Courting America's Jews

Political outreach mostly focused on Israel.

RON KAMPEAS
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Washington, D.C.
ike two surly dinner guests who won't let an
argument go, President Bush and John Kerry
won't get off topic when they take their case
to American Jews: It's all Israel all the time.
The prospect of swaying likely
voters in a handful of battleground
states has brought unprecedented
attention to Jewish voters this elec-
tion season, yet the discussion over-
whelmingly has focused on Israel,
an issue that no longer pushes
Jewish buttons the way it once did.
David Harris, the American
Jewish Committee's executive direc-
tor, said the parties still perceive
Israel as a potent issue among Jews,
even as polls by the AJCommittee
and others show the Jewish state
declining in importance among
Jewish voters.
"Jewish voters want to be satisfied
the candidate understands the
importance of the U.S.-Israel issue
and will work to strengthen it,"
Harris said. "If the adversary can
puncture a hole in that belief, it
may cause some voters to rethink their original posi-
tions."
In its final sweep in the days before Election Day
on Nov. 2, each side was attempting just such a jab.
"I will make Israel safer than George W. Bush is
because I will stand up to those countries that are
still supporting Hamas and Hezbollah," Kerry, a
Democratic senator from Massachusetts, said in
Florida on Sunday.
At the same time, his campaign distributed an
appeal from legal personality Alan Dershowitz that
called Bush's Mideast policies "disastrous" for Israel.
For its part, Bush's campaign distributed a
Washington Post column by Charles Krauthammer
suggesting that Kerry's plan to assert control in Iraq
is to "sacrifice Israel" to Arab and European nations.
The notion got further reinforcement by New York
Times columnist William Safire on Monday when
he asked Jewish voters who ten _ d to vote Democratic
to "give a little added weight" to Israel's security and
vote for Bush.
Richard Cohen used his own Washington Post col-
umn on Tuesday to hit back: "No doubt, George
.
Bush is a true friend of Israel. But so was Bill
Clinton and so would be John Kerry," he wrote.
"The issue is not who cares more for Israel, but
who can be effective in reducing the violence and
bring about a peaceful solution. So far, that's not

L

campaign, the candidates at times have gone into
contortions to make their Israel bona fides.
Bush and Kerry each brought Israel into the
debates, managing to squeeze mentions into ques-
tions about getting troops out of Iraq, although they
were never asked about it.
The sometimes vicious back-and-forth is a long
way from March, when a top Bush campaign offi-
cial told JTA that the campaign would pretty much
leave Kerry alone on the topic, and Kerry campaign
officials liked to say they were "as good" on Israel as
Left: President Bush
Bush and would focus instead on domestic issues,
waves to supporters at a
where
Democrats tend to trump Republicans among
Jacksonville, Fla., rally,
Jews.
Oct. 23.
Bush campaign
Yet as Bush's lead in the polls started to melt with
the summer, and the importance
of Jewish votes in battleground
states increased, his Jewish cam-
paigners switched to the Israel
issue, where they believed his
unprecedented closeness to Ariel
Sharon's government made him
almost unassailable.
The gloves soon came off.
A passage from a 1997 book by
Kerry describing Palestinian
Authority President Yasser Arafat
as traveling the road from outlaw
to statesman — a conventional
Right: John Kerry gestures to
wisdom at the time — was pared
the crowd at the conclusion
down by the campaign to omit
of a round-table discussion
the "outlaw" part. "Kerry called
event in Dover, NH, Oct.
Arafat a statesman" became fod-
25.
der for Bush partisans and
Sharon Farmer/Kerry Edwards 2064
reporters at Bush-friendly news-
papers like the New York Post.
Jewish trophy, former
Another sign of the importance that Republicans
New York Mayor Ed Koch, through a grueling tour
assigned to the Israel issue was a Republican strategy
of synagogues and Jewish Community Centers in
document prepared in July by former U.S. House
the southern part of the state on Tuesday and
Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga. One section rehashes
Wednesday..
Kerry's 1997 reference to Arafat and says that Kerry
The Kerry campaign was bringing former
President Clinton, Dershowitz, Kerry's Jewish broth- expressed two "precisely opposite" reactions to
er, Cameron, TV comic Larry David and an array of Israel's West Bank security barrier, although Kerry
and Bush both changed their attitude to the fence
congressmen into Fort Lauderdale and Miami on
when Israel changed its route.
the same days.
The Bush campaign's rhetoric reached such a
Additionally, each side made one of its top foreign
policy officials available to an American Israel Public pitch that by the end of August, senior campaign
staffer and Bush's former Jewish liaison, Tevi Troy,
Affairs Committee summit in Hollywood, Fla.
was telling college students at the party convention
Richard Holbrooke made Kerry's case and
in New York that Bush's re-election was a "life or
Condoleezza Rice, Bush's national security adviser,
death" matter for the Jews.
spoke for her boss.
Kerry's campaign was not immune to distortions.
"Whoever wins on Nov. 2, the key role of Jewish
voters must be seen as a vitally important fact of this One campaign trope is that Bush did nothing to
stem Saudi funding of terrorists, although terrorism
year's election," AJCommittee's Harris said.
experts agree that the kingdom is rolling back the
funding precisely because of effective pressure from
Mentioning Israel
the administration.
Throughout the grueling and often contentious
COURTING on page 49

George Bush."
Such high-profile appeals — from the candidates
and their surrogates, made in the country's prime
Op-Ed real estate — underscored the weight each
side accords the Jewish vote.
That was also evident in this week's final push in
Florida culminating a month-long sweep of Jewish
communities in swing states.
Republicans were running their Democratic

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2004

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