Dendahl’s thoughts on Israel

Gov. Bill Richardson has still not agreed to a televised debate with Republican challenger John Dendahl. Richardson gave a new explanation, published Monday in the Albuquerque Tribune.

Noting that he originally agreed to one debate with Dendahl, Richardson told the Tribune he can’t live with Dendahl’s conditions.

“He set some impossible conditions,” Richardson told the newspaper. “He had no right to set conditions. The guy is a challenger. He’s several hundred points behind…”

The only conditions Dendahl set were that the debate be televised and that neither candidate be allowed to bring any materials to the podium other than blank paper and a writing utensil. Dendahl later dropped the second condition (though he has since gone back on that concession, since Richardson went back on his pledge to debate).

Having a televised debate is an “impossible” condition? That doesn’t make sense. If Richardson would simply say he doesn’t want to debate Dendahl because he’s shooting for 60 percent of the vote as a springboard to his potential presidential run, that would at least be honest.

In the meantime, here are Dendahl’s thoughts on Israel, taken directly from his Web site:

“It would be difficult to overstate my admiration for, and the respect in which I hold, the State of Israel. Those feelings held for most of my adult life were reinforced in June 2001, when I spent the most interesting seven days of my life there.

“I was with a group of nine, each the chairman of either the Republican or Democratic state party in his/her state. The American Jewish Committee’s Project Interchange hosted us.

“The best measure of our fascination with the week’s activities was a near-absence of partisan debate among people with fiercely partisan responsibilities at home. The program of seminars, travel and social activity arranged by the AJC provided a fine education — made all the richer by hours spent with a leader among the Arab Israelis who constitute about 20 percent of the country’s population; with the foreign minister of Yasser Aafat’s neighboring government in Palestine; and with the opposition leader in Israel’s parliament.

“Agricultural development in Israel is a model for all in arid regions like New Mexico to emulate. Israelis’ advancements in science and technology rank it at or near the top of the world despite a population only about five percent of the United States.

“Finally, Israel, in stark contrast to its neighbors, is outstandingly democratic. An Israeli enjoys liberties typical of our Bill of Rights, particularly including freedom of speech.

“Americans should be proud of the special relationship we have enjoyed with Israel for more than a half century. I can think of no other country that has accomplished so much with such limited natural resources, all the while fighting for survival and striving for freedom we Americans are inclined to take for granted.

“More extensive observations written immediately following our return from Israel in 2001 can be found elsewhere on this Website: here and here.”