As Mitt Romney was in Jerusalem on Sunday affirming his strong commitment to Israel, House Democratic leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was attempting to defend President Obama’s diplomatic record. In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Pelosi suggested that “many of the Republicans are using Israel as an excuse, what they really want are tax cuts for the wealthy.” Jewish Republicans, she said, were “being exploited” on the Israel issue. She said of Jews, “[T]hey’re smart people. They follow these issues. But they have to know the facts.”
The facts, however, do not bolster Pelosi’s case that Obama has been a “staunch supporter of Israel.” When Obama began his presidency in 2009, he behaved as if Jews building homes represented a greater threat to Middle East peace than the prospect of a nuclear Iran. While offering to engage in direct negotiations with the Islamist nation that calls for “death to America” – effectively buying Iran’s leaders more time to develop nuclear weapons – he called for Israel to freeze all settlement activity. “The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements,” he declared in a June 2009 speech in Cairo, on a Middle East trip in which he did not visit Israel. The title of his speech was “A New Beginning.”
