EDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - A staunch pro-Israel stand has long been a safe bet for American political candidates, and both Al Gore and George W. Bush have pledged to continue a strong friendship with the nation's longstanding ally in the Middle East.
But this election year, it gets more complicated for the two presidential candidates, as Gore found out yesterday.
Gore was set to have a private meeting last night with Arab-Americans in Michigan, but he canceled it so he could head back to Washington for a White House meeting on the Middle East.
Normally, a missed meeting with constituents - especially under these circumstances - would not have been noteworthy. But Arab-Americans are 300,000-strong in Michigan, and the state is a critical battleground in the presidential election.
''We are disappointed. We have questions for'' Gore, said May Saba, president of the American Federation of Ramallah, Palestine, in Westland, Mich. Saba was supposed to attend last night's session with Gore.
''As a Palestinian-American, why should I vote for him?'' Saba said, adding that Bush had not shown himself sympathetic to Arab-Americans, either.
Gore aides scrambled yesterday to patch together a smaller meeting between Gore and a few Arab-American leaders in Washington last night, and said they would also reschedule the meeting in Michigan.
''We'll find a way,'' said Greg Simon, a senior Gore adviser. ''He's not making it because he wants to find a way to stop the fighting'' in the Middle East, Simon said.
But the matter underscores the impact the Middle East crisis could have on presidential politics, particularly in the state of Michigan, whose 18 electoral votes could turn the election.
Michigan is often pegged as an auto workers' state, and candidates tend to discuss labor issues, as Gore has done, or call for energy independence, as Bush did yesterday.
But with the race so close in Michigan, Arab-Americans are enjoying a new prominence.
The community constitutes about 4 percent of the vote, which could easily decide the election, especially with Green Party candidate Ralph Nader in the picture, said James Zogby, an Arab-American and Gore's adviser on ethnic affairs.
''There's an upside and a downside'' to the Middle East crisis for Arab-American politics, Zogby said. ''The upside is that the nation is focusing on us. The downside is that it's a distraction. Is this the way we wanted attention to be paid to us? No.''
Arab-Americans are a ''classic swing vote,'' Zogby said, voting for Jesse Jackson in the 1988 Democratic presidential primary. Jackson, who has been critical of Israel, was the target of a comment by former New York City mayor Ed Koch that ''Jews would be crazy to vote for'' Jackson.
Arab-Americans later voted for Bush, but voted in 1996 for President Clinton at twice the national percentage rate of Americans overall, Zogby said.
Gore's vice presidential nominee, Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman, has been more subdued on the matter of Israel, backing up Gore's policy and appealing for peace. The first Jewish nominee for a major presidential party ticket, Lieberman met with Arab-Americans in Michigan earlier in the campaign.
''We're open-minded,'' Saba said when asked if Lieberman's presence on the ticket could affect Gore in Michigan. As a Jew, Lieberman ''may be more sensitive to us,'' since ''Jewish people have known oppression, too,'' Saba said.
Arab-Americans don't expect politicians to promise not to be a friend of Israel, Zogby said. ''We can live with that. We just want them to say also, `Arabs are our friends.'''
Gore was reserved in his remarks on the Middle East as he addressed a sparsely attended rally yesterday in Cedar Rapids. The vice president did not directly question Bush's foreign policy experience, saying only that the Middle East crises present ''a time when our country's leadership is needed.''
Gore, who tends to feed off the energy of a crowd but has had trouble revving up a quiet rally, delivered a standard stump speech in Iowa, promising to protect Medicare and Social Security while criticizing Bush for his record on providing health care to children in Texas.
As if to punctuate Gore's point, a child collapsed in the crowd. Gore called for a doctor, and the boy, who had apparently fainted, was escorted off the grounds.
''I believe I was just talking about health care for children,'' Gore said, after assuring the crowd that the boy was all right.
