Republican Presidential Hopefuls Gather to Woo Gop Jewish Group

The six Republican candidates jostling for their party’s presidential nomination have intensified their courtship of Jewish voters.

During the morning session of Wednesday’s daylong event marking the 15th anniversary of the founding of the Republican Jewish Coalition, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Alan Keyes and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) delivered speeches to several hundred Jewish GOP activists.

McCain, who was warmly introduced by former U.N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, said he would “tend with care” the U.S.-Israel relationship and would “participate in the Middle East peace process only in pursuit of genuine peace and not some means to embellish my profile as a statesman.”

The comment was a jab at President Clinton, who is seen as trying to secure his legacy by helping to secure a final peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians before he leaves office in 2000.

“I would never ask the Israelis to sign on to any peace agreement that endangers the lives of Israel for a false promise of peace,” he said, adding that he “would never ask them to sacrifice tangible land in exchange for intangible promises” and would not ask Israel to sign a final peace deal until all Palestinian commitments have been met.

Hatch also sounded the theme that it was up to Israel to determine the “pace and modalities of the peace process” and raised concerns that Clinton was pressing the peace process too aggressively.

“I am sick and tired of the U.S. meddling on the part of a presidential administration seeking to build for itself a self-serving legacy on which the Israelis have to bet their lives,” he said to applause.

Hatch, a devout Mormon who at one point said Jerusalem should be the undivided capital of Utah — he called the flub a Freudian slip — said he understood the persecution Jews have suffered and said no president would care more about Israel than him.

Hatch and McCain criticized the Clinton administration on international affairs, with McCain charging that it has “too often pursued a feckless, photo- op foreign policy.”

Keyes, a radio talk show host and former State Department official during the Reagan administration, focused mostly on what he sees as the moral decay of the country, saying he would not attack the Clinton administration on economic or foreign policy because there are no major crises in those areas.

GOP front-runner George W. Bush, Gary Bauer and Malcolm Forbes were slated to speak later in the day.

New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who spoke during lunch and was introduced as “Sen. Giuliani,” detailed the transformation the city has undergone during his watch and made several references to how first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton — his likely opponent for the open Senate seat — is not a real New Yorker.

Giuliani said the administration should move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem now, a move Clinton has resisted saying it would damage the peace process. Giuliani also said pressure should not be placed on Israel to make concessions.