Mother Jones: 5 Questions On Israel For The Next Debate

5 Questions On Israel For The Next Debate

As I've said before, there's been a vacuum surrounding Israel and Palestine this campaign season. Moderators have broached the issue only twice in the last 13 debates. And the most recent question, posed by Wendell Goler last week at the Fox News debate in South Carolina, was pretty weak. As Goler wound up—"Mayor Giuliani, President Bush is in the Middle East ... laying the groundwork for a Palestinian state"—there was, briefly, a glimmer of hope. Then he tossed this doozy of a softball: "I wonder, sir, how you would keep a Palestinian state from becoming a breeding ground for anti-American terrorism." One of several surreal assumptions behind the question seemed to be, "The Palestinians are prostrate, mightn't it be better if they're kept that way?" And that to the candidate with the Likudnik A-team advising him. Oh, well.

Since the debates have been so deficient in this area, I asked five well-informed Middle East observers what they would ask the candidates on the issue, if they could ask anything. The only ground rule was to keep it brief; no other boundaries. Here are their responses:

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http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2008/01/6890_5_questions_on.html

Does anyone have the cajones to answer with anything except politicobabble that runs in circles?

We give for more money to the Arabs than we do to Israel.

Our so called allies Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Kuwait are all non-Democratic countries. They are dictatorships, or monarchies. They are repressive. Their people have no rights. They don't respect the free market.

The Palestinian governments have been corrupt and repressive.

How come so many so called "liberals" take the side of repressive regimes and not of the one country that's doing its best to be a liberal democracy?