SPECIAL REPORT
Presidential Debate
U.S., Israel Need Kerry Now
E
very four years under our
Constitution, we have the
privilege of deciding which
presidential nominee is best for
America. In my opinion, both our
national good and the security and
independence of the State of Israel
require us to retire George W. Bush
and elect John F. Kerry.
John Kerry has been an unabated
supporter of Israel for his 20 years as
senator. Why should he change? He
has publicly supported every Israeli
issue we care about, including the
West Bank security fence, non-
recognition of the Palestinian
Authority's Yasser Arafat, Israel's
right to respond to terrorism and
retaining Israel's military superiority.
Mandell L. "Bill" Berman is a
Southfield-based philanthropist, Jewish
communal and Detroit civic leader,
founder of the national Jewish
Experiences for Families program and
past president of the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit. He's the guiding
force behind Jewish education in metro
Detroit. He helped fund U.S. Jewry's lat-
est population survey.
He has been a strong supporter of
financial aid to Israel and the U.S.
backing of Israel at the United
Nations.
Israel's greatest current threat is
Iran. Kerry understands that a
nuclear-armed Iran poses an unac-
ceptable risk to the U.S., to Israel
and to the free world. Does Bush?
Look at his record. We've invaded
Iraq with no weapons of mass
destruction and have ignored Israel's
most dangerous enemy, Iran.
During the past two years, Bush
has distanced the U.S. from Israel —
from active, in-place American sup-
port. Kerry has promised — and I
believe him — the U.S. will,
through a full-time representative in
the Middle East, work for a real
Palestinian effort to establish securi-
ty, and give real support to ensure
that Gaza, after withdrawal, will not
remain a haven for terrorists. Kerry
has promised never to make conces-
sions to compromise Israel's security.
Bush has confused us and failed to
admit mistakes in Iraq or in our
relationship to our allies around the
world. Why should we
Bush came into office with a
believe that he would be bet-
surplus of $263 billion.
ter for Israel than Kerry?
Today, four years later, the
Internationally and diplo-
country has a deficit of
matically, we've alienated our
something close to $413 bil-
friends. Globalization
lion. What will it be four
requires that America not try
years from now?
to go it alone. Kerry will
In four years, Bush has
repair our worldwide rela-
MANDELL
never vetoed a spending bill.
tionships. Our future and
L. BERMAN This administration has
our children's future security
Special to the brought fiscal irresponsibility
depends upon having allies
to a level unseen in a modern
Jewish News
who will work with us as we
era. As the New York Times
face all of the challenges of a fast-
has said, "If he wins re-election,
changing world, darkened by terror-
domestic and foreign financial mar-
ism, spawned by the disaffected and
kets will know that fiscal recklessness
religiously intolerant in the Arab
will continue. Along with record
world. In my view, to fight global
trade imbalances, that increases the
terrorism, we need a president who
chances of a financial crisis, like an
will admit mistakes and will work
uncontrolled decline of the dollar,
open and constructively with our
and higher long-term interest rates."
Allies to protect America. That's
On Bush's watch, we have lost 1.6
John Kerry.
million private-sector jobs, making
him the first president to lose jobs
since Herbert Hoover. Kerry claims
Bush's Shortcomings
to have a plan to turn this around. I
What we don't need, and cannot risk admit that is not going to be easy in
retaining, is a closed-minded "born-
this globalized era, but the loss of
again" who can't admit error. George
high-paying jobs in Michigan and
Bush: A N an I Know, Respect
0
ne of the many benefits of
growing older is the ability to
reflect on the accumulation of
life experiences and the character of
the great many people you come to
know.
I lived through the Great
Depression, a time so uncertain that
vast segments of our society were in
doubt as to when their next meal
might come. I lived through a time
when the burning seeds of hatred
began to grow in Europe and Japan. I
watched as America withdrew from
the world, and for which both
America and the world would later
suffer.
I watched as the Western democra-
cies refused to confront the malignan-
JIST
10/22
2004
46
Max M. Fisher is a Franklin-based
industrialist, philanthropist, Jewish com-
munal and Detroit civic leader, and
adviser to U.S. presidents and Israeli
prime ministers. He's the acknowledged
patriarch of Detroit Jewry, the driving
force behind Federation's Annual
Campaign and a past president of the
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit. He funded the new Max M
Fisher Music Center in Detroit.
cy of fascism, in the fervent hope that
this ideology would somehow dissipate
on its own. I watched as well-inten-
tioned leaders sought to accommodate
the demands of dictators to ensure
peace at all costs. And I watched as the
efforts to save a relatively few lives by
failing to confront fascism early on
resulted in the death of more than 50
million people, the genocide of
European Jewry, and the virtual
destruction of Europe.
As tragic as were the mistakes that
drove the Western democracies to fol-
low the wrong path, those lives were
not lost in vain, for we learned from
such mistakes. We recognized the need
for a Jewish state to ensure that such
tragedies as the Holocaust would not
happen again — and we made it so.
We recognized that the spread of
freedom and democracy were the best
inoculation against the warping effect
of totalitarian regimes. In critical
times, we came to choose leaders, like
Winston Churchill, who never
wavered in their absolute conviction
that we must never entreat tyranny,
that we must confront it at all costs,
even at the risk of losing everything we
hold dear.Leaders like Churchill do
not win wars. Armies win
wars. The civilian populations
that back them up win wars.
What leaders can do is act as
our moral compass, guiding us
through the treacherous straits
of war, act as our standard
bearer, and personify the
resolve we all wish we had in
uncertain times.
and conviction, the free world
was ultimately saved from the
barbarity of fascism. I person-
ally know another such leader
— George W. Bush. I have
watched him come of age
politically. And I have seen
that for which he is willing to
MAX M.
be disliked. I have watched
FISHER
him stand by Israel, and suffer
Special to the the deprecation of most Arab
Jewish News and most European leaders as
True To Principle
a result. I have watched him
I have been fortunate to know
stand fast when lesser leaders
many leaders, including a few great
would have taken the diplomatically
leaders. One characteristic that all
expedient route of putting greater pres-
leaders share is the desire to be liked.
sure on Israel.
But what distinguishes truly great lead-
I have watched the true measure of
ers from the rest is not that for which
the man as he stood in an unscripted
they are willing to be liked; rather the
moment at the gravesite we call
mark of a truly great leader is that for
Auschwitz to declare, "This site is a
which they are willing to be disliked.
sobering reminder that when we find
Churchill remained isolated and
anti-Semitism, whether it be in Europe
ostracized for years leading up to
or anywhere else, mankind must come
World
together to fight such dark impulses.
War II because he had the moral
And this site is also a strong reminder
clarity to recognize the threat of fas-
that the civilized world must never for-
cism for what it was, and he never
get what took place on this site. May
wavered from his conviction. Lesser
God bless the victims and the families
people would have given up. He did
of the victims, and may we always
not, and as a result of his leadership
remember." I know first hand that