Posted on 01/26/2004 12:03:41 PM PST by Pikamax
Last Update: 26/01/2004 21:49
Kerry: Israel can't provide goods in talks with Palestinians
By Nathan Guttman, Haaretz Correspondent and Reuters
Leading Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry on Monday said the government in Israel currently lacks someone who can provide the goods in everything connected to negotiations with the Palestinians.
"It's very difficult for Israel to negotiate because in Israel there is nobody to negotiate to actually deliver," Kerry said at a political rally in New Hampshire ahead of Tuesday's primary.
Kerry also criticized the settlement policy of the Israeli government and said that it was a mistake to increase building there at this time. The Massachusetts senator called for strengthening the Palestinian Authority so that it will be stronger than Hamas.
"It's important for us to leverage the Palestinian Authority in order for them to be stronger than Hamas on the ground," he said.
Kerry promised that if elected president, he would ask former U.S. presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter to serve as special envoys to the region.
Kerry's main rival, former front-runner Howard Dean, said at a campaign event in Manchester that the U.S. should increase resources for the Palestinian Authority in order to persuade the Palestinians to relinquish the right of return. The former Vermont governor specified that Israel should demonstrate flexibility in regard to final borders in order to allow the creation of a Palestinian state.
The Democratic presidential hopefuls were scouring New Hampshire for last-minute converts on Monday, with Dean questioning Kerry's judgment on Iraq and Wesley Clark contrasting his modest roots to his rivals' privileged backgrounds.
On the day before the New Hampshire primary, the country's first and a key step on the road to finding a challenger to President George W. Bush, the Democratic White House contenders searched for votes in every cranny of the traditionally late-deciding and independent state.
Dean tried to mount a late rush to overcome Kerry's lead in public opinion polls, criticizing the Massachusetts senator for his vote in Congress to authorize last year's military invasion to remove Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
"Where was John Kerry when George Bush was handing out all this misinformation about Saddam had something to do with al Qaida?" Dean, the one-time front-runner who strongly opposed the Iraq war, asked at a town hall meeting in Nashua.
"He was voting in favor of the war and it turned out all the reasons the president gave us were not true," Dean said.
Clark, the retired general and former NATO commander who is facing a challenge for third place from North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, emphasized his newcomer status in politics and contrasted his background with Dean and Kerry, products of wealth who attended Yale University.
"I grew up poor," Clark, a native of Arkansas, said as he stood on a chair in a diner in Keene. "I didn't go to Yale, my parents couldn't have afforded it. I went to West Point."
Clark launched a marathon bus tour of all 10 counties in the state on Monday, beginning before dawn at a truck stop in Claremont and winding up after midnight in the northern village of Dixville Notch, which traditionally casts the state's first votes.
A new Reuters/MSNBC/Zogby poll showed Kerry, the surprise winner in the Iowa caucuses a week ago, holding a narrowing three-point lead over Dean on the eve of the primary. Edwards and Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman were pushing Clark for third place.
Other media polls show a much wider lead for Kerry, who used buses and a helicopter to crisscross the state in search of undecided voters. New Hampshire has a long tradition of late momentum shifts and startling upsets, and Kerry said he was taking nothing for granted.
"We're down to the last hours here," he said in Portsmouth. "I'm here to persuade those who remain undecided."
Kerry shrugged off criticism from Republicans that he is a liberal who cannot compete in the South, saying "if what they want is to start calling me names, they've got a problem. If the worst thing they can say about me is I'm a liberal or something, I say 'let's go, bring it on.'"
With Kerry still on top, Edwards, Clark and Lieberman jockeyed for a strong finish down below, hoping a surprise New Hampshire showing will launch them to victories in some of the seven states with contests on Feb. 3, when the race goes national.
Lieberman said the polls in New Hampshire were "erratic" and he was the Democrats' best chance for a win in November.
"If folks want to defeat George Bush, I'm their choice," he said in Nashua, where he walked down the frigid Main Street to greet voters. "I'm the candidate who can win the election."
Edwards, trying to build on a strong second place showing in Iowa, stuck to his optimistic message of economic improvement for American workers.
"This election is ... about lifting up the American people and making them believe that everything is possible," he said at a school in Milford. "Together you and I are going to change this country, and we're going to start tomorrow in the New Hampshire primary."
Hmm-hmm. Marxist proponents of economics over values. Talk about miserable failures....
Arm the PA so they can can "confront" Hamas, which they say they won't. Not to worry, they'll find good use for the arms, maybe in Iraq.
This won't hurt him in his party, because core Dem Jews are part of the surrender chorus when it comes to Israel anyway.
They think a pogrom is a small vegetable.
This pot head might as well have added, the unconditional surrender of Israel.
Doubt it. The Vietnam Human Rights Act passed the House 410 to 1. It's bottled up in the Senate by Sen. you know who. He has tunnel vision when it comes to persecution or atrocities, they're committed by the US.
How they can support Israel with private donations, and then turn around and vote dim, is beyond all comprehension. In fact it is outright oxymoronic.!!
What Lurch wants to do is akin to arming the Crips so that they'll be stronger than the Bloods.
Now I'm off to print this article and fax it to a family member who is "intrigued" by John F-ing Kerry...
Is that a threat, Ketchup Boy?
What a moron. Dems never fail to get it all backwards.
Wasn't Arafat supposed to end terrorism? Oh yeah he really friggin delivers doesn't he? /sarcasm
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