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From: Koch, Edward I.
Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2004 9:36 PM
Subject: Letter to The New York Times

I thought you would be interested in the following letter that I sent to The New York Times. -- Edward I. Koch

September 21, 2004

Letter Editor
The New York Times
229 West 43rd Street
New York, NY 10036
To the Editor:

In today’s article reporting the decapitation by terrorists in Iraq of American civilian Eugene Armstrong, The Times reporter wrote:

"In the video of the beheading, an insurgent wearing a ski mask and surrounded by four men with assault rifles says the group is killing Mr. Armstrong because the American occupiers and the interim Iraqi government failed to meet the deadline. Much of the man’s long speech is addressed to President Bush, who is called a dog at one point."

Please note that the news article omitted an important part of the story which was the exact phrase uttered by the executioner at the time he cut Armstrong's throat and severed his head from his body. That phrase was, "Oh you Christian dog, Bush, stop your arrogance."

The reference to President Bush by the terrorist strengthens the belief of many that we are involved in a war of civilizations. Fanatic Islamists believe that Christians and Jews who do not recognize the supremacy of Islam should die. That awful message is part of the story and The Times erred in not carrying that quote which many other papers did.

Lee Hamilton, Co-Chairman of the 9/11 Commission, has said in describing Muslim terrorists, "They want to kill us." Why? Because those making up western civilization and its ideas which Jihad is bent on destroying are overwhelming Christians and Jews. I believe it is President Bush’s faith that gives him the strength to stay with and implement the Bush Doctrine which is, "We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them."

Your reporter refers to the spokesman for the murderers as an "insurgent." What would it take for The Times to call someone who has just participated in the beheading of an innocent civilian a terrorist? I am sure the public would like to know.

Sincerely,
Edward I. Koch

 

IRAQ WAR LEADS JEWISH VOTERS TO KERRY, POLL FINDS

Iraq War Leads Jewish Voters To Kerry, Poll Finds
By Alan Cooperman
The Washington Post
September 22, 2004

Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) is gaining support among Jewish voters as growing numbers disapprove of President Bush's handling of the war in Iraq, according to a poll commissioned by the American Jewish Committee.

If the election were held today, 69 percent of Jewish voters would support Kerry, 24 percent would back Bush and 3 percent would give their votes to Ralph Nader, the survey found. That's an increase of 10 percentage points for Kerry since December, when the previous AJC poll showed him with 59 percent of the Jewish vote.

But there is also a bright side of the survey for Bush. Though he has lost ground among Jewish voters since the beginning of the year, he is still five percentage points ahead of where he was in the 2000 election, when he received 19 percent of the Jewish vote, according to exit polls.

The nationwide telephone poll of 1,000 Jewish voters was conducted Aug. 18 to Sept. 1 and had a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.

Although Jews make up only about 2 percent of the U.S. population, they are a significant group in some battlegrounds, such as Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, and a major fundraising base for Democratic candidates.

The poll did not ask why voters support Bush or Kerry. But some of its findings suggest that the rising support for Kerry is connected to the war in Iraq, according to David A. Harris, executive director of the nonpartisan AJC. The survey found that 66 percent of U.S. Jews disapprove of the war, up from 54 percent in December; 57 percent think the threat of terrorism against the United States has increased as a result of the war.

"The president has not made any inroads among the middle-of-the-road Jewish voters, probably because, on issues like abortion, stem cell research, gay rights, gun control and church-state issues, he has stuck with his most loyal conservative constituency and has not tacked toward the center," Harris said.

 

POLL: JEWS STILL FAVOR KERRY

Poll: Jews still favor Kerry
Jewish outreach leads to minor gains
By Matthew E. Berger
Jewish Telegraph Agency
September 21, 2004

www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?strwebhead=Poll%3A+Jews+still+prefer+Kerry&intcategoryid=3&SearchOptimize=Jewish+News

Preferences among presidential candidates, according to the AJCommittee's 2004 Survey of American Jewish Opinion.

A survey published less than two months before the presidential election shows a small bump for President Bush in the American Jewish vote, despite his campaign’s energetic outreach to the community.

The nonpartisan poll, commissioned by the American Jewish Committee, found Jews backing Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) over Bush by nearly a 3-to-1 margin.

Bush received 24 percent of respondents' support in the poll, just a 5 percent increase from his performance among Jewish voters in the 2000 presidential election. Kerry received 69 percent support among those polled in the new survey.

Democrats say the poll is another sign that Bush's messages to the Jewish community are not resonating, while Republicans say it shows Kerry lagging behind recent Jewish support for the Democratic Party’s candidate.

The annual poll of Jewish views showed a majority of American Jews disapprove of the U.S. government's handling of the war against terrorism and the war in Iraq.

It also found wide support in the Jewish community for Israel’s current policies in the Middle East, such as unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank security barrier.

Still, backing for Bush administration policy in the Middle East is not turning into votes for the president.

The Bush/Cheney campaign has been working hard to garner additional Jewish support this election season, capitalizing on support within the Jewish community for Bush’s policies on Israel.

But while many tout anecdotal shifts to the Bush camp among Jews, polling data continues to suggest that Jews will not change their traditional alliance with the Democratic Party in November.

Market Facts conducted the American Jewish Committee poll, in which 1,000 Jews were surveyed during the course of two weeks last month. Three percent of respondents backed independent candidate Ralph Nader and 5 percent were undecided.

The results of the poll, which has a 3 percentage points margin of error, are similar to other surveys of the Jewish vote done within the last year.

A National Jewish Democratic Council poll last month had Kerry garnering 75 percent to Bush's 22 percent, and last year's American Jewish Committee poll, taken before the Democratic primaries, had Bush getting 31 percent to Kerry's 59 percent in a theoretical matchup.

The American Jewish Committee polls did not seek likely or registered voters, only survey respondents. Market Facts maintains a pool of respondents who have said they are Jewish, and randomly dials from that pool to reach Jews. Democrats say the latest poll shows Jews remain loyal to the party.

"It looks pretty similar to our poll," said Ira Forman, executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council. He said he believes Kerry could accumulate more Jewish support as the candidate continues to define himself to voters and noted that incumbents rarely do well among undecided voters.

But Republicans see the numbers differently, touting Bush’s improvement in Jewish support from 2000.

"If these numbers hold, the president will do" significantly better than he did in 2000," said Matt Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition. "Thirty percent movement is by any measure a significant measure."

And in an apparent change of strategy, Republicans are highlighting what they describe as Kerry’s relative weak support among Jewish voters, when comparing him to other Democratic presidential candidates of the last 12 years.

Vice President Al Gore garnered 79 percent of the Jewish vote in 2000, and President Clinton won 80 percent in 1992 and 78 percent in 1996.

But the 1988 Democratic candidate, Michael Dukakis, got 64 percent of the Jewish support, and Walter Mondale won 67 percent in 1984.

Republicans have been engaged in a strong effort to woo Jewish voters. The White House published a 23-page booklet touting Bush’s support for Jewish issues and the party held events geared toward the Orthodox community at the Republican National Convention last month in New York.

In recent weeks, however, Bush backers have minimized expectations, acknowledging that Bush will likely not hit the 30 percent threshold some had predicted a year ago.

"We've never come out and said, 'We'll achieve X amount of the vote,'" Michael Lebovitz, Jewish liaison for the Bush/Cheney campaign, said Monday. "We have a long-term commitment."

The goal is now more focused on making a substantial dent in key states such as Florida and Ohio, where the race is close and there are a large percentage of Jews.

"The Republicans were never going to win a majority of Jewish voters," said Ken Goldstein, professor of political science and Judaic studies at the University of Wisconsin. "It was always going to be about trying to steal a few, and it matters where those eight, nine, 10 are coming from."

The poll shows Jews distancing themselves from Bush precisely on issues like foreign policy where the Bush campaign hoped to take traction.

A majority of respondents was not happy with the country’s foreign policy direction, with 52 percent disapproving of the handling of the campaign against terrorism, and 66 percent disapproving of the war in Iraq.

By contrast, the latest Gallup poll shows 57 percent of Americans believe the United States did not make a mistake in sending American troops in Iraq. In addition, 59 percent of Americans said they were at least somewhat satisfied with the United States' handling of the war in Iraq.

The AJCommittee survey found that 63 percent of American Jews support the Israeli government's handling of relations with the Palestinian Authority. The unilateral withdrawal plan had 65 percent support, and the security fence garnered 69 percent support.

Fifty-seven percent of Jews said they favored the creation of a Palestinian state, and 69 percent of respondents said Israel should be willing to dismantle all or some Jewish settlements in the West Bank to reach a permanent settlement.

On the issue of gay rights, three out of four Jews said they opposed an amendment to the Constitution defining marriage as between a man and a woman. About half of those surveyed said they favored legal marriage for gay couples, while an additional 36 percent said they supported civil unions. Thirteen percent wanted no legal recognition.

A May CNN/USA Today/Gallup survey found 56 percent of Americans support civil unions, and 51 percent also support the proposed constitutional amendment.

Twenty-seven percent of those surveyed by the American Jewish Committee said anti-Semitism is a very serious problem in the United States, with an additional 67 percent saying it was somewhat a problem. Most respondents said they thought anti-Semitism in the United States would either increase somewhat or remain the same within the next several years.

 

KERRY FLIP ON WEST BANK WALL MAY COST VOTES

Kerry flip on West Bank wall may cost votes, some say
By S.V. Date
Palm Beach Post (Florida)
September 24, 2004

www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/news/epaper/2004/09/24/a13a_kerry_0924.html

Efforts to secure part of the Democratic Party's Florida base may cost Sen. John Kerry support from a smaller, but possibly vital, constituency: Arab-Americans.

In a recent interview with The Palm Beach Post, Kerry reiterated his support for the Jewish state, including its right to built a security barrier through the occupied West Bank territory and its ability to buy advanced weapons, such as "bunker-busting" bombs.

Israel used such a bomb two years ago to assassinate a terrorist leader in the Gaza Strip, but the explosion also killed 15 civilians, including children.

Kerry also said that, although he would encourage movement toward a peace plan between Israel and the Palestinians, he would not do so "at the expense of Israel's right to defend herself."

"Israel has to negotiate Israel's security, not the United States," Kerry said.

Kerry's position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict appears virtually identical to that of President George W. Bush, whom Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has called Israel's strongest supporter ever in the White House.

Republicans, who have been working to eat into the estimated 80 percent support that Jewish voters in Florida gave to the Democratic ticket in 2000, said it is too late to be shoring up votes from those who traditionally have supported the Democratic Party.

"Me-too leadership is not what the Jewish community is looking for," said state Rep. Adam Hasner, a Delray Beach Republican and Florida chairman of the Bush-Cheney campaign's Jewish Outreach Coalition.

Kerry's position supporting Israel in its construction of a barrier — the 480-mile project includes trenches, barbed wire and concrete walls — goes against the international community, which has condemned it. The position also is a change from what Kerry told Arab-Americans at a conference last October, when he called the project a "barrier to peace."

"It certainly was a bit of a slap in the face to us," said James Zogby, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Arab American Institute. "It was embarrassing."

Taleb Salhab, head of the Florida Arab American Leadership Council and a Democratic activist in Orange County, conceded that Kerry's stronger pro-Israel line would make it tougher to persuade Arab-American voters to support him.

Still, he said Arab-Americans interested in seeing Palestinians getting their own state and bringing peace to the region would be better off with Kerry than with Bush, who Salhab said had essentially given Sharon carte blanche to do whatever he wanted.

During Bush's three years in office, "more Palestinians and Israelis have died than in any other three-year period in the last 30 years," Salhab said.

There are about 500,000 Jewish voters in Florida and about 120,000 Arab-American voters.

Michael Lebovitz, Jewish Outreach coordinator for the Bush-Cheney campaign, said Kerry's changing position on the issue would help Bush win more than the 19 percent of the Jewish vote he received nationally in 2000.

"The president has been steadfast in his support for Israel and helping Israel remain safe and secure," Lebovitz said. "I contrast that with Sen. Kerry, who, depending on the audience he's talking to, says different things."

Zogby said he believes Kerry took some bad advice when he shifted his position. He said Jewish voters tend to be fairly liberal on social issues and the vast majority of them would have supported Kerry even with his original stance.

"At the end of the of the day, I don't think they gained five votes, but I think they lost many more than that," Zogby said.

He said he continues to support Kerry because he believes Bush has been uncritically supportive of Israel and unengaged in the conflict there.

Kerry, who spoke to The Post Wednesday after meeting with about 65 Jewish community leaders from Palm Beach and Broward counties, also said he would be better for Israel's security by fixing the "mess" in Iraq.

"I think President Bush has drawn terrorists to the region who weren't there previously," he said of the war in Iraq. Kerry also criticized Bush's close ties to Saudi Arabia's ruling family and promoted an energy policy focusing on alternative and renewable fuel sources.

"His sweetheart relationship with the Saudis... has not improved Israel's security," Kerry said. "That energy policy will really make Israel more secure, by letting us hold the Arab countries more accountable."

 

ARAB GUIDE TO THE 2004 ELECTION

Arab Guide to the 2004 Election
By Steven Stalinsky
Executive Director of The Middle East Media Research Institute
www.memri.org
July 29, 2004

Some critical info to keep in mind before casting your ballot

The Arab and Iranian press have increasingly discussed the upcoming American presidential election. Most journalists are pulling for a Kerry victory. Other commentators have said that the choice between the two is like "choosing between cholera and the plague."

The Iranian press has been particularly active in monitoring the elections. The editor of the Egyptian Al-Gil newspaper, Nagi Al Shihabi, was interviewed by the Iranian Al-Alam TV on June 13, and said: "The U.S. wants to eradicate our religious and Islamic identity. Bush declared a Crusader war following the events of 9/11... The U.S. established its country over the body parts of 120 million Indians. We must first define the enemy. The no. 1 enemy of the Arab and Islamic peoples is the U.S. and not only Israel... Bush, Allah willing, will go to hell in this coming November."

During his Friday sermon in the city of Qom, broadcast by Channel 2 of Iranian TV on June 19, preacher Ayatollah Javadi-Amoli called on Americans to vote against Mr. Bush: "We advise the people of America not to continue to tolerate this oppressing, ignorant, pillaging, criminal, and discriminating administration. In the future, do not vote for Bush and his ilk."

Writing in the Tehran Times on June 17, Kian Nader Mokhtari praised Senator Kerry, and hoped that he would triumph over the "neo-Nazis" of the Bush administration: "It has long been a tradition in U.S. politics for irresponsible gun-toting Republican presidents to pass on unresolved dilemmas to their Democratic replacements, and Bush will be no exception…Kerry is exactly what the U.S. needs… Kerry's sensible and methodical approach will no doubt go some distance in solving the stinking heap of a mess left over by Bush and his neo-conservatives — for a minute there I was going to type neo-Nazis!...He [Kerry] may be remembered as the president whose decisions saved the U.S..."

The Lebanese minister of information, Michael Samaha, also discussed the election on Syrian TV on March 30: "The most important thing that could happen in the coming American elections if Kerry wins is that the neo-conservatives leave. They have a complete ideology regarding their treatment of the world and specifically the Middle East and the Near East to which we belong. If they leave, the real American America will return."

In an article in Al-Ahram weekly on April 18, an Arab-Israeli member of Knesset, Azmi Bishara, called on Arab-Americans to "rethink their alliance with Bush" and "shift their votes from Bush to Kerry."

But not everyone in the Arab and Iranian press supports Mr. Kerry. In an interview with Al-Siyassah daily, Sheik Saud Al Nasser Al Sabah, who was Kuwait's ambassador to America from 1981 until 1992, said he hopes Republicans will stay in power: "If the American administration changes in November, it will be catastrophic... because those Democrats do not understand a thing about foreign policy, and they lack the determination to make decisions the way Bush made them in Iraq and elsewhere." He added, "Our only hope is that this administration will continue for the next few years..."

California State University professor Asad Abu Khalil was interviewed by the Iranian channel Al-Alam TV on June 23. The professor said: "I say that decision-making in American foreign policy is done by more than just one group. There is, of course, the neo-conservative group, but there is another group which is more important and that is the Christian fundamentalists — the Christian Taliban, which is influential in the U.S., to which the American president belongs...The nature of the American empire may change under John Kerry, but we shouldn't do what some PLO representatives in Western capitals did, when they opened champagne bottles when the Labor party replaced the Likud..."

The Saudi-owned Iqra TV hosted a political debate on March 24. The moderator asked the panel their opinions on voting for Mr. Kerry or Mr. Bush, "Sir, do you believe the American voter will vote for Kerry as a reaction to the position of Bush junior, who always supports Sharon? "A Palestinian politician and writer, Abd Al-Qader Yassin, said: "We need to choose between cholera and the plague."

As November approaches, it is interesting to note that four years ago the Arab and Iranian press was giddy about a Governor Bush victory over Vice President Gore, which was seen as an end to the Clinton administration's Middle East policy. The same press is again calling for a change in the White House.