Bush Charges 'Appeasement' in Knesset Speech
WSJ.COM
In Foreign Policy
In a speech to Israeli lawmakers this morning, President Bush suggested that statements from Democrats –including Barack Obama – about reaching out to America's enemies were akin to appeasement of Hitler ahead of World War II. This drew a quick reaction from the Obama camp.
Bush said: "The fight against terror and extremism is the defining challenge of our time. .. Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is ? the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."
Barack Obama's campaign responded this morning: "It is sad that President Bush would use a speech to the Knesset on the 60th anniversary of Israel's independence to launch a false political attack. It is time to turn the page on eight years of policies that have strengthened Iran and failed to secure America or our ally Israel. Instead of tough talk and no action, we need to do what Kennedy, Nixon and Reagan did and use all elements of American power - including tough, principled, and direct diplomacy - to pressure countries like Iran and Syria. George Bush knows that I have never supported engagement with terrorists, and the President's extraordinary politicization of foreign policy and the politics of fear do nothing to secure the American people or our stalwart ally Israel."
UPDATE: It's highly likely that Bush's comments were directed at former President Jimmy Carter, not Obama. Carter met with Hamas in April, drawing criticism form the Bush administration in doing so.
A person with the Obama campaign acknowledged that Bush could have been directing his comments at Carter, but said the Illinois senator wasn't one to look such a fine political gift horse in the mouth. Noting that such criticism burnishes Obama's standing with the Democratic base, he called the president's criticism "the gift that keeps on giving." |
