Think Twice About Joe On Israel
Sidney Zion - August 18, 2000 - New York Post
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DON'T let his yarmulke fool you, Joe Lieberman is no great backer of Israel. His Senate record reveals a man who has trimmed his sails more than a little to satisfy Bill Clinton and his pro-Palestinian Jewish advisers in the State Department and National Security Council.
And Lieberman's plan to meet with Louis Farrakhan, who questioned his loyalty to America, plus his remark that Pat Buchanan is "not at all an anti-Semite" made some Jews stop kvelling in their tractates over the first Jew to make a major-party national ticket.
In the opinion of the Zionist Organization of America, Lieberman has been entirely too close to the American Muslim Council, which gave him a top award two years ago. On Wednesday, the Jerusalem Post went front page with attacks from such as Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League on the Farrakhan-Buchanan business.
When I mentioned some of this to one of Joe's wealthy Jewish friends in this gorgeous Rocky preserve, he blanched and said: "And I thought it was the altitude that made me breathless."
Well, only in America could the Jews finally get one of their own for vice president who counts on anti-Semites as some of his best friends.
"I enjoy Pat Buchanan's company, he's a bright, interesting guy who's been misinterpreted," Joe said on Meet the Press. The few Jews who defend Pat drink with him. Sobriety Joe just likes him for himself.
Here's a touch of Lieberman's Senate record on Israel: In 1994, he voted to confirm Strobe Talbot as Under Secretary of State. Talbot, in his career at Time magazine, was a worthy challenger of Buchanan for the anti-Zionist of the decade award. He compared Israel to Saddam Hussein, and called the Jewish state "a nasty and bitter nation, expansionist, scowling and obsessed with the Holocaust."
Jesse Helms said no on Talbot. Joe said yes.
And Lieberman was all for moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem - until Al Gore gave him the nod. Today, Joe shakes off the yarmulke and agrees that now is not the time.
He boasts about his friendship with Yasser Arafat, whom he used to regularly condemn. He stands silent while the Democratic convention has Maher Hathout deliver an invocation. Hathout is a leading Muslim who calls Hezbollah "freedom fighters" - no matter that it's on the official U.S. list of terrorist groups and is credited with the massacre of 241 U.S. Marines in Beirut in 1983.
Put it all together, and the only people who shouldn't be worried about Joe Lieberman on Israel are the Arabs and the American anti-Semites.
Not because Lieberman is anti-Israel; of course not. I am sure he loves Israel. All I worry about is his back. Because like most Jews who end up in the highest echelons of our government, he stands the real chance of throwing out his sacroiliac by bending over backwards.
The only question is whether the U.S. Treasury or the Muslim Council should pay for the chiropractor.
Only in America.