Jewish groups support Bolton as UN diplomat...

Colin Powell: ''It is not anti-Semitic to criticize the policies of the State of Israel'.*

FPF - HR: This is one of those very unwise decisions again and, according to me; supporting 'Bulldozer Bolton' is further asking for another Holocaust.

Cleveland Jewish News -
Url.:http://tinyurl.com/78979

Jewish groups support Bolton as UN diplomat

By Marilyn H. Karfeld - Senior Staff Reporter

Major Jewish organizations are strongly supporting the nomination of John Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, a fact that has flown under the public radar.

Thus far, the discussion in the Jewish community as well as nationally has centered on Bolton's alleged bullying behavior toward his subordinates.

During confirmation hearings before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, senators heard testimony that Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms control, repeatedly intimidated or tried to fire those intelligence analysts who disagreed with him. Other critics complained about his anti-UN statements and less-than-diplomatic negotiations on international issues.

However, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), B'nai B'rith International (BBI), the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, and the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) all back Bolton's nomination.

Most of the organizations have written letters to Sen. Richard Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, or to Bill Frist, Senate majority leader, endorsing Bolton's confirmation as UN ambassador.

The Jewish groups all cite Bolton's forceful role in the successful 1991 U.S.-led effort to repeal a 16-year-old United Nations resolution equating Zionism with racism. The Jewish organizations also emphasize that Bolton will be able to reform the UN.

In his letter, Abraham Foxman, ADL national director, called Bolton "a man of principle and integrity." Daniel S. Mariaschin, BBI executive vice president, said Bolton can have an "immediate and important impact" on efforts to reform the UN.

Republican Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, stunned his own party in April when he asked the committee to delay its scheduled vote on Bolton's nomination to allow more time to consider complaints about his verbally abusive behavior.

The vote was rescheduled for Thursday morning, May 12, after this article went to press.
Prof. Michael Scharf, director of the Frederick K. Cox International Law Center at Case Western Reserve University, an expert in international criminal law, worked with Bolton in the State Department from 1991-93. Scharf was the attorney adviser for UN affairs and Bolton, then assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs, was his client.

While Scharf praises Bolton's achievement in repealing the UN resolution equating Zionism with racism, he feels Bolton would not make a good UN ambassador.

Revoking the UN Zionism resolution, which Scharf says he and Bolton worked on for an entire year, "changed the whole environment at the UN for the Mideast peace process. While that resolution was on the books, it was all about bashing Israel."

But, Scharf notes, Bolton did not point to that success when the Senate committee asked him his top accomplishment. Instead, he cited the unsigning of the Rome Statute, which created the International Criminal Court. While 99 nations have ratified the statute and belong to the ICC, the U.S. does not.

Bolton does not believe "international law is real law," says Scharf. "He thinks it's all political commitments that can be broken at will."

That emphasis, the Case professor says, illustrates why Bolton is not the right man to be the top U.S. diplomat at the UN. To Bolton, revoking the Zionism resolution "paled in comparison to being able to try to wreck the ICC," Scharf adds.

"That's a sad reflection of where his priorities are and what kind of leader he would be if confirmed. In 1991, he was willing to use the UN to constructively try to make it a better institution. By January 2001, in revoking the ICC, he's become a human wrecking ball, seeking to repeal international institutions rather than to reform them."

Having worked with Bolton, Scharf has concerns about how effective he'd be at the UN. "You need a really savvy negotiator, not a bully. Bolton has only one diplomatic tool, the club."

Voinovich is not giving any interviews on the Bolton nomination, says his spokesperson Marcie Ridgway. He won't address any specific issues about Bolton, including his leadership on revoking the Zionism resolution.

Rather, Voinovich's main concern was about Bolton's interpersonal skills, Ridgway adds. "He needed some more time to review some of the allegations and to look at the record. It's the committee's job to vet the nominee. It's better for Mr. Bolton to attend to these allegations personally, versus letting it go to the Senate floor and be a free-for-all."

However, Ridgway also noted that while Voinovich "went into the hearings as a �yes' vote, he did not come out a �no' vote. That's an important point."

In his letter to Frist, Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said he worked with Bolton in the past and found him to be "a paradigm of integrity, intelligence and consistency. He was not at all as portrayed in the media of late."

Jewish organizations have also focused on Bolton's support for Israel while he's been at the State Department. While AIPAC did not send a letter endorsing Bolton, and the organization is not actively lobbying for him, they do favor his nomination.

"John Bolton has stood for a strong U.S.-Israel relationship and understands the important role that the UN plays in world affairs today," Andrew Schwartz, AIPAC press secretary, told the CJN. "He will be a superb representative of American interests at the UN."

Bolton is speaking at AIPAC's May 22-24 policy conference in Washington, D.C.

In their endorsements, the Jewish organizations point to Bolton's diplomatic experience and high principles.

"It is not clear that the current problems of the UN can be �fixed,'" wrote Tom Neumann, JINSA executive director, in his letter to Lugar. But, "the path to effective progress lies in a U.S. ambassador with the ability to define discrete problems ... form coalitions ... and most important, (with) a clear moral compass defining democracy as a higher order of government.

" When not a government employee, Bolton has been a member of JINSA's board of advisers.
In addition to being instrumental to the U.S. withdrawing its signature from the treaty setting up the ICC in The Hague, Bolton was responsible for the U.S. pulling out of the "outmoded" Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia and the "unworkable" Kyoto Protocol on fighting climate change, said Neumann.

The ambassador-nominee is also the architect of the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear capabilities and the author of the nuclear Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), Neumann noted.

Tom Casey, director of the State Department press office, says it makes sense that Jewish organizations are backing Bolton. "I don't think you'll find anyone in this administration who is a stronger friend of Israel." Overturning the Zionism equals racism resolution "changed the ways the UN has dealt with Israel and Israeli-Palestinian issues."

Although critics point to Bolton's seeming disdain for the UN, Casey says Bolton, like others in the administration, recognizes that while it needs serious reform, the UN is central to the U.S.'s international leadership role.

He pointed to Bolton's work on PSI, a global effort to track and interdict nuclear weapons of mass destruction. Last year, Bolton helped persuade the UN Security Council to approve resolution 1540, a nuclear non-proliferation pact.

The White House holds conflicting views on the UN, Scharf points out. When the administration needs the UN, they view it as very good. But when the UN gets in the way of U.S. foreign policy, the Bush administration views it as an obstacle and inconvenience.

"At some point the U.S. needs an exit strategy from Iraq," Scharf says. "The UN will be that strategy. We need a diplomat there who can achieve that."

�with reporting from Ellen Schur Brown

Bolton played leading role in repealing Zionism is racism resolution in UN. - "John Bolton has stood for a strong U.S.-Israel relationship." - Andrew Schwartz, American Israel Public Affairs Committee

John Bolton, UN ambassador nominee, meets with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2003. - PHOTO/AVI OHAYON/GPO - in original article/Url.

"On the Senate floor, Mr. Voinovich (Bush friend and Rep.) declared that he decided to oppose Mr. Bolton because of his concern for "the big picture of U.S. public diplomacy."

Where once America's love of freedom was a source of inspiration to the world, it now is reviled, he said, making if more difficult to pursue the war on terrorism, promote peace and stability, and help build democracy "without help from our friends to share the responsibilities, leadership, and costs."

What kind of mixed signal does it send, he wondered, to appoint someone with a reputation for arrogance who refuses to listen to opposing views, and bullies those who disagree? Those abrasive qualities could very well make the much-needed reform of the United Nations harder than it needs to be.

In short, he declared, John Bolton "is the 'poster child' of what someone in the diplomatic corps should not be."

[end quote Sen. George Voinovich - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/8xbmv]

Colin Powell: ''It is not anti-Semitic to criticize the policies of the State of Israel' - Said as 'US Secretary of State' in a speech at the 'Conference on Anti-Semitism of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe' German Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Berlin - April 28th - 2004 - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/22p6c

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*The Dutch author this far has worked abroad 4 decades for international media as a fully independent foreign correspondent, of which 10 years - also during Gulf War I - in the Arab World and the Middle East. Seeing worldwide that every bullet and every bomb breeds more terrorism !

*'The war in Iraq is illegal' says United Nation's Secretary General Kofi Annan in a BBC interview: txt+video - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/5pl2v

* BOLTON's way of working this far: a 55' seconds 'sound bite' concerning the US-Israeli 'Dogs of War' - 'bringing democracy' everywhere. Url.: http://tinyurl.com/5u98v

* Help the troops come home! Url.: http://www.bringemhome.org - We need them badly to fight our so called 'governments' - Url.: http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/

HR

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