Gov. Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts told Jewish leaders Monday that neither Israel nor the Palestinians were responsible for the turmoil in the Middle East. He blamed leaders of Arab nations for rejecting negotiations with Israel.
But the Democratic presidential candidate would not be budged into ruling out the formation of a Palestinian state nor into criticizing the views of his chief rival for the nomination, the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
Appearing before the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Dukakis invoked the spirit of Camp David when said that he favors direct negotiations between Israel and its Arab neighbors. He also repeated an assertion that “a return to the 1967 borders is out of the question.”
The Democratic front runner said there can be no place at the Middle East bargaining table for the Palestine Liberation Organization “until it renounces terrorism in word and deed,” and accepts Israel’s right to exist under U.N. Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338.
But when asked by Rabbi Israel Miller, a former chairman of the conference, if he opposed a Palestinian state, Dukakis replied, “If we mean what we say, it is the Israelis, Jordanians and Palestinians who have to make those decisions.”
Dukakis said the Camp David accords provide for some form of limited Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Saying he supported a five-year period of such autonomy, Dukakis added, “Let’s begin with the accords. Let the parties themselves make that judgment” about an independent Palestinian state.
JERUSALEM SHOULD REMAIN CAPITAL
In response to another question, Dukakis said the final status of Jerusalem should also be “subject to negotiations,” but declared that “Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, and it should remain the capital.” Dukakis said he found it difficult to understand why the United States Embassy is not located in Jerusalem.
The candidate would not join in criticism of Jackson, who was labeled a “reverse racist” and “anti-Semite” by one listener during a question and answer period. He said that while there are differences between the Democratic candidates, he had chosen to conduct a “positive campaign.”
Touching on other issues of concern to Jews, Dukakis said the Soviet Union should adhere to the Helsiki Accords on human worship freely or emigrate. He also said the USSR would have to re-establish diplomatic relations with Israel before it could assume a “constructive role” in the Mideast peace process.
Dukakis referred to Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) with a reference to the money he and his wife, Kitty, had raised on behalf of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial and Museum.
Dukakis introduced his wife, who is Jewish, with a story about the mixed reception he has received as a Greek American politician married to a Jew. He said that in the early 1960s while he was campaigning for state representative in the heavily Jewish Boston suburb of Brookline, “what to do with our children was a question of some moment.”
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