Reply #15: Again, Dean Chooses To Omit Inconvenient Positions [View All]

[DrFunkenstein]

Much like he (oops) forgot to mention he supported multilateral invasion for a couple of months to peace crowds, I don't see anything here that suggests he has taken back the promises he made to AIPAC and Sharon.

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The candidate's anti-war stance may have filled the park, but the broader foreign policy debate to come—one of two areas, along with the economy, that Dean recently said "every president must get right"—will be about more than just Iraq. And his positions on a variety of issues are far from clear.

Usually at this point in the campaign, said Gergen, "it doesn't get into specifics. If that were the case, John Kerry would be doing much better."

When asked to characterize his opinions on the Middle East, he said, "At one time the Peace Now view was important but now Israel is under enormous pressure. We have to stop terrorism before peace negotiations . . . I don't do things for political reasons. I'm very loyal to my friends."

Dean said that his views of the conflict "are much closer to AIPAC"—the hawkish American-Israel Public Affairs Committee— than to the Jewish coexistence lobby Peace Now.

James Zogby, head of Washington's Arab-American Institute (AAI), says he was initially troubled by Dean's response to one of his questions at the Council on Foreign Relations. Zogby had asked Dean how he would handle comments from the religious right disparaging Arabs and Muslims. Dean replied that he would "stand up" against it but that he also felt "it should not have to be a white Christian president of the United States whose burden that is."

Jacques Englestein found fault with Dean for "supporting Israel, but not supporting the Palestinians." He also criticized the candidate for not speaking out against the so-called separation wall—the wall the Israeli government is building ostensibly to deter attacks by militants. Many have accused the Sharon government of using the wall to annex more Palestinian land. Even George Bush, in a joint appearance with Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas, said, "It is very difficult to develop confidence between the two sides with a wall snaking through the West Bank."

"Security is a great thing," said Englestein. "But this is a land grab."

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0336/fahim.php