Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

John McCain Bashes Obama Policy on Israel

Israel is under “existential threat” and is among the American allies suffering from the Obama administration’s leadership failures, Sen. John McCain suggested in his speech to the Republican convention.

“Unfortunately, for four years, we’ve drifted away from our proudest traditions of global leadership – traditions that are truly bipartisan,” McCain said Wednesday evening at the convention in Tampa, Fla.

“We’ve let the challenges we face, both at home and abroad, become harder to solve,” McCain said. “We can’t afford to stay on that course any longer. We can’t afford to cause our friends and allies – from Latin America to Asia, Europe to the Middle East, and especially in Israel, a nation under existential threat – to doubt America’s leadership.”

McCain spoke on a night that the Romney campaign sought to highlight its foreign policy differences with the Obama administration. The evening also included a speech by Condoleezza Rice, the former secretary of state, who notably refrained from endorsing either McCain or Obama in 2008.

Rice sounded a similar theme to McCain’s, criticizing the Obama administration for diminishing the United States’ global leadership.

“We cannot be reluctant to lead, and you cannot lead from behind,” she said, alluding to an unnamed Obama aide’s description of the administration’s Libya policy that has drawn persistent derision from Republicans since it was published lasy year.

“Our friends an allies must be able to trust us, from Israel to Colombia, from Poland to the Phillipines,” she said.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.