Romney, surrogates accuse Obama of slighting Israel, mimimizing Libya deaths
by George Bennett | September 24th, 2012Mitt Romney and Republicans today accused President Obama of downgrading the U.S. relationship with Israel and minimizing the killing of the U.S. ambassador and three others in Libya during a 60 Minutes interview that aired Sunday night.
White House spokesman Jay Carney restated the administration’s support for Israel during a briefing today and accused Obama’s critics of a “desperate attempt to grasp at words and phrases here to find political advantage.”
The sharp exchange has particular significance in South Florida, where Republicans have tried to cut into traditionally strong Jewish support for Democrats by characterizing Obama as a weak ally of Israel.
Adam Hasner, a congressional candidate and former state House majority leader from Boca Raton who is a key emissary for Romney to Jewish voters, ripped Obama for not meeting with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York this week.
And Hasner blasted Obama for calling Israel “one of our closest allies in the region” and using the word “noise” when answering a question about whether the U.S. felt pressured by Netanyahu to specificy conditions for military action against Iran.
“Now we know why President Obama decided not to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York next week: because the President has decided to ‘block out any noise that’s out there’ about the threat a nuclear Iran would pose to Israel. This is an absolute insult, but it’s not surprising coming from a president who has downgraded Israel’s status to ‘one of our closest allies.’ This is no way to treat our friends around the world, and it’s absolutely unacceptable coming from our nation’s commander in chief,” Hasner said.
Less than two weeks after U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others were killed in Libya and Islamists led anti-U.S. protests in Cairo and other capitals, CBS’s Steve Kroft asked Obama whether “the recent events in the Middle East (have) given you any pause about your support for the governments that have come to power following the Arab Spring.”
Obama replied that he had warned since the beginning of the Arab Spring that “this is going to be a rocky path…..I was pretty certain and continue to be pretty certain that there are going to be bumps in the road.”
Romney fired back in an interview with ABC News.
“I can’t imagine saying something like the assassination of ambassadors is a bump in the road, when you look at the entire context, the assassination, the Muslim brotherhood president being elected in Egypt, 20,000 people killed in Syria, Iran close to becoming a nuclear nation. These are far from being bumps in the road,” Romney said.
Carney said Obama’s “bumps in the road” remark was not referring to the deaths in Libya.
“That assertion is both desperate and offensive. The president was referring to the transformations in the region to this process that only began less than two years ago as we saw in Tunisia and continues to this day with remarkable transformations occurring in countries around the region,” Carney said.
Also in the 60 Minutes interview, Kroft asked if Obama felt pressured by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to lay out conditions for military action to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
“When it comes to our national security decisions, any pressure that I feel is simply to do what’s right for the American people and I am going to block out any noise that’s out there,” Obama said.
The president then referred to Israel as “one of our closest allies in the region. And we’ve got an Iranian regime that has said horrible things that directly threaten Israel’s existence.”
Carney downplayed the significance of the “noise” comment and specifically stated in today’s briefing that “Israel is our closest ally in the region. We have an unshakeable bond with Israel.”
September 24th, 2012 at 6:39 pm
Bump?…. bump?
Gads, that is devastating.. That is what I love about the Governors brilliance..
They promised us at the beginning of last week they were going to get into specifics, and now they are back to talking about ‘bumps’.
What an election changer this could be.. ‘REAL’ Americans don’t think of such things as a ‘bump’… They think of them more as a ‘hill’.. or an ‘incline’….
Bump? Get that guy outta here.
September 24th, 2012 at 7:24 pm
Obama is NOT a supporter of Israel. He can say it as much as he wants but his actions speak louder.
He’s continued to support the Palestinians and the Muslim regimes in the region and has ignored Israel time and again.
If the U.S. alliance with Israel is important to you, you do NOT want Obama to have a second term.
September 24th, 2012 at 7:38 pm
It always shocks me that American Jews support the democratic party. What are they thinking? The GOP has always, ans still does, support Isreal. Obama, clearly, does not. Could anything be simpler? I think not.
Obama represents everything that Jews fight against. There must be a great gap between real Jews…and so called American Jews.
September 24th, 2012 at 9:29 pm
I’ll vote for any candidate that stops this unconditional, over-the-top funding and special treatment for Israel, and starts treating Israel like any other friendly country. Real Americans cease loyalty to the governments of their ancestors. Either you’re with us 100%, or you’re seen as against us.
September 25th, 2012 at 9:12 am
Just imagine:
YOU’RE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
9/11 anniversary is approaching
you have personnel in UNSTABLE countries in UNSTABLE regions of the world
there have been repeated incidents of unrest and attacks leading up anniversary date
WHAT WOULD YOU DO AS PRESIDENT
1. beef up security in those UNSTABLE countries with American soldiers
or
2. hire the local Libyans to provide protection for Americans
FAILURE TO PROTECT=dead ambassador and three other Americans; personal diary of Amb Chris Stevens indicates he was concerned about his safety and Al Qaeda hit list.
Failed economic policy
Failure to unite Americans-easier to divide
still dependent on foreign energy from unstable nations
September 25th, 2012 at 12:04 pm
Just think… If we stopped paying All the Aid we(American’s)do to the Many Countries around the World to build power plants for them,or water treatment plants,and the War on Drugs, in various countries. We would be able to pay off our National Debt in 2 years!
September 25th, 2012 at 4:40 pm
Not taking the killing our Ambassador and 3 other Americans…”bumps in the road” relationship with these countries. Insurance premiums went UP not down as Obama promised they would go down “before the end of the four years”. Appears on The View, instead of meeting with the PM of Isreal. Kids in school eating what the MRS. says to eat and they hate it. Obamacare will have “everyone covered by insurance” however if you do not have it they will fine “tax” you for your not getting insurance. Free? I think not. Muslim Brotherhood radicals burning everything U.S. and just going nuts. And if you think that will not happen here, think again. The list goes on and on and yet the media plays block and tackle for him as they did between him and Hillary, him and McCain and now Romney. Weird, scary.
September 26th, 2012 at 9:55 pm
Thanks for your post. I also believe that laptop computers have gotten more and more popular lately, and now in many cases are the only kind of computer utilised in a household. This is due to the fact that at the same time they are becoming more and more reasonably priced, their working power keeps growing to the point where they’re as effective as desktop from just a few in years past.
October 31st, 2012 at 4:50 pm
Thank you for this blog. It has a lot of great information and some great contributors. “Romney, surrogates accuse Obama of slighting Israel, mimimizing Libya deaths” – interesting title George. Nice work George.