Posted on 10/22/2003 9:13:59 PM PDT by yonif
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Lieberman said Wednesday the fact that he would become the first American president who is Jewish would not handicap U.S. dealings with the Arab world.
"As president I am confident I am going to be judged in the world, including the Arab and Islamic world, by my policies not my faith," Lieberman said in a wide-ranging interview with Associated Press editors and reporters.
He said President George W. Bush had alienated much of the Arab world, not because of his religion but by his policies.
Lieberman also said:
-The United States should not pressure Israel to remove the wall it says is needed to block suicide bombers. Palestinians say the wall is a land grab.
-Army Lt. Gen. William Boykin should be reprimanded, if not dismissed, for saying during several speeches at evangelical Christian churches that the enemy in the war on terrorism was Satan, that God had put Bush in the White House and that one Muslim Somali warlord is an idol-worshiper. Lieberman called the comments "wrong theologically" and "very bigoted."
-Bush was "a bit slow" to react to Boykin's remarks as well as comments by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. The prime minister said, "Jews rule the world."
Lieberman, one of nine Democratic presidential candidates seeking to run against Bush, a Republican, was the party's vice presidential nominee when Bush beat the former Vice President Al Gore on a contested Florida recount. In the 60-minute interview, Lieberman argued that his moderate record, national security experience and willingness to buck even Democratic special interest make him the Best candidate to take on Bush in 2004.
His support of free trade and the war in Iraq have cause some critics to derisively call him a Bush-like Democrat. Lieberman says that label belongs to rising rival Wesley Clark, a retired general and former NATO commander, who recently joined the Democratic Party.
"I must say that since Wes Clark joined the Democratic Party and became a Democratic presidential candidate, I haven't heard many people referring to me as Bush-lite," Lieberman said. "I think by comparison. I'm a lifelong Democrat."
Clark spokeswoman Kym Spell fired back: "The reason that most Democrats and most Americans see Joe Lieberman as aligned with George Bush is because many of his positions are Republican and conservative positions."
In his first extensive interview since abandoning Iowa's caucuses, an early testing ground for presidential candidates, Lieberman said he will make his stand in Feb. 3 primaries _ the same strategy adopted by Clark. He accused the general of offering vague and inconsistent positions.
Clark's spokesman dismissed the charge. "People are saying a lot less things about Joe Lieberman lately because he hasn't been saying anything that interesting for us to comment on," Spell said.
Lieberman said he asked Gore months ago for his endorsement, but has not pressured him for it. He said he keeps in regular contact with his former runningmate, often by email.
I don't see how this is even possible, considering that most Arabs (at least according to Al Jazeera) consider the Jews to be the root of all evil.
From what I stand, about the only way Lieberman could overcome that sort of ingrained bias would be to totally turn his back on Israel. And even then most Arabs would probably still think he was demon-spawn because he's a Jew.
Bigotry that ingrained wasn't reasoned in, so it can't be reasoned out.
And why would the Arabs make an exception for this one Jew?
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