Former Conference of Presidents chairmen Mortimer Zuckerman, left, and James Tisch with Sen. John McCain at Tuesday’s event. Jennifer WeisbordSuccess of peace process linked to war’s outcome, GOP White House hopeful tells Presidents Conference.
by Adam Dickter - Oct 31, 2007
In a message to the majority of American Jews who oppose continued U.S. presence in Iraq, Arizona Sen. John McCain on Tuesday told the community’s largest umbrella group that a “surrender” now would harm Israel’s security.
“If you believe that the State of Israel is going to be more secure if the U.S. fails in Iraq, we have an honest difference of opinion,” McCain told leaders of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
The presidential candidate, who is lagging in polls behind frontrunner Rudolph Giuliani for the Republican nomination, noted that Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a vehement enemy of Israel, had recently declared an intention to “fill the void” in Iraq following a U.S. withdrawal.
“They would make progress in attaining the many-thousand-year-old ambition of Persian influence in the region,” said McCain. “And what happens in Egypt, where they have extremist Islamic difficulties?”
Progress in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, success in Iraq and the war on terrorism are inextricably linked, McCain insisted.
“If we succeed, these other nations, like Saudi Arabia and Jordan, will be more inclined to help us, to take pressure off Israel, and things can go in a different direction,” he said. “There will be intense and much greater support for the peace process and efforts with elements throughout the Middle East to help resolve outstanding issues between Palestinians and Israel.
“If there is failure in Iraq and chaos and genocide there, we’re going to have one heck of a time having any progress in the Mideast.”
While faulting the stewardship of President George W. Bush and his secretary of defense during most of the war, Donald Rumsfeld, McCain has remained optimistic about success in Iraq.
“The war was badly mismanaged and the American people are saddened and frustrated and angry after four years of failure,” said McCain, a 22-year Navy veteran and former prisoner of the Viet Cong. “But that doesn’t mean we aren’t going to be successful.”
He displayed a bracelet bearing the name of Matthew Stanley, a fallen soldier from his home state and said the man’s mother gave it to him and asked him not to allow her son’s death to have been in vain.
McCain said the complicated issues between Israel and the Arabs required a “step-by-step” approach, noting that the “all-encompassing steps tried by former President Clinton” had failed. He also noted that the “much celebrated” peace treaty between Israel and Egypt was based solely on Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai in exchange for Egyptian recognition of Israel — a process far simpler than that between Israel and the Palestinians.
When later asked by an audience member to outline his version of the necessary steps, McCain was short on specifics but said he would start with addressing the “flashpoint” of the Israel-Lebanon border. “I would hope there would be some progress in that situation, which means carrying out and implementing the UN Security Council resolution on the disarming of Hezbollah,” he said.
In a jab at the Bush administration’s efforts to jumpstart peace talks, McCain said “I applaud the secretary of state for her efforts, but I notice that she is not at this moment, nor is either side, setting specific cases.”
Discussing his view of Palestinian statehood, McCain agreed with his rival, Giuliani, who opposes such a state under current conditions. “The first thing you have to have is peace and a Palestinian Authority dedicated to peace and that certainly isn’t the case in Gaza today .... the Israeli government has reiterated many times that at the end of the process there would be a Palestinian state, but first they want people they can sit down with.”
Asked about widespread criticism of his statement in a September interview with BeliefNet, the online religion journal, that “the Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation,” McCain told The Jewish Week “I have said a thousand times that the U.S. is a country that was founded on Judeo-Christian values. That’s my position, that’s always been my position. They took one quote out of context.”
On homeland security, McCain said his first priority would be to increase “human intelligence assets” to spy on terrorists. “Satellites can tell you what people are doing, not what their intentions are,” he said.
McCain, who endured years of torture as a Vietnam POW, also told reporters he believed a president might face a “million to one chance for which the president has to take responsibility” for using drastic measures to extract information from a terror suspect. But he added, “to condone torture as Pol Pot did and as is happening to Burmese monks as we speak ... waterboarding is an unacceptable thing to do and its morally wrong. If America wants the moral high ground in the world, we cannot torture people.”
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