Israel Lowey: Bush's Policies Increasing Danger to Jews Around the

World

By Ori Nir And Ami Eden

Forward

28 May 2004



The simmering debate over the role of Jewish neoconservatives in

drawing America into war in Iraq erupted with new fury this week.

One of America's most respected ex-generals took to the airwaves

to charge on CBS News' "60 Minutes" that the war had been fought

for Israel's benefit, just days after a similar charge was leveled

on the floor of the U.S. Senate.

The retired general, Anthony Zinni, a past chief of the U.S.

Central Command and President Bush's former Middle East special

envoy, told "60 Minutes" on Sunday that the neoconservatives' role

in pushing the war for Israel's benefit was "the worst-kept secret

in Washington." Three days earlier, Senator Ernest "Fritz"

Hollings, a South Carolina Democrat, rose on the Senate floor to

defend a newspaper essay he had written earlier in the month

making the same charge. Both men complained that they had been

unfairly labeled antisemitic for speaking out.

Their comments come just weeks after the United Nations' special

envoy to Iraq, Lakhdar Brahimi, called Israel a "poison in the

region" and said that American support for Israeli policies was

making his job more difficult.

In the face of these mounting criticisms, a leading Jewish

Democrat on Capitol Hill, Rep. Nita Lowey of New York, told the

Forward that the president's policies were increasing the danger

to Jews across the world.

"We are very worried about the rise of antisemitism

internationally," said Lowey in an interview Monday with the

Forward. She argued that disdain for the president and his

policies has "stirred up" antisemitic feelings worldwide. "It's a

real concern for me as a Jewish member of Congress."......

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