COMMUNITY VIEWS

A Heartbeat Away

Israel Telescope
1111, onder of wonders, a Jew,
To
some of us, and especially since
Sen. Joseph Lieberman,
domestic
issues can be discounted,
has been nominated for
Israel
is
still
a very important factor in
the second-highest office
how
we
vote.
What then is Lieber-
in the land — "a heartbeat away from
man's record on the State of
the presidency" as antisemites
Israel?
declare with great foreboding.
• On Jerusalem: Speaking
What now, after all the level-
to
CNN
on Aug. 9, 2000,
ling (smiling) and ethnic
Lieberman
said, "It would
pride has subsided? Perhaps
not
be
a
good
idea" to move
Jews should evaluate their
the
U.S.
embassy
in Israel
understandable reflex
to
Jerusalem
now.
He said
response to simply vote for
this, despite the fact that the
one of their own?
move from Tel Aviv was
What are Lieberman's
ordered by near-unanimous
positions on domestic issues?
DR. JE ROME S. vote of the House and Sen-
He has flip-flopped several
KAU FMAN
ate more than five years ago.
times on affirmative action,
Spec
ial
to
Lieberman also promised at
partial individual financial
the
Jew
ish
News
an American Israel Public
control of Social Security,
Affairs
Committee conven-
raising the eligibility age for
tion shortly afterward, on
Social Security and limita-
April 29, 1996, to personally move
tions on campaign financing. He has
the embassy brick by brick himself, if
backed off of promoting school
necessary, in order to complete the
vouchers since 12 percent of the dele-
May
1999 deadline.
gates to the Democratic national con-
•
On
Hillary Clinton: Lieberman
vention were members of the public-
strongly
defends Hillary's attendance
school teaching profession. He has
at
a
Palestinian
love-in in Gaza, and
also softened his attack on the enter-
her lack of response to Suha Arafat's
tainment industry, what with the
claim that the Israelis were poisoning
Clintons scooping up millions of Hol-
Arab
drinking water and killing Arab
lywood dollars in the last few weeks.
babies.
He now walks hand in hand
Domestic issues, thus, have become
with
[senatorial
candidate] Hillary, all
irrelevant, as the positions proclaimed
over
New
York,
trying to convince the
Lieberman have proven completely
Jews
that
she
is
not
the Arab sympa-
unreliable.
thizer and antisemite that her actions
suggest.
• On Pat Buchanan: On the Jim
Jerome S. Kaufman is a Bloomfield
Lehrer News Hour of Aug. 13, 2000,
Hills resident.
Lieberman said that Pat Buchanan

[presidential candidate from the
Reform Party] "is not an antisemite at
all; his writings have been misinter-
preted." Evidently, the senator has not
heard Buchanan repeatedly declare
that American Jews are disloyal, that
there are too many Jews at Harvard;
not heard him praise Adolf Hitler and
defend Nazi criminals. Lieberman also
has chosen to ignore the denuncia-
tions of Buchanan by such respected
political pundits as William Buckley,
George Will, Alan Dershowitz, A.M.
Rosenthal and any number of other
creditable observers.
• On Jonathan Pollard: Lieberman
vehemently opposes the release of
Pollard despite extensive evidence
challenging the fairness of his trial, the
actual damage that was done and the
fact that other "spies" with much
longer histories and more damaging
actions have been given far more
lenient sentences [in this country].
• On Arab terrorists: At an AIPAC
meeting in West Bloomfield last year,
Lieberman disingenuously denied hav-
ing any knowledge of the State
Department Web site that features
pictures and rewards for the killers of
American citizens in foreign countries
— except Jews, of course, killed by
Arab terrorists in Israel.
• Lieberman refuses to answer
repeated calls to help in bringing to
justice identified Arab terrorists now
living within the Palestinian Authority
who are responsible for the killing of
seven American Jews from his own
state of Connecticut.
• David Broder, eminent Washing-

ton Post columnist in 1992, reported
that Lieberman was the contact that
opened up the American administra-
tion to Arab political pressure by
introducing James Zogby, head of the
American Arab Institute s to President
Bill Clinton. Anyone who has heard
Zogby on his weekly television show
knows him to be a virulently anti-
Israel propagandist expert in distortion
and manipulation of the facts of histo-
ry. Sometime after this introduction,
Bill Clinton, for the first time of any
president, addressed a large Arab
American convention in Washington
and praised Zogby as his good friend
and the source of really objective news
on the Middle East!

becomes a left-of-center Jewish Democ-
rat, all of a sudden, there is unhappiness.
Where was the outrage, then, at the
vicious, stereotyped biased personal
attacks on [now Supreme Court Justice]
Clarence Thomas, a prominent black
individual?

"religious right" is not defeated. Howev-
er, if a left-of-center Jew discusses his
faith, that is a sign of nobility, decency,
ethics, morality and a fact to be
admired.
Count me as one Jewish American
who believes that both George W. Bush
and Joseph Lieberman have the right to
discuss their faith, and have it as a cen-
tral focus of their lives. While Payne's
symbolism in his cartoon was ill advised
and clearly upsetting to individuals, his
core argument about the "hypocrisy in
the Democratic Party" is cogent and
persuasive. We as Jews cannot have it
both ways: either religion has a valid role
in public life whether for Jews or others,

On Jewish Service

What has been the history of many
American Jews and one-time Jews
serving this country?
We have several examples before us
at this very moment — Madeleine
Albright, Dennis Roth, Martin Indyk,
Sandy Berger, Aaron Miller — to
name a few. They are all intensely
involved in the current peace negotia-
tions and greatly responsible for the
pressuring of Israel to give up more
and more territory.
As columnist Sidney Zion wrote,
in the New York Post of Aug. 18,
2000, "Like most Jews who end up
in the highest echelons of our gov-
ernment, Lieberman stands the real
chance of . . . bending over back-
wards" (proving his Americanism
and nullifying the terrifying canard
of dual-loyalty). El

Coverage Favors Democrats

Aug. 10 Detroit News editorial
cartoon ("Crossing The Line,"
Sept. 1, page 27) on Sen.
Lieberman and the Democrats,
the Jewish News cites quotes
from numerous Jews who stand
opposed to that particular
Henry Payne comic strip. Was
the Jewish News incapable of
finding one Jew with a differ-
ERIC J.
ent opinion? In the United
ROSENBERG
States, those running for high
Special to
office frequently are lam-
the Jewish News
pooned, caricatured, stereo-
typed and personally attacked.
When the subject is George W. Bush or
another right-of-center Republican,
Eric J. Rosenberg is a Farmington
nobody on the left whom I know is
Hills resident.
offended. As soon as the subject

S

ince the Jewish News
apparently has aban-
doned any pretense
of objectivity regard-
ing the presidential race, and
specifically Sen. Joseph
Lieberman, I would suggest
that future editions of the
newspaper candidly disclose
the bias in favor of Lieber-
man and the Democratic
Party. The news pages have
abandoned all elements of
objectivity on the subject.
In the article regarding an

There Is Hypocrisy

Many of us in our Jewish community
are hypocritical with respect to attitude
about religion. When a Christian right-
of-center individual such as George W.
Bush or Kenneth Starr discusses his
faith, many in our substantial and vocal
left wing rise up in indignation. We hear
hysterical rants about the "religious
right," and all sorts of gloomy predic-
tions follow about what will occur if the

COVERAGE on page 39