Dean is right about the Middle East [View All]

[BurtWorm]

Belying charges of his servitude to AIPAC, Dean made the following statement about US policy in the Middle East:

"Israel has always been a longtime ally with a special relationship with the United States, but if we are going to bargain by being in the middle of the negotiations then we are going to have to take an evenhanded role."

The Washington Post article from which this comes hints at--or misdirects attention from--an apparent DLC/Lieberman campaign to smear Dean's stance as a "radical" (actually, that was John Kerry's term) detour from US norms and propriety:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45122-2003Sep8.html

For more than 50 years, the United States has backed Israel as its closest ally in the region, providing the Jewish state with billions of dollars in military and humanitarian aid. Dean does not advocate breaking the U.S.-Israeli alliance, but believes the only way to bring peace to the Middle East is for the president to broker a deal without playing favorites. A top Dean adviser said the former Vermont governor is doing nothing different from what President Bill Clinton did when he reached out to Yasser Arafat and the Palestinians as a path to peace.

Several Democrats predicted Dean would pay a political price for his remarks. Democratic candidates receive a significant amount of money and support from the Jewish community. It would be hard for any Democrat considered unsympathetic toward Israel by Jewish leaders to win the nomination, several party strategists said.

Gee, I wonder who those "Democrats" and "party strategists" were, Al and Bruce...