Reply #12: Not a great source but [View All]

<<snip>>

Vice President Al Gore, the Democratic nominee for president, comes across as totally committed to Israel. Arab Americans and American Muslims who have called on President Clinton to discuss Middle East-related affairs have found the president approachable and willing to listen. Gore, on the other hand—always present at these meetings—appears quite unbending. His long-term foreign policy adviser, Leon Fuerth, is constantly by Gore’s side.

Fuerth, who some observers believe actually dominates Gore, dodges the media spotlight. In the inner councils, however, he aggressively pushes Israel’s agenda. When Gore ran for president in 1988, Fuerth, according to The New York Times, set out a hard-line pro-Israel position for the aspiring candidate. Allowed a seat at the Clinton cabinet table by Gore, Fuerth reportedly argued passionately, though unsuccessfully, with the president that, under the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act (ILSA), he should punish Russia, France and Malaysia for developing Iran’s huge offshore South Pars gas field. Sympathetic to Israel’s current alliance with Turkey, Fuerth fights any easing of U.S. relations with Iran for fear that an improvement of U.S.-Iranian relations would be at the expense of Turkey.

At the Department of State Fuerth is referred to as “Darth Vader,” the menacingly evil power behind the throne in the movie “Star Wars.” It is widely assumed that if Gore wins the presidency, Fuerth will become his national security adviser.

Israel and its lobby acknowledge that the Clinton/Gore administration is the most pro-Israel in U.S. history. There is little reason to believe Gore/Lieberman would be any better. Therein lies a tragedy.

No Israeli government can make the deep concessions required to satisfy reasonable Palestinian/Arab/Muslim aspirations—and thus be the basis of permanent peace between Jew and Arab—without being able to point to heavy pressure from the United States, Israel’s indispensable friend.

It is impossible to imagine such pressure coming from a Gore/Lieberman administration. For that reason alone, a Bush/ Cheney team is the better hope.

http://www.washington-report.org/backissues/101100/0010012.html