Duke Likely to Encounter Bumps from Jews on His Campaign Trail

White supremacist David Duke, who announced Wedenesday that he would run against President Bush for the 1992 Republican presidential nomination, will get a cold shoulder from the Jewish community.

“I cannot see the circumstances under which we would host Duke,” said Malcolm Hoenlein, executive director of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Organizations, which regularly meets with presidential contenders.

Duke, who has disputed that the Holocaust took place and referred to an alleged top-heavy Jewish control of the media, made ample negative reference to the “Israeli lobby” at his news conference Wednesday.

Blaming the U.S. tilt toward Israel on the “Israeli lobby ” and its “very strong” activism, Duke said, “I think Israel is an ally of this country, but we’ve got to use the economic influence we have and the military influence to have a fair policy in the Middle East.”

“I’m for Israel when it does correctly, and I’m opposed to Israel when they act incorrectly. And I think what’s going on in terms of the settlements in Israel needs to be changed,” he said.

But although the Conference of Presidents will not meet with Duke, Hoenlein said it would probably meet with arch-conservative Patrick Buchanan, who prior to the Persian Gulf War blamed the Israeli lobby for pushing the U.S. military intervention.

Buchanan also opposes foreign aid, including to Israel, and has tried to thwart Justice Department moves to deport Nazis from this country.

Despite Duke’s racist, anti-Jewish and anti-Israel stance, Hoenlein said it is proper for Jewish groups to be barred from publicly opposing Duke’s candidacy, under Internal Revenue Service restrictions governing the activities of tax-exempt or not-for-profit groups.

A STEPPED-UP AD CAMPAIGN

Duke’s past involvement as a Ku Klux Klan grand wizard has drawn emotional opposition from U.S. Jews. Duke, now a Republican state representative in Louisiana, conceded in announcing his candidacy for president that he was “intolerant” in those days but that he is a changed man.

Duke has changed several times. In 1987, he entered the U.S. presidential primaries on the Democratic ticket. He ran for president in the 1988 election as Populist Party candidate.

At the end of 1988, he ran as a Republican for the Louisiana statehouse and won.

But last month, he lost a bid for the Louisiana governorship to Democrat Edwin Edwards. Jewish activists poured tens of thousands of dollars into the Edwards campaign.

But none of that money came from Jewish community groups that receive tax-exempt status from the IRS, whose code bars non-profit groups from endorsing a particular candidate or sponsoring paid advertisements.

In the four-week span between Duke’s Louisiana loss and his presidential announcement, Jewish groups maximized the opportunity to say anything they wanted about Duke, and many took out paid advertisements in major newspapers.

But from now on, the groups will be limited to only speaking out against racist comments they attribute to Duke.