on 6/26/02 7:12 PM, William Shannon at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
-Caveat Lector- http://www.overthrow.com/lsn/news.asp?fileName=lsn20020626141544.html
Jews Boast Of Having Written Bush's Speech For Him
"The anatomy of a speech,from backroom to Rose Garden"
6/26/02 2:15:44 PM
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Washington, DC -- [LSN: They admit it in their own news services -- they control large sections
of the government "behind the scenes". Usual suspects -- ADL, President's
Conference, et cetera, involved ...]
WASHINGTON — How Jewish groups influenced the influenced the contours
of the Bush speech, from backroom to Rose Garden.
BEHIND THE HEADLINES
The anatomy of a speech,
from backroom to Rose Garden
By Matthew E. Berger
WASHINGTON, June 25 (JTA) — A few weeks before President Bush delivered his
speech on the future of Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking, an American Jewish
leader picked up the phone and called the White House.
She had just read in The New York Times that Bush was going to propose a firm
timeline toward a Palestinian state, something Israel bitterly opposed. The
response from a White House official, she says, told her that everything would
be okay.
“He said, ‘Be careful what you read,’ ” the Jewish official said. “ ‘There
won’t be a timeline.’ ”
In the weeks before Monday´s historic address, media fodder and gossip had led
many in the American Jewish community to wonder what was going to be unveiled.
Much had been made of the split between the White House and State Department
in crafting the speech, and there was concern that the parade of Arab leaders
to the White House was influencing the Bush administration to expedite the
creation of a Palestinian state, which Jewish leaders said would be tantamount
to rewarding terrorism.
At each point, however, the White House assured Jewish leaders that their
worst fears would not be realized. White House officials told the leaders, in
essence, to ignore comments coming out of the State Department, and focus only
on what the White House was saying.
“I knew for a long time that the president was 100 percent with us,” said one
Jewish leader, who asked not to be identified. “The question was when they
were going to come out fighting.”
Bush did just that on Monday, calling for Palestinians to seek “leaders not
compromised by terror,” an indirect dismissal of Palestinian Authority
President Yasser Arafat.
While Bush said he hopes a Palestinian state can be formed within three years,
he made it heavily contingent upon changes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip,
including new parliamentary elections, effective work against terrorism and
reform of governing institutions.
Analysts say Bush came to his conclusions despite the contradictory advice he
was receiving from international leaders — and even from his own
administration. Essentially, Bush’s final declaration was apparently based on
his gut feeling; he even toughened the speech after two deadly suicide
bombings in Israel last week.
Jewish leaders say they are not sure how much influence they themselves had on
the president’s thinking. Some say that no amount of pressure could have moved
Bush in a direction that he did not instinctively want to go.
But active Jewish and Israeli efforts may have helped mold the speech and give
it teeth.
“We met with a variety of administration officials to consult and talk about
the situation and the proposed speech,” said Jess Hordes, Washington director
of the Anti-Defamation League, who added that he met with officials from the
White House, State Department and Vice President Dick Cheney’s office.
Many Jewish leaders stressed the need to move away from a strict timeline for
a Palestinian state toward a series of performance benchmarks, including a
restructuring of the Palestinian Authority’s security and governmental
institutions.
Jewish officials also stressed to the White House that suicide bombings and
other terrorist attacks have an enormous impact on the prospect for peace
talks, and that continued violence would destroy any type of progress.
Jewish officials also recommended establishing plans without regard to Arafat,
effectively marginalizing him.
The president’s staff seemed to be interested in equating the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict to America’s war on terrorism.
By hearkening back to the “Bush Doctrine” against terror, Jewish and Israeli
officials said they were able to influence certain aspects of the president’s
remarks, including his call that the Palestinians no longer allow themselves
to be pawns to larger forces and recognizing Israel’s right to defend itself
against terror attacks.
Others noted that Bush’s comments were similar to statements he has made on
Iraq, where the United States is seeking a “regime change.”
The Jewish pressure stemmed largely from media reports that showed a sharp
division on the direction of Mideast policy within the administration. The
overarching view was that the State Department believed a firm timeline toward
statehood would give the Palestinians a reason to work toward peace. The White
House countered that Palestinian reform was necessary before a state could be
granted.
Without a clear understanding of who was winning the internal struggle, some
Jewish leaders tried to push their arguments.
“It was not something that required a lobbying effort,” said Malcolm Hoenlein,
the executive vice chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American
Jewish Organizations. “We communicated our concerns, and most of it was
responses to media reports.”
Originally, there were concerns that American Jewish opinion was being ignored
completely. Some meetings had been scheduled for after the date on which the
speech originally was expected to be given.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon sought and was granted an additional
meeting with Bush earlier this month amid concerns that Bush was more seeking
more Arab than Israeli opinions.
“Clearly, a lot of the people he was hearing from were saying things he did
not agree with,” a senior Israeli official said. “But there was confidence
that at the end of the day he would not surprise us.”
As time passed and debate continued within the administration, Jewish leaders
were given more opportunities to speak.
“This was in the seventh and eighth innings for a long time,” said Mark
Rosenblum, founder and policy director of Americans for Peace Now.
“We got our shot at talking to people that counted,” Rosenblum said, noting
that he was pleased with the overall tone of the speech, but disappointed at
the lack of balance between heavy initial requirements on the Palestinian
Authority and later requirements on Israel.
The White House has acknowledged that last week’s suicide bombings postponed
the speech and made the president “more resolute” that alternative Palestinian
leadership was needed to end the conflict.
Privately, White House officials said first-person accounts from Jewish
leaders who were in Israel during those attacks added an emotional ingredient
to the policy debate.
“We wanted to make sure the president knew the stories of the victims,” an
American Jewish leader said.
Hoenlein, in Jerusalem for a meeting of the World Zionist Congress, sent a
letter to Bush describing victims he met at a Hadassah hospital. He also
passed along a request from victims’ families that Bush help prevent future
attacks.
Some Jewish officials complained that the White House hardly sought out Jewish
groups for consultation. Only those who proactively contacted the White House
were heard, one leader said.
While a lot of groups did make their cases heard, there was not a lot of give-
and-take with the administration, the leader added.
Given the speech’s content, however, he admitted that the argument may be
moot.
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