I've been thinking about writing this to you for a long time. I greatly appreciate the leadership you have shown since tragedy befell our country a year ago when America got a taste--big time--of what Israel faces daily. While this wasn't the first time we had been victimized this way, September 11th will be remembered as the day in which we all received an everlasting rude reawakening. I've debated with myself about how to word this: Should I simply sing praises to your name and actions, or should I relay to the President of my country the true feelings and anxieties of my heart? Since I am in the process of revising my own thinking--at least to some extent--regarding both my previous positions and about you yourself--I reluctantly opted for the latter. So, here it goes...

I must be honest. I did not vote for you. I have an extensive background in science as well as history, political science, and Middle Eastern Affairs. So I worry about our country's continuing addiction to fossil fuels for all sorts of reasons. I remain very nervous about your family's and friends' close connections to the oil industry, an industry which, for well over half a century, has been-- putting it nicely, perhaps the understatement of the century-- no friend of Israel and/or Jews (or, in reality, anyone else but itself).
I remember too vividly your Dad's venomous reaction when Israel launched its surgical strike which destroyed Saddam's Osirik nuclear reactor. Where would Iran, which fought a long and costly war with Iraq, or our own country have been years later in Desert Storm had Israel not done this?

I recall your Dad's two best buddies while in office, the "Zionism equals racism" Governor John Sununu, and " _ _ _ _ the Jews, they don't vote for us anyway " James Baker. And then there were the published accounts of trustee Grandpa Prescott's "Jew Quota" days at Yale and Great Grandpa Walker's highly troubling financial and other dealings with Europe's master butcher of Jews. The accounts are detailed, documented, and disturbing...to say the least. It is not for nothing that many in the Jewish community have not been among your most enthusiastic supporters. The problem goes beyond just the usual explanations of the Jews' liberal, democratic tendencies.

I remember too well our abandonment of a much abused and brave people, the Kurds. They had been promised independence after World War I, but they were sacrificed instead on the altar of British petroleum politics and Arab nationalism. Those same multinational oil interests which worked so hard to try to convince President Truman to not allow the rebirth of Israel succeeded in aborting the one best chance some 25 million native, non-Arab Kurds ever had at achieving independence. Arab Iraq emerged instead. Listening to your Dad's call for their revolt against Saddam decades later--and then watching him stand by and do nothing while they were gassed and slaughtered--was a bit too much to bear. The "no fly" zones we later set up as an afterthought won't bring back the tens of thousands of these people who were maimed and killed both immediately and in subsequent years due to the lingering effects of the gassing. And all because they trusted in America and the American President. Unfortunately, this was not the first time we abandoned them. We pulled the rug out from under Mullah Mustafa Barzani as soon as the Shah made his temporary peace with Iraq in 1975...resulting in tens of thousands of Kurdish deaths then as well. What's even worse, it now looks like we're planning to use ( abuse?) these people yet again in our current war on terrorism. I'm hoping that you're cut from a different mold, Mr. President. Our country is too great to be stained by such behavior and actions.

There are other reasons for my feelings of uneasiness as well...but let's just end this part here. I fear I have disturbed you enough with my candor for now.
Having said all of the above, I must now tell you that I would vote for you in a heartbeat if elections were held tomorrow. Sometimes a leader arises at a given time for a specific reason or reasons. And sometimes the acorn can and does fall far enough from the oak tree.
Harry Truman bucked the pressure from Big Oil, its Arabist buddies at the State Department, and elsewhere when he recognized the rebirth of the sole state of the Jews...the phoenix arising from the ashes of Auschwitz and the frightened mellahs of the Middle East. The archives have been open now for decades and show that raw anti-Semitism played its roll here as well. But Truman knew that if any people ever needed the protection of its own nation state--regardless of how imperfect all such endeavors are doomed to be--surely it was the Jews.

Perhaps at no time since those days leading up to May 14-15, 1948 were the decisions of an American President regarding the Middle East potentially so important. President Johnson declared America "neutral" when Israel was blockaded at the Straits of Tiran and Egypt's Nasser expelled the U.N. peacekeeping force and replaced it--right up to Israel's doorstep--with 100,000 troops, tanks, planes, etc. of his own on the eve of the Six Day War. Hindsight is indeed the best sight. But no one knew then that grossly outmanned, surrounded, and outgunned Israel would pull a rabbit from out of its hat.

Eleven years earlier, President Eisenhower simply expected that Israel would continue to tolerate being terrorized by fedayeen using Syria, Egypt, and elsewhere as bases. And it was also expected to put up with an earlier blockade at the Straits as well. When Israel struck out in 1956, it faced a very hostile reaction from Ike and his Secretary of State, Dulles. Ironically, one may point to anti-Semitic President Nixon's resupply of Israel in the 1973 Yom Kippur War as a crucial moment in in Jewish history. But this was also not without its down sides...not the least being reports that his Secretary of State, Kissinger, deliberately delayed the resupply for about two weeks so that Israel would "bleed a little more" so its victory wouldn't be too similar to 1967 and it would thus, supposedly, be more pliable later on in negotiations.

President Clinton pushed Israel beyond the limits of sanity and reasonable compromise at Camp David 2000 and Taba. A much debated U.N. Resolution #242 declared in the wake of the '67 War that Israel was entitled to "secure and recognized borders" to replace those suicidal armistice lines imposed upon it at the close of hostilities in 1949. Among other things, those lines made Israel a mere 9-miles wide at its waist. And yet, Israel was expected to forsake this at Taba. While other nations have conquered and taken over territories thousands of miles away from home in the name of their own national security interests, Israel was expected to forsake even minimal territorial adjustments to give it some semblance of a strategic buffer. Israel was pressured to make one-sided concessions to a PLO which was willing to settle for nothing less than Israel's virtual suicide. After returning to its 9-mile wide existence, Israel was then also expected to take in millions of real or alleged Arab refugees so that the Jews would be overwhelmed in their sole microscopic state. Forget the fact that one half of Israel's Jews were themselves refugees from Arab/Muslim lands.

That brings us up to now and your presidency. Clearly, you're still under pressure from those same old oil influences. We really do need to work on alternatives to this--beyond simply raping the last pristine areas of our own country to squeeze out more oil profits. Cars elsewhere have been running on pure ethanol from plants that are grown from the earth for decades, and Henry Ford ran his Model Ts on them as well. Why did I have to purchase my 50 mpg, super low emission, safe and roomy hybrid gas/electric vehicle from Japan?
Returning to the Middle East, you do seem to have a deeper grasp of some of the core Middle Eastern issues than I had given you credit for. You have resisted the hypocrites in Europe, who have incinerated tens of thousands when engaged in their own less-than-perfect battles, and I believe that you have also come to see that treating Israel like other so-called "friends" treated Czechoslovakia in 1938 will hurt us--not help us...not to mention the moral repugnance of the thought. I believe that you understand that Israel truly longs for an honorable peace with its enemies--but one which will still allow it to be a viable state on the morrow. What's lacking is a partner on the other side whose thinking is on the same wavelength.
You have resisted the perpetual Arabists at Foggy Bottom. And you've done all of this knowing that most Jews didn't vote for you. Your Dad's buddy, Baker, was right. But I would disagree with the conclusions he drew from this.

Mr. President, I believe that you have also come to realize an unfortunate truism: The enemies Israel is fighting are not ultimately concerned about how big Israel is...but that Israel is.
The Geneva Conventions clearly state that Israel is allowed to go after the deliberate disembowelers of its babes and other innocents who hide among non-combatant populations and that, furthermore, it is those combatants themselves who are to be held to blame in international law for any harm that comes to such civilians because they were used as human shields. What nation would have had the patience that Israel has already displayed in this regard--at great cost to itself? But it cannot be expected to go on like this.

There is now no doubt in my mind. Forgive me for sounding a bit melodramatic, but I truly believe that G_d wanted you at the helm of our great nation during these trying and momentous times. You have quieted many of my earlier fears. Stay true to your heart. I believe it is a good one.