1980 Presidential Candidate John Anderson's About-Face on Israel

By Paul Findley

John B. Anderson, who received six percent of the total vote as an ardent pro-Israel independent candidate for president in 1980, now helps to lead an organization that deplores Israel's abuse of human rights and urges self-determination for Palestinians. He also is the top official of the group that strives to give substance to the new world order, an objective that President Bush mentioned in the wake of the Gulf war.

On Jan. 3, 1960, John B., as he is affectionately called, and I became first-term members of the U.S. House of Representatives, products of World War II and the only freshmen that year from Illinois. We served together until he campaigned for the presidency 20 years later.

Soon after coming to Congress, John B. was selected to fill a vacancy on the House Rules Committee, mainly because of his conservative credentials.

He soon became the chief Republican spokesman for many causes. The House Republican leader, Charles Halleck of Indiana, looked to Anderson as a dependable conservative who would help maintain the coalition of conservative southern Democrats and northern Republicans that dominated the Rules Committee and effectively blocked civil rights legislation from reaching the floor of the House.

But, in 1968, Anderson cast the vote that broke the coalition and cleared for floor consideration the open housing bill that is remembered as the landmark civil rights legislation of the decade. Anderson explained to his colleagues that he switched his position when, leaving Capitol Hill one night, he witnessed areas of the city in flames from rioting in the wake of the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. The spectacle convinced him that the federal government must take the lead in ending racial discrimination.

Elected to a leadership position by his Republican colleagues, Anderson became a star performer in the House of Representatives, able to shake the rafters with his mastery of argument and the power of his delivery. He was highly respected by Democrats as well as Republicans. John W. McCormack, the venerable speaker of the House in the 1960s, described him one day as the "greatest debater" in the membership. No one challenged the appraisal.

In 1980, distressed that the Republican Party would remain in the control of "Neanderthals," as Anderson described them, he tossed his hat in the ring for the presidency. Long admiring Anderson's character, religious conviction and ability, I rejoiced. I considered him presidential.

By then, I had become known as a critic of Israeli policy, but Anderson—although fully supportive of Israel—welcomed me as a member of his advisory committee. It was a short-lived relationship. Quickly outdistanced in the Republican presidential sweepstakes by George Bush, then an ambitious former congressman, and later by former California Governor Ronald Reagan, Anderson left the Republican Party to campaign as an independent.

Anderson has headed two prestigious delegations to the Middle East.

Anderson's decision to be an independent candidate was too much for me. I was having enough trouble of my own. That year, under assault nationally for my Mideast activities, I was heavily challenged in both the primary and general elections. My departure from his council of advisors may well have caused Anderson to heave a sigh of relief. By then Israel's U.S. lobby had earmarked me as its "public enemy number one."

Convinced by his supporters that he must cultivate the pro-Israel community, Anderson made a ritual trip to occupied Jerusalem and issued statements pledging full support of Israel. He distanced his campaign from the support of former Deputy Secretary of State George W. Ball, a frequent critic of Israeli policy. I winced.

Anderson later joked, "I was told that presidential candidates have to follow the '3-I' rule—no catering to voters with ties to Ireland, Italy and Israel." Although at one point a poll showed him supported by 20 percent of the electorate, his support slowly dwindled to 6 percent on election day.

Like Biblical Saul of Tarsus, Anderson ultimately saw the light and changed. He once quoted the humorous adage, "Consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds." He is now an outspoken disciple of justice for the Palestinians.

In recent months, under the sponsorship of the Pax World Foundation, he has headed two prestigious delegations to the Middle East, visiting Palestinians in the occupied territories and meeting with both Arab and Israeli leaders.

He is a member of the board of directors of a Washington-based advocacy group, Council for the National Interest, which urges self-determination for Palestinians in the territories occupied by Israel and U.S. support for Israel if it withdraws to the pre-1967 borders.

Although Anderson lost his bid for the presidency, he made political history. A lawsuit he filed against the state of Ohio in 1980 and sustained by the U.S. Supreme Court made independent candidacies easier than before. A run for the presidency as an independent by Texas businessman H. Ross Perot will owe a lot to Anderson.

Peace Through World Law

A law professor in Florida, Anderson was recently elected to succeed the late editor and author Norman Cousins as president of United World Federalists, which recommends transformation of the United Nations into a federal government able to enforce world law. One of his immediate objectives is to restore the full support of the U.S. government to the International Court of Justice at the Hague, the judicial arm of the United Nations. The U.S. withdrew from the compulsory jurisdiction of the World Court, as it is often called, in 1985.

In speaking up for justice for Palestinians and peace through world law, the former presidential candidate is helping to define the world order that the Gulf war hopefully set in motion. President George Bush invoked the United Nations charter to justify that military operation and inspired the formation, under U.N. sanction, of a multinational force to rescue the tiny emirate of Kuwait.

Citing the U.N. prohibition against the acquisition of territory by force of arms, Bush denounced Iraq's Saddam Hussain for violating international law. The community of nations should seize this post-war moment to construct a world order that will have the power, including military force, to meet future challenges to territorial sovereignty. No nation, including the United States, is well-suited to the task of world policeman. That task belongs to the international community.

Anderson is picking up the torch: "The attainment of a new world order...simply must rest on the rule of law."

Former Illinois Congressman Paul Findley is the author of best-selling They Dare to Speak Out, available from the AET Book Club.