By Rita Weinstein, JTNews Correspondent
Congressman and presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) made several stops in Seattle July 18 and 19 to share his progressive message. The Jewish Transcript spoke with him as he toured Tent City when it was housed in the parking lot of Temple Beth Am.
Transcript: You’ve taken a position for a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine. What would you do specifically to implement it?
Kucinich: I’ve been long considered a friend of Israel. I think that that Israel, as a democratic state, ought to be supported. Its survival as a democracy is important. I also think that the key to the security and survival of Israel is to make sure that America participates in helping rebuild and restore a viable economy in what is now the Palestinian territories.
A new Palestinian state must, of course, have a functioning economy which includes providing for jobs, housing, health care, and education. The United States can help create conditions which would be conducive toward taking steps in that direction, because having a Palestinian state in name only is not sufficient.
I think it’s going to be important for the United States to help create a negotiating climate where issues such as the sharing of water rights can be resolved, where both states would pledge to the security of each other, because there has to be agreement on securing each other. I think the United States must create a positive negotiating environment, but that the parties in each state, the Palestinians and the Israelis, must come to a settlement between themselves on issues that relate to ‘Right of Return’ and boundaries.
Transcript: Do you have specific steps in mind for implementing this yourself if you were in a position to do so?
Kucinich: As president I would move quickly to create a negotiating environment to bring the parties together. That means that the United States must have an almost single-minded focus to create peace in the Middle East.
I will stop the distractions of empire and of creating policies which speak of unilateralism and preemption.
For the United States, to declare its love of peace and aspirations for peace in the Middle East, and on the other hand to have policies of preemption and unilateralism, is antithetical. Every time that we start a war in some other place in the world, we make it that much more difficult to have peace in the Middle East. I want to focus on creating a negotiating environment which provides a consistency in dedication to peace, which causes the parties to be aware that the resources of the United States will be there to support an agreement and seeks to take an approach where we recognize both the Israelis and the Palestinians as our brothers and sisters.
Transcript: What would you do to alleviate the growing economic disparity in this country?
Kucinich: Cancel the tax cuts. Create universal health care. Medicare for all. Oppose the privatization of Social Security. Bring the retirement age back to 65. Provide for universal college education where every young person could go to college — for public college to be free, to be paid for through cancellation of the tax cuts.
Provide for universal preschool so children aged 3, 4, and 5 could go to a day care program, fully funded, five days a week to learn reading skills, and enhance educational opportunities and nutrition programs. That would be a great economic benefit to those young families who are looking for economic opportunities but can’t afford day care for their children. I think that’s part of using the power of government to transform.
Transcript: How would you continue implementation of the PATRIOT Act?
Kucinich: Cancel it. Get the Justice Department involved in filing suit to nullify provisions of the PATRIOT Act, which violate numerous sections of the Bill of Rights.
Transcript: How do you feel the current administration is handling our domestic security? What would you change?
Kucinich: We look at security a number of ways. First of all, we need to have hometown security. We need to have functioning communities which can help to fund police, fire, and emergency responders. The Department of Homeland Security, with its conglomeration of 171,000 employees, will take 10 years to figure out how the department can work.