“While we may have policy differences, we deeply respect the office of president of the United States and our president, Barack Obama”.
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“The United Nations is not a friend of democracy”.
“To my mind, as friends – long-term friends with Israel – we are obligated to speak the truth as we see it. That is what real friendship demands, especially in hard times”, Sanders, who is also the only Jewish candidate and one whose views were shaped in part by his time living on an Israeli kibbutz, said.
This year, in the heat of Donald Trump’s ascendancy to front-runner status in the American presidential campaign, AIPAC felt understandably constrained to include him in the list of presidential candidates invited to address the 2016 Policy Conference.
Trump has also drawn concerns from Jewish leaders for saying he would attempt to be “neutral” in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“If I am fortunate enough to be elected president”, she promised, “… we will never allow Israel’s adversaries to think a wedge can be driven between us. Cruz attacked the frontrunner and said: “As president, I will not be neutral”.
Hmm. I’m not sure what Christopher is getting at, exactly, with this post on Hillary Clinton’s speech yesterday on Israel and Palestine.
Sanders has been highly critical of Israel’s military action against the Palestinians and of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s heavy handed efforts to block USA approval of a nuclear non-proliferation agreement with Iran previous year. “Israel has been trying”, Mr. Trump said.
In remarks apparently directed towards Trump, AIPAC chief Lillian Pinkus claimed that “Last evening, something occurred which has the potential to drive us apart, to divide us”.
Trump went on to talk about this “deal-making” skills, suggesting he would be able to generate a deal between Israelis and Palestinians if both sides are willing. “And you know it and you know it better than anybody”.
“It is striking that the day after Donald Trump called for America weakening NATO, withdrawing from NATO, we see Brussels, where NATO is headquartered, the subject of a radical Islamic terrorist attack”, Cruz told reporters in Washington on Tuesday.
Checking off the boxes for his hawkish pro-Israel audience, Trump slammed the United Nations, the Iran nuclear deal, and the “culture of hatred” in Palestinian society. He added that his rival Hillary Clinton and the present Obama administration have treated Israel very, very badly.
However Trump was heavily criticised by fellow Republican candidates Ted Cruz and John Kasich.
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TRUMP: We will move the American Embassy to the eternal capital of the Jewish people, Jerusalem.
