júlí 25, 2003
DeLay um Palestínu - útdráttur úr frétt NYT
N.Y. Times: DeLay Is to Carry Dissenting Message on a Mideast Tour(Fyrir þá sem ekki vita er Tom DeLay Texasbúi sem er foringi repúblikana í fulltrúadeild Bandaríkjaþings - House majority leader)
"I'm sure there are some in the administration who are smarter than me, but I can't imagine in the very near future that a Palestinian state could ever happen," he said in an interview today, as he prepared to leave for a weeklong official tour [to the M-E].Þar hafið þið það!
"I can't imagine this president supporting a state of terrorists, a sovereign state of terrorists," he said. "You'd have to change almost an entire generation's culture."
[...]
As an evangelical Christian, he is the most prominent member in Washington of the Christian Zionist movement, a formidable bloc of conservative Republicans whose support for Israel is based on biblical interpretations, sometimes putting them to the right of Israeli government. His persistent skepticism about Mr. Bush's peace initiative indicates that the president may yet have to wrestle with his right flank in pursuing a plan that ultimately calls for a Palestinian state.
[...]
"You could have knocked me over," he said, when Mr. Sharon declared in May that the time had come to divide the land of Israel with the Palestinians, a position that Mr. DeLay has long abhorred with much of the same thunder that used to be Mr. Sharon's trademark.
[...]
Congressional Democrats, hoping not to lose any of their traditional Jewish support to pro-Israel Republicans, are also planning an official visit to Israel. Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the Democratic whip, will lead a delegation of 29 House Democrats to Israel next month, and he said he believed that he would carry a more upbeat view of the peace effort.
[...]
Mr. DeLay, however, said politics had nothing to do with his position, predicting that Jews would never leave the Democratic Party in large numbers. Instead, he said, his passion for Israel is driven by his support for its democratic values and by his faith.
"I recognize that my faith came from that part of the world," he said. "And in my faith, fighting for right and wrong, and understanding good and evil, is pretty apparent and pretty straightforward."
Agust skrifaði 25.07.03 17:05
Flokkun: Meðmæli , Mið-Austurlönd , Stjórnmál