I still miss President Reagan
By Moshe Phillips
June 5, 2011 was the seventh anniversary of the death of President Ronald Reagan. Last February in the hours before the Steelers versus Packers Super Bowl game I found myself glued to the coverage on Fox News of the Reagan centennial birthday celebration at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Library.
President Reagan was the president of my adolescence and although I was too young to vote for him in 1980 or 1984 I fondly recall volunteering with my mother at the Center City Philadelphia Reagan headquarters (it was never the Reagan/Bush headquarters to us) to stuff envelopes for the first campaign when I was in grade school.
Every member of my immediate family wore the Hebrew / English Reagan pins that for us meant so much: we were Americans, we were Jews, we were Conservatives, we were Republicans, we were Pro-Israel and we were for Reagan.
Back to the Centennial Celebration. I was very impressed with Gary Sinise, he did an outstanding job as the master of ceremonies. I always get a lump in my throat when I hear "God Bless the USA" by country musician Lee Greenwood. But unfortunately I walked away with a visceral reminder of just how much I can't stand — and can never forgive — James Baker.
I have always found Baker's arrogance to be the thing that sets him apart from so many of the other Reagan White House veterans that are still with us today — that and his often evidenced distaste for Jews and Israel. Let's be honest, in his crowd his attitudes probably only rivaled Pat Buchanan's.
This attitude Baker had towards both Israelis and American Jews was something the general public never heard anything about when Baker served under President Reagan. Baker's attitude only became news during the presidency of George H. W. Bush.
Right from the start of the Bush Administration it was obvious that something was doing to be vastly different for Israel. In a May 22, 1989 speech in front of the annual AIPAC convention Baker had this to say:, "For Israel, now is the time to lay aside, once and for all, the unrealistic vision of a Greater Israel. Israeli interests in the West Bank and Gaza, security and otherwise, can be accommodated in a settlement based on UN Resolution 242. Foreswear annexation; stop settlement activity..."
Let's just pause for a moment and set one thing straight. Morally Israelis have a lot more right to "Greater Israel" than any Anglo Texan like Baker can ever claim to the Alamo. (No disrespect meant to my Texas friends.)
Then there was Baker's "Loan Guarantees" business of forcing a freeze on Jewish housing in the Settlements. Next came the (successful) pressure he applied to Israeli Prime Minister Shamir when Israel was pushed not retaliate after Saddam Hussein attacked civilian targets in Tel Aviv with SCUD missiles in 1991.
It certainly seemed plausible to many Americans that when former New York City Mayor and New York Post columnist Ed Koch claimed that "Baker was criticized recently at a meeting of high-level White House advisers for his belligerent attitude toward Israel, he responded, '[expletive] the Jews. They didn't vote for us.'" (March 6, 1992)
Baker denied the comment.
For me Baker belongs with Pat Buchanan in a special category of Republicans that in many ways makes them more akin to Jesse Jackson, the late Senator Byrd and other bigoted populists that have always been a part of the Democrat camp.
The good news it is that it is certainly hard to imagine today's Republican leaders like Gov. Huckabee, Gov. Romney, Gov. Palin. Sen. Santorum or Rep. Eric Cantor setting a place for Baker at the table. And that's a good thing. A very good thing.
I still miss President Reagan. I think I always will.
© Moshe Phillips
June 12, 2011
June 5, 2011 was the seventh anniversary of the death of President Ronald Reagan. Last February in the hours before the Steelers versus Packers Super Bowl game I found myself glued to the coverage on Fox News of the Reagan centennial birthday celebration at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Library.
President Reagan was the president of my adolescence and although I was too young to vote for him in 1980 or 1984 I fondly recall volunteering with my mother at the Center City Philadelphia Reagan headquarters (it was never the Reagan/Bush headquarters to us) to stuff envelopes for the first campaign when I was in grade school.
Every member of my immediate family wore the Hebrew / English Reagan pins that for us meant so much: we were Americans, we were Jews, we were Conservatives, we were Republicans, we were Pro-Israel and we were for Reagan.
Back to the Centennial Celebration. I was very impressed with Gary Sinise, he did an outstanding job as the master of ceremonies. I always get a lump in my throat when I hear "God Bless the USA" by country musician Lee Greenwood. But unfortunately I walked away with a visceral reminder of just how much I can't stand — and can never forgive — James Baker.
I have always found Baker's arrogance to be the thing that sets him apart from so many of the other Reagan White House veterans that are still with us today — that and his often evidenced distaste for Jews and Israel. Let's be honest, in his crowd his attitudes probably only rivaled Pat Buchanan's.
This attitude Baker had towards both Israelis and American Jews was something the general public never heard anything about when Baker served under President Reagan. Baker's attitude only became news during the presidency of George H. W. Bush.
Right from the start of the Bush Administration it was obvious that something was doing to be vastly different for Israel. In a May 22, 1989 speech in front of the annual AIPAC convention Baker had this to say:, "For Israel, now is the time to lay aside, once and for all, the unrealistic vision of a Greater Israel. Israeli interests in the West Bank and Gaza, security and otherwise, can be accommodated in a settlement based on UN Resolution 242. Foreswear annexation; stop settlement activity..."
Let's just pause for a moment and set one thing straight. Morally Israelis have a lot more right to "Greater Israel" than any Anglo Texan like Baker can ever claim to the Alamo. (No disrespect meant to my Texas friends.)
Then there was Baker's "Loan Guarantees" business of forcing a freeze on Jewish housing in the Settlements. Next came the (successful) pressure he applied to Israeli Prime Minister Shamir when Israel was pushed not retaliate after Saddam Hussein attacked civilian targets in Tel Aviv with SCUD missiles in 1991.
It certainly seemed plausible to many Americans that when former New York City Mayor and New York Post columnist Ed Koch claimed that "Baker was criticized recently at a meeting of high-level White House advisers for his belligerent attitude toward Israel, he responded, '[expletive] the Jews. They didn't vote for us.'" (March 6, 1992)
Baker denied the comment.
For me Baker belongs with Pat Buchanan in a special category of Republicans that in many ways makes them more akin to Jesse Jackson, the late Senator Byrd and other bigoted populists that have always been a part of the Democrat camp.
The good news it is that it is certainly hard to imagine today's Republican leaders like Gov. Huckabee, Gov. Romney, Gov. Palin. Sen. Santorum or Rep. Eric Cantor setting a place for Baker at the table. And that's a good thing. A very good thing.
I still miss President Reagan. I think I always will.
© Moshe Phillips
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