Newsgroups: biz.americast.samples
From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com
Organization: American Cybercasting
Subject: \HD Bush pleads case with Jewish voters
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 92 09:14:26 EDT

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\SE A;CAMPAIGN '92
\HD Bush pleads case with Jewish voters
\SH Apologizes for slamming lobby
\BY Frank J.  Murray
\CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES

President Bush reached out to Jewish voters yesterday, apologizing anew
for slurring Washington's Jewish lobby and promising that Israel can count
on him in crises where Bill Clinton would waver.

"We'd be facing a nuclear-armed Iraq, dominant in the Middle East, with
a choke hold on the world's oil supplies" if Mr.  Clinton had been
president when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, Mr.  Bush told B'nai B'rith's
convention.

Although he didn't back down on considering sale of 72 F-15 jets to
Saudi Arabia - an unpopular stand among Jews and one Mr.  Clinton supports
- he said he will preserve Israel's "qualitative edge" on weaponry.

The Eagle fighter contract could bring as much as $5 billion to
McDonnell Douglas Corp.  in St.  Louis with political ripples reaching
California, Connecticut, Maryland and Massachusetts, where subcontractors
are located.

For the first time in the political campaign, Mr.  Bush took public
credit for the "miracle" of bringing warring Arabs to the peace table on
Israeli terms.

"For nearly half a century they had not met, all together, outside the
battlefield.  But for the first time they came together not to fight but to
talk," he said.

He said disagreements between the United States and Israel would
continue and said it was necessary "that we learn how to disagree,"
expressing remorse for his verbal challenge of the Israeli lobby on the
loan-guarantee issue a year ago.

"I heard today there were something like 1,000 lobbyists on the Hill
working the other side of the question.  We've got one lonely little guy
down here doing it," he had said on Sept.  12, referring to himself.

Yesterday, Mr.  Bush said those words were misinterpreted.

"I have gone on the record expressing my regret for any pain those
words caused," he added, referring to a Sept.  17, 1991, letter to Shoshana
Cardin, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish
Organizations that said his reference to lobbyists was not pejorative.

"I support, I endorse, and I deeply believe in the God-given right of
every American to promote what they believe.  . . . It is more than your
right.  It is your duty as an American citizen," he said.

He was applauded often as he repeatedly raised the specter of Israel
without a strong president to protect its interests.

"Ask yourself this question: Where the Middle East would be today,
where Israel's security would be today if we had followed the counsel of my
critics.  Ask yourself where we would be if we had someone in the Oval
Office who would have waffled, who would have wavered and wanted to have it
both ways," Mr.  Bush said, citing Mr.  Clinton's remark that he agreed
with opponents of fighting Saddam but probably would have voted with the
majority if the vote was close.

Among other factors the president listed in his favor:

* Helping the massive exodus of 500,000 Soviet Jews.

* Mounting a storybook airlift of Ethiopian Jews.

* Agreeing to underwrite up to $10 billion in loans to finance the
"in-gathering" of Jews.

* Opposing a Palestinian state.

* Helping end Israel's diplomatic isolation by China, India, Turkey and
other nations that now have full diplomatic relations.

* Helping repeal the U.N.  resolution equating Zionism with racism.

* Opposing the Arab boycott of Israel.

"We didn't just talk about helping Israel in these areas, we
delivered," Mr.  Bush said at the Sheraton Washington Hotel.

Jewish voters in the United States generally favor Democratic
candidates.  In 1988, Mr.  Bush got about 30 percent of the Jewish vote
compared with 69 percent for Michael Dukakis.  Although only about 3.6
million of the 5.5 million American Jews voted, they are concentrated in
five states so their impact is greater than their numbers.

While he was secretary of state, Chief of Staff James A.  Baker III was
said to have dismissed obscenely the concerns of Jews at a White House
meeting attended by Mr.  Bush, on grounds that Jews don't vote Republican.

Mr.  Bush brought with him his campaign manager, Fred Malek, who was
introduced as a special guest.  Mr.  Malek was dropped from the 1988
campaign staff after news stories reported that years earlier, at the
orders of then-President Nixon, he surveyed the number of Jews in the
administration.

The president placed a great deal of emphasis on the peace talks now
going on in Washington bringing Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Egypt and
the Palestinians to the conference table.

"I don't want to put this in too much of a political context, but I
think some in our administration deserve great credit for bringing the
parties together.  . . . It takes a while, but we're making progress," he
said.


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