Another good reason to vote for Nader...

[dustedone]

From this morning's Irish Times"presumptive US Democratic presidential candidate Mr John Kerry has formally endorsed the pro-Israel positions adopted by President Bush in mid-April. In a paper sent to US Jewish leaders Mr Kerry calls for the "total isolation" of Mr Arafat; defends the security barrier as a "self defence" measure in the face of

Comments

[dublingal_ny]

Well Kerry wouldn't have invaded Iraq in the first place, of course. And a premeditated decision to invade, occupy and topple the government of a country that is no imminent threat to the US surely won't happen on his watch (on Dubya's, all bets are off).

I don’t buy that JK is AIPAC material - he has made some statements that indicate he’s not. But on Israel he’s playing electoral odds, as all high level American politicians do on Israel, religion and the death penalty - Jews on the right will vote on Israel, but leftier Jews vote the range of issues. Being hawkish is no loss to him. As to what will happen when he’s in office . . . . . ?

Let’s be realistic. Coming out against Israel is like declaring yourself an atheist - all fine and dandy but a large and very real liability against ever getting elected president of the US. This is a country of incremental changes, of lobbies, coalitions and professional panderers on both sides of the aisle. A Kerry administration will have to listen to the liberals, the New Yorkers, the environmentalists etc in the same way Bush listens to the fundies and the Club for Growth etc. A Kerry administration also gets rid of the headcases and ideologues running defence, state, army, etc. (Of course, Nader favours a no-accountability, no-democracy, corporate-CEO style campaign for himself).

But you're isolating foreign affairs from domestic, and in the real world that doesn't work. It's the whole package we're choosing here, from detentions-without-trial to womens health to environmental protections to taxes to urban policy and so on. Even the Muslims I hang out with, some of whom have views on Israel that would put the middle class indymediacs I used to know in the dust, will be voting Kerry. Cherry picking Israel as "the" issue might look good from Ireland but is laughable from here. We have got to get rid of Bush. Simple as that.

And a vote for Nader is two votes for Bush, one for prez and one vote for the rich Republicans like Richard Egan donating to Nader’s campaign. If he even gets on the ballot in any states since the Greens rejected him.