Dear Governor Dean,
I am writing to express my support to you and your campaign for the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party. I am a registered Republican, but I am disappointed with the Republican domestic agenda and our foreign policy. I have watched and listened to all the possible alternatives to a second George W. Bush term and have found none suitable.
The Republican Bush Administration has alienated the rest of the world, especially our friends. They have taken us to a war we have no business fighting and to a part of the world that is most volatile and out of which we can only withdraw with great difficulty. President Bush and his team continue to fumble with a U.S policy on the Middle East that has not produced any results and continue on a path that has been detrimental to our interests. They have succumbed to the wishes of the pro-Israeli lobby orchestrated by the all powerful American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), resulting in no security for Israel, no justice for the Palestinians and unsurpassed animosity to America in the Arab and Moslem worlds inflamed by this administration’s imperialistic policies. Thanks to the Bush Administration, we have become the hated and arrogant Evil Empire in the eyes of most of the world.
Governor Dean, it is about time we listened to our friends and made a serious attempt to understand why the rest of the world hates our policies; they do not hate us or our freedom and democracy like President Bush continues to claim. The main problem for our present poor standing in the world is our policy on the Arab Israeli conflict, specifically our support to Israel with its policies of apartheid toward the Palestinians and its military occupation of Palestinian land since 1967. The people and governments of the Arab and Moslem worlds, as well as people everywhere who identify with the suffering of the Palestinians, constantly watch the actions of the U.S. as they pertain to any aspect of Palestine: our military and financial aid to Israel, our exercise of veto power to block UN action to protect Palestinian civilians, and a myriad of other actions through which the U.S. has exhibited its blind support for Israel’s immoral policies. These are the same policies we vehemently opposed in South Africa, East Timor, Kosovo, and many parts of the word where we supported peoples oppressed and nations under siege.
Arab nations, Moslems around the world and most of our European friends do not see the Palestinians as being victimized by Israel alone because without our unqualified support Israel would not be able to oppress the Palestinians and occupy their land. It is our unlimited financial support to Israel and our military aid to the Israeli occupation forces that continue to make the Palestinians victims of U.S. foreign policy. As a result, over half of the world’s population sees the U.S. as the primary perpetrator of the injustice to the Palestinians where the US applies double standards, one to Israel and the other to the rest of the world.
With your nomination and your leadership, we can change that.
Unfortunately, I can see the writing on the wall. AIPAC will not sit idle if your campaign does not declare blind loyalty to Israel at the expense of the interests of the nation whose presidency you are seeking. I am willing to safely guess that AIPAC is already making plans to bring your campaign down on many issues, just as they did with many elected officials who refused to be puppets of immoral Israeli policies. They have already started the rumors that you have a temper that may not befit a President; they will soon manufacture a myriad of other attributes with the intent of demonizing you and casting you aside from the Democratic nomination and the presidential race.
If you continue on the path you have taken, supporting justice for the Palestinians and security for Israel and treat both peoples as equal, if you stand up to the destructive forces of AIPAC (by not retracting your statements on the need for US evenhandedness in the Middle East for which Joe Lieberman, a loyal disciple of AIPAC, and others criticized you) and if you continue to support an even handed approach to the Arab Israeli conflict, I will vote for you. If you continue to acknowledge that we have acted with arrogance toward the United Nations and toward our friends and allies in Europe and the Middle East, and that we must give up our imperial dreams and plans, then I will actively campaign for you.
But, if you buckle under the financial and political pressure of AIPAC and the pro-Israel supporters, and deviate from the principles that you have already expressed on your campaign trail so far, then my hopes for the salvation of our policies will have been dashed, for four more years; you will be no different than those already in control of the present administration.
You are the hope of many Americans looking for an acceptable alternative. Please do not disappoint us.
Sincerely,
Michael S. Ladah
Las Vegas, Nevada
