This past week America went to the polls to vote for a president. However, we Americans never get to choose our Secretary of State. Now that President Bush has won a mandate for a second term, it's about time he cleaned house -- paying special attention to the cabinet.

To say that many of us are upset with his choice of Colin Powell would be an understatement. Mr. Powell is a relic from two administrations back who helped lead the US into allowing Saddam Hussein to remain in tyranny.

Add to Mr. Powell's ignoble history his statement to the Arabs occupying Jewish Palestine to "tone it down" after they blew up scores of innocent Jewish civilians. And then there are his speaking fees.

It is not illegal for Mr. Powell to collect speaking fees before he serves as Secretary of State. But what is questionable at best is the size of said fees and the sources thereof in regards to Powell's governmental service. Shortly before he was appointed as Secretary of State, Colin Powell delivered a speech at Tufts University. His speaking fee was paid for by Lebanese Deputy Prime Minister Issam Fares.

Mr. Fares, aside from being the Deputy Prime Minister of Lebanon, is also a businessman with close ties to the repressive Syrian government. Mr. Fares, in his capacity as a government official, personally called on Washington to remove Hizbullah from its terrorist list on November 10, 2001.(1)

Referring to the Islamist taint surrounding his speaking fees, Mr. Powell stated, "I don't know anything about those ties or if any such ties exist or whether I should be troubled by them."(2)

If Mr. Powell was so unaware of the Machiavellian doings in the Middle East, if he would rather take a walloping speaker's fee -- reported to be $59,000 -- and not ask any questions, what is he doing as Secretary of State?

Then there is Powell's statement regarding Israel's attack on a Hamas terrorist cell. He said it was "excessive," "reprehensible," "highly provocative" and "too aggressive."(3) Did Mr. Powell say the same thing about the genocidal attacks upon innocent Israelis? Nope. He said, "Tone it down."

Mr. Powell is single-handedly making President George Bush look like a fool and a hypocrite. Right after 9-11, Mr. Bush stated "Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists." By refusing to utterly condemn Arab terror against Jews living in their legal and sovereign homeland of Israel, by condemning measures to stop terrorism and castigating those who do -- but only if they are Jews or Israelis -- Mr. Powell is undermining US policy and showing an incredible and unacceptable prejudice against a sovereign nation on the receiving end of terror.

Then there is Mr. Powell's attitude towards Israel and Jews in general. He has often stated that he supports Israel and likes the Jewish people. He even claims to know some Yiddish. Hah! My mother spoke German, but that didn't make her an ally of Hitler.

As to his support for Israel, Colin Powell's behavior is anything but supportive. He continues to pressure Israel to make unbelievable concessions. He wants her to expel her own people from their homes and turn it over to Arabs committed to perpetrating genocide upon the Jewish people. Through his criticisms of Israel's passive barrier against terror, as well as his harsh criticism when Israel goes after terrorists, he has shown that he wants Israel not to defend herself. He has also, by his silence or mild reproofs, demonstrated his acceptance of genocide against an entire people.

Yet, at the same time, Mr. Powell has shown nothing but restraint and support for the Arab genocidal monsters, never demanding anything more of them than to "tone down the violence." For some reason, Powell even thinks that these Arab rejects-from-their-own-countries merit Israel giving up a large chunk of her tiny self. Apparently, he is ignorant of the statement by PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct 'Palestinian people' to oppose Zionism.

"For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beersheba and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."(4)

Do we want an ignoramus running the US State Department? Not only is Mr. Powell ignorant of the true facts regarding Israel and the Middle East, he seems to pull a 'John Kerry' and flip-flops to please whomever he happens to be addressing.

On Fox News Sunday, Mr. Powell stated, "I think it's a real problem when you incentivize (sic) in any way suicide bombings."(5) Yet, Powell persists in pushing Israel to give up chunks of her rightful territory and expel her own people, while the bombs continue to blow up Jewish families and the Kassam rockets continue to fall.

However, this article is not merely a rant; there is a savvy solution beyond getting rid of that stain upon the Bush Cabinet: Colin Powell. The US needs someone who has obvious legal knowledge and experience in dealing with foreign leaders. It needs a straightforward man who can handle extreme pressure and manage urgent crises with fortitude, finesse and aplomb. Israel also needs a man who is not tainted with Arabist partisanship to head the US State Department.

Luckily for everyone, such a person exists. His name is Rudy Giuliani and he is the former Mayor of New York City who served during and after 9-11. In 1981, before becoming mayor, Mr. Giuliani was named Associate Attorney General, the third highest position in the Department of Justice. As Associate Attorney General, Giuliani supervised all of the US Attorney Offices' Federal law enforcement agencies: the Bureau of Corrections, the Drug Enforcement Agency and the US Marshals.

In 1983, Giuliani was appointed US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, where he fought (among other things) government corruption and had a record of 4,152 convictions with only 25 reversals.

As the former Mayor of New York City, which houses the UN headquarters, Mr. Giuliani is comfortable meeting with foreign diplomats. He has a sterling record and is proven to take no nonsense. He is also a Republican and would be a good choice for presidential candidate when Bush's term is up.

Therefore, I urge President Bush to distance himself from that compromised liability -- Colin Powell -- and replace him with Rudy Giuliani.

Notes:

(1) www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=30322
(2) archives.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/stories/01/09/powell.speech
(3) www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=23963
(4) www.worldnetdaily.com/news/printer-friendly.asp?ARTICLE_ID=28222
(5) Dore Gold, Hatred's Kingdom, p201.