bush
Secretary of State James Baker has been
a non-presence in the campaign, while
George Shultz, who held the post dur-
ing the Reagan administration, has
been a visible Bush surrogate.
Bush's ideal scenario: low overall
Jewish turnout, but a good turnout
among politically conservative Jews
who have been reassured that he's
more Reagan than Bush, at least in
terms of foreign policy.
Gore can be confident of winning a
large majority of Jewish votes, but he
wants the biggest possible turnout.
His support in the Jewish communi-
ty is broad, but not particularly unen-
thusiastic.
Just beneath the surface, there is a
concern in Gore circles that the person-
able Bush — who is seeking to reclaim
the image of GOP moderation he cast
aside during Southern primaries — could
The Forward, the first national,
English-language weekly in the
U.S., made its debut.
B'nai B'rith Women's Council
moved its thrift shop to Redford
Township.
Susan Wolf, a junior at Detroit
Country Day School, was chosen
for a 1990 Edgar M. Bronfman
Youth Fellowship.
Ex-President Bush: In the campaign
background.
be the kind of Republican who could
attract a significant number of Jews.
Bush could add to his appeal with a
creative choice for his running mate.
A pro-choice candidate would ease the
concern of some Jewish Reagan
Democrats who have fled the party
because of the influence of the
Christian Right. New Jersey Gov.
Christie Whitman might be attractive
to many Jewish women.
As much as possible, Gore will try
to remind Jewish voters of the heredi-
tary link, and send out this message:
like father, like son.
The Gore campaign can be counted
on to remind Jewish voters of the infa-
mous slur reportedly uttered by Bush's
secretary of state during the loan guar-
antee fight — "bleep the Jews."
The emphasis gives Gore some red
meat to use with Jewish voters and
helps him steer clear of tough questions
about exactly how he would manage
the extraordinarily difficult task of
being both Israel's best friend and an
honest broker in the peace talks.
Gore wants to keep his answers
blurry because he has strong support
from both left and right in the Jewish
community — with both groups
thinking he really supports their posi-
tions. The more he talks about today's
issues, the more he risks alienating one
side in the great peace process debate.
Dealing with the angry nostalgia
about the Bush administration is a
much safer strategy. Having another
George Bush to run against is a big
plus in Gore's quest for Jewish votes in
November.
❑
Israeli Premier Menachem Begin
extended an invitation to Pope
John Paul II to visit Israel.
Arsonists threw two Molotov
cocktails into theZionist Cultural
Center in Southfield.
Julius Harwood was elected pres-
ident of United Hebrew Schools.
W,
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese
of Boston and the local NAACP
branch joined area Jews in express-
ing outrage over the torching of
two synagogues in Dorchester,
Mass.
New York City announced plans
to make kosher meat meals avail-
able upon request to patients at all
municipal hospitals.
, EWIN
The Jewish communities of south-
ern Chile were hit hard by a series
of earthquakes.
A buried treasure of some 4,000
ancient coins was unearthed in the
Druze village of Isifya on Mount
Carmel.
Author Boris Pasternak died in
his home in Russia after a three-
week illness.
Settlements in the upper Galilee
lost thousands of dollars worth -of
grain as a result of fires that broke
out following an intense heat wave.
Solomon Adatto, the only Jew in
the last Turkish parliament, was
reelected as a deputy.
—Compiled by Sy Manello,
editorial assistant