Kerry Urged to Denounce Hollings by N.Y. Campaign Co-Chair

Sen. John Kerry's New York campaign co-chair said Sunday that he should denounce South Carolina Democratic Sen. Fritz Hollings for a column he wrote earlier this month blaming the Iraq war on Israel.

"He said a libelous thing," former New York City mayoral candidate Mark Green told WABC Radio's Steve Malzberg. "It was wrong and all good-faith Americans - Jewish or not - should denounce it."

However, asked why Kerry had yet to denounce Hollings, Green turned defensive.

"I don't know - I'm not with him today," he told Malzberg. "If he spent all his time denouncing what Steve Malzberg wants him to denounce, he probably wouldn't win."

In a column that appeared in three South Carolina newspapers earlier this month, Hollings asked:

"With Iraq no threat, why invade a sovereign country? The answer: President Bush's policy to secure Israel."

He continued:

"Led by Wolfowitz, Richard Perle and Charles Krauthammer, for years there has been a domino school of thought that the way to guarantee Israel's security is to spread democracy in the area."

On Friday Hollings was unrepentant, saying in remarks delivered on the Senate floor: "I won't apologize for this column; I want them to apologize to me. Talking about 'anti-Semitic.' They’re not getting by with it."

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