Republican presidential candidate and Texas Gov. Rick Perry slammed President Obama on Tuesday for his Israel policy positions.
“We would not be here today at this very precipice of such a dangerous move if the Obama policy in the Middle East wasn’t naive and arrogant, misguided and dangerous,” Perry said at a news conference about 25 blocks from the United Nations, where the Palestinian Authority plans to seek formal recognition of statehood by the U.N. General Assembly.
Obama is in New York this week to address the General Assembly on Wednesday. The administration said it would veto any request for Palestinian recognition, but would like to avoid the vote entirely.
“The Obama policy of moral equivalency, which gives equal standing to the grievances of Israelis and Palestinians, including the orchestrators of terrorism, is a very dangerous insult. There is no middle ground between our allies and those who seek their destruction,” Perry added.
Perry was joined on stage for his remarks by newly elected Rep. Bob Turner (R-N.Y.). Policies toward Israel played a major part in Turner’s election to a seat held by Democrats for nearly 90 years.
Fellow presidential contender Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) also criticized President Obama’s stance on Israel. She accused him Monday of putting the United States in “a position of weakness” on the issue at the United Nations.
“The president has not done Israel any favors by making the unwise speech he made earlier this year when he called on Israel to retreat to its indefensible 1967 borders,” Bachmann told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
