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Thread ID: 13771 | Posts: 2 | Started: 2004-05-19
2004-05-19 01:53 | User Profile
[url]http://www.prolog.net/webnews/wed/bm/Acongress-israel.RBuW_EyH.html[/url]
DeLay Links U.S. War, Mideast Conflict
Monday, 17-May-2004 3:20PM
Story from AP / DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent
WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said Monday the war in Iraq and Israel's battle against Palestinian terrorists are two fronts in the same global conflict, "and we will win it."
"The survival of Israel is essential to America's victory in the war on terror, and America's victory in the war on terror is essential to Israel's survival," the Texas Republican told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
"We will never leave their side."
DeLay's comments marked the latest in a string of rhetorical and policy gestures by Republicans in and out of the White House to bolster GOP hopes to increase its share of the Jewish vote in the November elections.
DeLay, R-Texas, a conservative who has emerged as a strong defender of Israel, appeared before the pro-Israel lobbying group on the same day as a senior House Democrat who also made a robust statement of support for the Jewish state.
"Israel's fight is our fight," said Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the House Democratic whip. "Those who sow hate in our world are the common enemy of all."
Hoyer expressed support for President Bush's recent announcement that Israel can no longer be expected to withdraw to pre-1967 borders as a part of any peace plan. The Maryland Democrat also supported Bush for saying that Palestinians cannot count on being able to return to Israel.
Both men said they were at work on bipartisan legislation to put the House on record in support of those positions, which Bush announced after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon last month.
At the same time, Hoyer made only passing reference to Iraq in his remarks. He was silent on Bush's conduct of the war and its violent aftermath, which has drawn criticism from many Democrats and coincided with a drop in the president's poll ratings.
DeLay, by contrast, made a ringing defense of Bush's conduct of the war, and linked Israel's struggle to the war in Iraq.
He called the president "the greatest friend of Israel in the world today."
"It was President Bush who realized Yasser Arafat had no intention of seeking peace, and therefore cut him off from any further negotiations, isolating him as the terrorist he is," DeLay said. "It was President Bush who understood that the war America was waging against terrorism was the same war Israel had been fighting for decades."
DeLay also challenged Sharon's critics and Bush's.
"We are told Israel's decision to target leaders of those terrorist organizations that target her citizens only puts the Israeli people at greater risk," he said.
"We are told the war on terror -- whether waged by the United States and our coalition of the willing or by the people of Israel -- was a mistake, is a quagmire and will be a regret.
"Ladies and gentleman, we are told ... wrongly."
2004-05-19 02:03 | User Profile
Again, I have to note how helpful these comments are. Now I can explain in polite company that the 'conservative' movement has been over-run by rabid philosemites.