Milwaukee-area reactions to President Bush’s speech on the Middle East Monday ranged from enthusiastic to condemnatory in telephone conversations with The Chronicle Tuesday. But praise far outweighed criticism in the small sample of opinions The Chronicle could reach.
Among the enthusiastic was Marty Katz, president of the Milwaukee Jewish Council for Community Relations. “The President’s statements were outstanding in that they demonstrated that there is no future for [a Palestinian state] with the current leadership of the Palestinian Authority,” he said.
“The future of the Palestinians is in their own hands,” Katz continued. “The President said, ‘We will forge ahead with you when you choose a peaceful resolution [of the conflict] rather then terrorism.’ I am elated the President finally came to understand the quagmire Israel has been put in.”
Nir Barkin, Israel shaliach and head of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s Israel Resource Center, called the Bush administration “a true friend to us and one that Israel can trust.”
Barkin said Bush clearly was “not only talking about the immediate circle of violence” being committed by Palestinians, but “was very clear that the second circle of countries supporting terrorism should be dealt with by the coalition fighting terrorism. Syria, Iran, Iraq and Lebanon should in the very short future decide on which side they are.”
As for Bush’s call for replacing current Palestinian leaders, Barkin said that “Israel will be ready to talk to any leadership on the Palestinian side that will end the violence and will put its actions where its words are in solving conflicts in a peaceful way.”
‘ Believes in magic’
Judy Eglash, president of Milwaukee Hadassah whose son Michael lives in a Jerusalem suburb, also appreciated the speech. “I think President Bush said the right things and what American Jews wanted to hear,” she said. “He did a good job and stuck up for Israel for a change.”
Nevertheless, Eglash is not optimistic about the replacement of Yasser Arafat as leader of the Palestinian Authority, which Bush set as a condition for U.S. support of a Palestinian state.
“I don’t think it will happen. I just can’t see it,” Eglash said. “As a parent of children living in Israel, I’d like it to happen, but I’m not sure the United States should force decisions upon other countries.”
Rabbi David Cohen, recently elected president of the Wisconsin Council of Rabbis — though he emphasized that he was speaking purely as spiritual leader of Congregation Sinai — seemed more moderately positive.
He said he thought Bush’s speech was “helpful, especially for the long-term period.”
“While it’s unusual” for one nation to demand that another choose a different leader, “the current situation is unprecedented and extraordinary,” Cohen said. “Israelis have concluded that Arafat is not a partner for peace, and Bush’s statements enlarge that circle of consensus.”
Vehement criticism of the speech — and of the Bush administration’s record in the Middle East — came from Esther Leah Ritz, long-time Milwaukee Jewish community activist and board and executive committee member of Americans for Peace Now.
She contended that Bush is “a man who believes in magic. He makes a pronouncement and ergo it happens…. Certainly no pronouncement even from the White House is going to cause any Palestinian entity or individuals to pull Arafat from leadership.”
Moreover, “I wish that a year ago, [Bush] had understood the need for leadership on the part of the United States in the Middle East,” Ritz said. “Both Arafat and [Israeli Prime Minster Ariel] Sharon are mesmerized by their own illusions” and needed U.S. involvement.
“But [Bush] sat back far too long, allowing … the violence on the part of Palestinian extremists and the stronger military responses on the part of Israel to burgeon to the point where [it] has almost gotten out of hand,” Ritz said.
“What is needed,” she said, “is the development of an indigenous Palestinian leadership committed to development of a democratic, constitutional system. It may even be necessary for that to take place outside of Palestine. Otherwise those who would participate in that would be in danger the minute they undertake it.”
But “no statement from the White House is going to cause Arafat to be replaced immediately with a democratic system,” she said.
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