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07/02/2004:

"Kerry takes a stronger pro-Israel line"

Well, not only are positions like this, which are identical to Bush's, going to lose the Dems the election (which you would think they could have figured out by now), they reveal the complicity of the two parties where it counts. How can any self-respecting American progressive possibly support Kerry??

by Bryan Bender Boston Globe
WASHINGTON -- Senator John F. Kerry strikes a decidedly stronger pro-Israel position in a new policy paper than he did a few months ago, as he attempts to enlist the support of Jewish voters who have been gravitating to President Bush and away from their tradition of voting Democratic in presidential elections.

In the policy paper, which has not been released publicly, Kerry outlines clear, strongly worded positions on several issues important to the American Jewish community. He calls for more forceful action to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons, fully backs Israel's construction of a 425-mile-long barrier between Israel and the Palestinian territories that the paper refers to as ''a security fence," and pledges to work to push for a new Palestinian political class to replace Yasser Arafat, who is called a ''failed leader."

Earlier in the campaign, Kerry got off to a shaky start with some Jewish groups. Last October he called the barrier -- composed mostly of electronic fencing with razor wire and a ditch along a tracking road, but with some stretches made of concrete -- a ''barrier to peace." The new paper says building it is ''a legitimate right of self-defense" and ''not a matter" to be taken up by the International Court of Justice, which has criticized the move.full article

Palestinians walled in, and walled out: Inter Press Service
"Something there is that does not love a wall,
That wants it down." Robert Frost