In veiled attack, Bush criticizes Dems for terrorist 'appeasement'
By Ed Henry
CNN White House Correspondent
JERUSALEM (CNN) -- President Bush launched a sharp but veiled attack
Thursday on Sen. Barack Obama and other Democrats, suggesting they
favor "appeasement" of terrorists in the same way some Western leaders
appeased Hitler in the run-up to World War II.
President Bush called the idea of negotiating with terrorists a
"foolish delusion."
The president did not name Obama or any other Democrat, but White
House aides privately acknowledged to CNN that the remarks were aimed
at the presidential candidate and others in his party.
After Bush's comments were widely re****ted, the White House denied
they were an attack aimed at Obama.
According to Obama's Web site, he favors "tough, direct presidential
diplomacy with Iran without preconditions, and is willing to meet with
the leaders of all nations, friend and foe."
He does not favor talks with Hamas, which the U.S. government has
listed as a terrorist group.
Former President Jimmy Carter recently wrapped up a trip to the Middle
East, which included talks with leaders of Hamas, an Islamic
fundamentalist group that controls the Palestinian territory of Gaza.
"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," Bush said at Israel's 60th anniversary
celebration in Jerusalem.
"We have heard this foolish delusion before," Bush said in remarks to
Israel's parliament, the Knesset.
"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." Video Watch Bush describe what he calls a
'foolish delusion' =BB
Doubts about Obama with Jewish Americans were earlier stoked by Sen.
John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee in the 2008
presidential election, when he recently charged that Obama is the
favored candidate of Hamas.
Obama last week called the Hamas allegation a "smear" and lashed out
Thursday at Bush's speech in Israel.
"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," Obama said in a statement released to CNN by his
campaign. "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. ...
"George Bush knows that I have never sup****ted 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," Obama's statement said.
Video Watch the Obama camp's response to Bush =BB
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White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Bush's comment was not a
"slam" aimed at Obama.
"There are many who have suggested these types of negotiations with
people that the president, President Bush, thinks that we should not
talk to," she told re****ters after the president's comment was widely
re****ted.
The Bush administration held three rounds of discussions with Iran
about security in Iraq last year, including two at the ambassadorial
level, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Wednesday said Wa****ngton
needed to "figure out a way to develop some leverage ... and then sit
down and talk with" Iran.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, condemned Bush's
comments and suggested that McCain denounce them.
Pelosi, who leaves later Thursday on a bipartisan congressional trip
to Israel, said there is a "protocol" of not criticizing the president
when he is abroad, but then declared, "I think what the president did
in that regard is beneath the dignity of the office of president and
unworthy of our representation at that observance in Israel."
Howard Dean, the Democratic Party chairman, also called on McCain to
denounce the comment.
McCain declined to do so Thursday, instead criticizing Obama's
willingness to talk to the president of Iran.
"It is a serious error on the part of Sen. Obama that shows naivet=E9
and inexperience and lack of judgment to say that he wants to sit down
across the table from an individual who leads a country who says that
Israel is a stinking corpse," McCain told re****ters.
Joe Biden, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,
called Bush's comments "bulls**t" and said if the president disagrees
so strongly with the idea of talking to Iran then he needs to fire his
secretaries of State and Defense, both of whom Biden said have pushed
to sit down with the Iranians.
"This is bulls**t. This is malarkey. This is outrageous. Outrageous
for the president of the United States to go to a foreign country, sit
in the Knesset ... and make this kind of ridiculous statement," said
Biden, D-Delaware.
Bush largely focused his speech in Jerusalem on highlighting the
American-Israeli partner****p. "The alliance between our governments is
unbreakable, yet the source of our friend****p runs deeper than any
treaty," he said.
Bush said the United States and Israel are locked in an ideological
struggle with radicals in the Middle East, using the speech to tie al
Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to the terror groups Hamas and Hezbollah.
"That is why the founding charter of Hamas calls for the 'elimination'
of Israel," Bush said. "That is why the followers of Hezbollah chant
'Death to Israel, Death to America!' That is why Osama bin Laden
teaches that 'the killing of Jews and Americans is one of the biggest
duties.' And that is why the president of Iran dreams of returning the
Middle East to the Middle Ages and calls for Israel to be wiped off
the map."
Bush then made his transition to Obama and other Democrats without
naming names, raising the specter of the Holocaust to make his point.
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"There are good and decent people who cannot fathom the darkness in
these men and try to explain their words away," said Bush. "This is
natural. But it is deadly wrong.
"As witnesses to evil in the past, we carry a solemn responsibility to
take these words seriously. Jews and Americans have seen the
consequences of disregarding the words of leaders who espouse hatred.
And that is a mistake the world must not repeat in the 21st century,"
the president said.
CNN's Ted Barrett contributed to this re****t.
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