The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has called upon Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama to rescind the appointment of former U.S. Ambassador to
Daniel Kurtzer’s statements and record on
· In his 1976 Ph.D. dissertation at
· In 1988, Kurtzer, then a State Department advisor, counseled the outgoing Reagan Administration to recognize the PLO after Yasser Arafat made a number of statements that suggested the PLO had accepted Israel and renounced the use of terrorism, something the PLO, Arafat and his successor Mahmoud Abbas have done in English many times since, while continuing to promote incitement to hatred and murder in Arabic. Kurtzer was the principal author of one of the most important statements of U.S. policy in the Middle East, a speech by Secretary of State George Shultz to a conference at the Wye Plantation in Maryland in 1988, in which he said that “The legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, including political rights, must be recognized and addressed, said Shultz. “Palestinian participation is required at every stage of the negotiations.”
· Kurtzer has based his policy of embracing the PLO on words alone, but has refused to confront other, hateful words of the PLO when confronted with them or modify his policy or advice to the government. When once confronted in a synagogue by a man armed with harsh rhetoric by PLO officials in stark contrast to their public commitment to peace, Kurtzer responded, “The United States can’t and will not base its peace process policy on public statements made by either side. We don’t support statements by either side that are excessive. We don’t support public statements by either side that are designed not to advance the peace process, and we don’t react to those kinds of public statements.”
· Kurtzer is co-author with Scott Lasensky of a new book, Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: American Leadership in the Middle East, which praises only the stewardship of President George H.W. Bush and Secretary of State James Baker, who applied ruthless pressure on
· Public interference in internal Israeli budgetary policy-making: Kurtzer stated, “Instead of taking care of the disabled and or economic development,
· Rebukes Israeli negotiators for being insufficiently concessionary: The Israeli Labor government’s then ambassador to the
· Clashes with Israeli officials: Kurtzer had a “vocal conflict” with an Israeli government official in Philadelphia in the summer of 1990, after Kurtzer “attacked the Israeli government for refusing to include the PLO in the peace process [and] said that this constituted the main obstacle to peace” (Haaretz, April 6, 2001).
· Critical of Israeli strikes at Palestinian terrorists: In August 2001, Kurtzer publicly criticized
· Criticism of Kurtzer from former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir: “Kurtzer frequently pressured
· Criticism of Kurtzer from former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: Netanyahu “has said more than once that with Jews like Kurtzer, it is impossible to build a healthy relationship between
· Morris Amitay, former executive director of the America-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has said: “Kurtzer
will use his Jewishness as a protective cover for his anti-Israel views” (Jewish Telegraphic Agency, March 29, 2001)
· Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot editorialized on Kurtzer’s malign influence: “Possibly more than any other U.S. State Department official, Kurtzer has been instrumental in promoting the goals of the Palestinians and in raising their afflictions to the center of the
· “Kurtzer‘s poor relations with Jerusalem’s political bureaus reached a new climax” in 1990, when he authored a speech by James Baker strongly criticizing Israel, which was delivered at an AIPAC conference, “causing a commotion among the conference participants … A Jewish community leader told Kurtzer [shortly afterwards], ‘Your children will bear the consequences of the Israeli policy you are encouraging.'”