'Appeasement' remark by Bush sets off political fray
The president, speaking to Israeli lawmakers, takes apparent aim at Obama in saying that negotiating with some dictatorships amounts to 'appeasement.' Obama calls it a 'false political attack.'
WASHINGTON -- Addressing the Israeli parliament, President Bush set off a political firestorm today with an apparent criticism of Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential hopeful, over his position on negotiating with some dictatorships.
Obama, who has pledged to talk to regimes in Iran, Cuba and North Korea, promptly accused the Bush White House of launching "a false political attack" for suggesting such outreach amounts to appeasing dictators.
In a speech to Israel's Knesset marking the 60th anniversary of that country's independence, Bush said, "Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along."
"We have heard this foolish delusion before," Bush said. "As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is -- the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."
Obama issued a statement calling it "sad" that Bush used the speech to take a partisan shot. "George Bush knows that I have never supported engagement with terrorists, and the president's extraordinary politicization of foreign policy and the politics of fear do nothing to secure the American people or our stalwart ally Israel," he said in a statement.
The White House denied that Bush was referring explicitly to the Illinois senator, insisting that the speech was meant to respond to anyone who holds those views. Former President Carter is among those who have advocated talks with regimes.
Noting that "many" have suggested such talks, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino told reporters in Israel, "I understand when you're running for office you sometimes think the world revolves around you. That is not always true. And it is not true in this case."
Democrats, coalescing around Obama as their presidential nominee, treated the president's remarks as the first salvo in the general election.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) criticized Bush and called on McCain to distance himself from the president's remarks.
