JERUSALEM – President Bush used a speech to the Israeli parliament yesterday to liken those who would negotiate with “terrorists and radicals” to Nazi appeasers – a remark widely interpreted as a rebuke to Sen. Barack Obama, who has advocated greater engagement with countries like Iran and Syria.
SUSAN WALSH / Associated Press
President Bush yesterday visited the Masada, a historic fortress in the desert overlooking the Dead Sea in Israel. Bush goes to Saudi Arabia today.
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Bush did not mention Obama by name, and White House officials said he was not taking aim at the Democratic senator from Illinois, though they were aware the speech might be interpreted that way.
The comments during an emotional visit to mark Israel's 60th anniversary created an angry tussle in the United States, as Democrats accused Bush of breaching protocol by playing partisan politics overseas.
Republicans have been trying to portray Obama as weak in the fight against terrorism. It underscored what the White House has said will be an aggressive effort by Bush to use his presidential platform to influence the presidential race.
“Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along,” Bush said, in a speech otherwise devoted to spotlighting Israel's friendship with the United States.
He added, “We have an obligation to call this what it is: the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.”
Obama delivered a quick and pointed response in an e-mail statement, accusing Bush of using his visit to Israel to “launch a false political attack.”
Obama said, “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.”
The stakes are high for Obama because U.S. Jews and Israelis view him with some suspicion. Obama has said he would meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has called Israel “a stinking corpse” and denies its right to exist. An official with the militant Palestinian group Hamas also has expressed hope for Obama's candidacy. Obama has rejected that statement, and refers to Hamas as a terrorist group.
Democratic leaders demanded that likely Republican presidential candidate John McCain repudiate Bush's comments, but McCain joined in on Bush's side. “Why does Senator Obama want to sit down with a state sponsor of terrorism? What does Senator Obama want to talk about with Ahmadinejad?” McCain asked while campaigning in Ohio.
“Yes, there have been appeasers in the past,” McCain added. Asked whether he thought Obama was one of them, he said he didn't know.
Palestinians expressed disappointment that Bush did not use the occasion to press the Israelis forcefully to make compromises toward the creation of a Palestinian state.
While Bush has frequently promoted that goal, the only reference in the speech came when he looked forward to the 120th anniversary of Israel and the prospect of a changed Middle East.
“The Palestinian people will have the homeland they have long dreamed of and deserved – a democratic state that is governed by law, and respects human rights, and rejects terror,” Bush said.
The Washington Post contributed to this report.
