Gore 'Cowardly' on Mideast, Says Nader

DAVIS, California -- In a sally that could broaden his support among Arab American voters concentrated in so-called battleground states, Ralph Nader accused Democratic presidential rival Al Gore of being "cowardly" in his stated support for Israel Sunday night, and suggested a more sympathetic approach toward the Palestinians could produce a Middle East peace settlement sooner than anticipated.

At yet another fundraising rally last night at the University of California at Davis, the Green Party candidate told approximately 1,400 supporters that there will be no "peace in that area without justice for the Palestinians."

"When you look at the violence, where is most of the violence? It's in the Palestinian territory," said Nader. "Who are the victims of the violence? Mostly Palestinian young men throwing rocks. Who are the forces that are producing most of the violence? The overwhelming excessive use of force is by the Israeli military.

"So if you want to really quell the violence, you say to the Israelis, 'Back off, these rocks are not reaching the Israeli borders.'"

Nader, a first-generation Lebanese-American who speaks fluent Arabic and received double-digit support among Arab Americans in a recent poll, has been critical of both Gore and Republican nominee George W. Bush for so enthusiastically backing Israel during the presidential debates. "This is not a time to take sides, even before an election," he said at a St. Louis press conference last week.

With a little diplomatic finesse, he said, a settlement is within sight.

"They're as close as they've been in fifty years on these negotiations," he said Sunday night. "Israel has finally recognized the right to a Palestinian state,’’ as well as some Palestinian “presence in Jerusalem” and a return of 100,000 Palestinian refugees to their relatives in Israel, he said.

With Israeli soldiers "killing innocent children," America should be pushing its ally to stop provoking the much-weaker Palestinians, who "have got a lot of reasons for their rage," Nader said.

"Maybe if the U.S. is a bit more forceful, and answers questions like (those asked) Vice President Gore a little more candidly, instead of so cowardly ... there will be an agreement reached, and in a few years both Palestinians and Israelis will wonder why it took 'em so long."

The Jewish state should realize it is dealing from a position of strength, he said in St. Louis.

"Israelis want security -- they have security; their own military research institute says Israel has never been more militarily secure and militarily superior than all their neighbors combined," he said. "And I think the burden of restraint has to be with the party that A) has overwhelming military force, and B) that is producing overwhelming number of casualties against largely young people throwing rocks."

Gore has long been one of the more staunch Israel supporters in the Democratic Party (much more so than President Clinton); his running-mate Joseph Lieberman is an Orthodox Jew who has not always been as firm a defender of the Zionist state as some Israelis would like. Bush, consistent with the views of his father, ex-President George Bush, and the Republican foreign policy establishment, considers Israel one of the most important U.S. allies.

Nader, whose ethnic heritage rarely merits comment in the press (perhaps because he hardly mentions it, and generally eschews what he has called "identity politics"), inherited his sense of civic duty from his father Nathra, who chafed at French and Turkish colonial rule in Lebanon before emigrating to the United States during the Depression.

Nearly 16 percent of Arab-Americans say they plan to vote for Nader, according to an Oct. 3-8 survey of 401 voters released last week by the Arab American Institute. Bush led Gore, 40 percent to 28 percent, and 14.5 percent were undecided.