Can there be any serious argument with the statement that Congress is Israeli Occupied Territory when even the Lion of the Senate is forced to lie down like a lamb?
When Kennedy spoke before the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations on January 28, 1980, he attacked President Carter, accusing him of an "on again, off again flirtation" with the PLO and of holding "pro-Palestinian positions," (NYT 1/29/80), this about a man who had only a year earlier negotiated the Camp David Treaty between Israel and Egypyt.
Kennedy told his audience that "I know that in advocating Israel’s cause, I am inevitably advancing the cause of America," and he asked, rhetorically, "what sort of a settlement can Israel expect from this president electorally unfettered in his second term? How often have threats and pressures, veiled and explicit, been used by this Administration in attempting to coerce Israel?"
The Times reported that Rabbi Alexander Schindler, a former president of the conference and the president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, said that the Kennedy commitment was the most unequivocal he had heard from any Presidential candidate.
[image from Deego at flickr]
