before you bash all Jews for being for Kerry please consider

1. It was Bush who demanded Israel withdraw from cities and towns that held the worst terrorists who created mayhem in Jewish cities.
2. It was Bush who forced on Sharon the three State Palestinian Solution to the Jewish question. One State is Jordan whose population is 70% Falahin (Palestinian) V 30% Beduin (who rule with an iron fist) The second is the Arafat State forced down Israel's throat directly by Bush. Third is Green-Line Israel where the Arabs continue to reside under the auspices of Democracy while they act as the vanguard , the fifth column of the Arab Nation (the Umma)
3. Bush is the champion of Oil, which means the enslavement of the USA to the producers and curtailers of Oil. The upshot is that Saudi Arabia is the true ruler of the USA, while American patriots who see America's future tied with democracu, rather than tyranny, such as Pollard. Franklin, Faith, Wolfovitz, are hunted down by forces they did not reckon own the administration. Kerry has made the promise to rid the USA of its oil dependency, which is indeed a tall order, taller than reaching the moon, but infinitely more important.
4. Bush did nothing against terror before being goosed by the death of 3500 people in one day. Therefore there is no good reason to believe in his commitment to fighting Terror any more than any other candidate. Anyway, he is not fighting terror. He is putting on a show. Terror resides in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria, Egypt, Ramallah, and except for harsh words, nothing has been done. Saudi Arabian citizens felled the Twin Towers, Saudi Arabia finances the propaganda centers in most prestigious American universities, most of the world's Wahabi hate schools, (Madrasshas) and the hate campaigns against Jews in Europe and the States. Iran is building Nuclear capability buttressed by long range missiles, while America whimpers with fear and does nothing, except for sending an WEgyptian to wag a finger, and then turn around and point it at Israel. Syria rules lebanon with a steely fist and keeps the Hizzbulla alive, and Arafat receives honors in his compound from European leaders while America rebukes Israel for self defense.
Not being an American (though my children are) I cannot presume to tell Americans who might be a better leader. But the Terror mongers of the world might underestimate the American Kerry, while the Jews of America may have made a cold assessment tha Bush has not lived up to his straight shooting promise, not by a long shot.
Having seen the carnage on the Main Street of Beer Sheva this very week I can tell you first hand. Nothing has been done so far, and if it could have been done, then Bush's administration has put its heavy foot down that it should not.
Anyone knows Bush's shooting range record while in the National Guard of Texas?

Y Brandstetter MD

You remind us of Michael Ledeen. Look, we're also frustrated with the pace of what we still firmly believe to be a sea change in American attitudes toward the Mid East, but we think it would be a mistake to get rid of the change agent. There were many ways to parse the strategic landscape in the wake of 9-11. Bush, to his enduring credit, saw it as a problem with the Middle East that needed to be rectified.

As you've noticed, there are a multiple players in that region (or one step removed from it) who have multiple forms of leverage on the US (i.e. economic, geostrategic, military, and diplomatic.) Redrawing the map of a subcontinent in the 21rst century requires a combination of playing pick-up-sticks (do you have that game in Israel?) and using a hammer. Pick up sticks takes takes time, planning and slow careful moves, the hammer needs to be big enough to get the job done, and you have to have enough public support and diplomatic cover to handle the inevitable mistakes.

We believe that for the first time since the Oslo gamble, the tide is finally moving back in Israel's direction. Try to have patience and don't lose faith in this Texan. After half a century behind baricades, Israel is fortunate to find a powerful change agent who believes in her, and believes it to be in America's strategic interest to spread freedom to the Middle East.

Regarding the 'three state solution', when all is said and done, the dictators and thugs are hung by their own people, populations and triangles are shifted for maximum stability, and the dust finally settles, we believe that the Arabs who illegally emigrated into Palestine after the League set it aside for a Jewish homeland will be governing themselves and prospering in a smaller part of Judea and Samaria than once envisioned by Mr. Peres.

As for mainstream American Jewry, someone should take a paddle to behinds of the overfed, armchair universalists who daven the self-gratifying pretensions of Arthur Sulzberger. May all of their children marry caribou.

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