Rick Perry Slams Obama on Israel
Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry slammed President Barack Obama for what he called “dangerous and misguided” policies on Israel.
The GOP front-runner said Obama wasn’t backing the Jewish state strongly enough, especially as the Palestinians head to the United Nations this week to push their bid for statehood, the New York Daily News reported.
“Simply put, we would not be here today, at the precipice of such a dangerous move, if the Obama policy in the Middle East wasn’t naive, arrogant, misguided and dangerous,” Perry said, according to the paper.
At one point in his speech, Perry mispronounced Palestine “Pal-a-steen.” It was unclear if he was seeking to make clear his disdain for the statehood bid or if he simply used the pronounciation of the east Texas town of the same name.
Perry was flanked by just elected Rep. Bob Turner, a Queens Republican who won his mostly Democratic district with the help of Jewish voters.
The National Jewish Democratic Council said Perry was playing politics at the wrong time.
“His baseless attacks on President Barack Obama’s strong record of support for Israel and the actions that the President and his Administration are taking to beat back the Palestinian’s unilateral initiative are nothing more than a deeply disturbing ploy to inject domestic politics into the U.S.-Israel relationship,” the group said.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30