Wading into a tense foreign policy dispute, Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry is criticizing the Palestinian Authority 's effort to seek a formal recognition of statehood by the UN General Assembly. In a speech scheduled in New York on Tuesday, Perry pledges strong support for Israel and criticizes President Barack Obama for demanding concessions from the Jewish state that Perry says emboldened the Palestinians to seek recognition by the UN An aide to the Texas governor provided excerpts of the speech to The Associated Press on Tuesday. "We are indignant that certain Middle Eastern leaders have discarded the principle of direct negotiations between the sovereign nation of Israel and the Palestinian leadership," Perry said. "And we are equally indignant that the Obama administration 's Middle East policy of appeasement has encouraged such an ominous act of bad faith." The US has promised a veto in the Security Council, but the Palestinians can press for a more limited recognition of statehood before the full – and much more supportive – General Assembly ….. Obama has been criticized by Republicans and many pro-Israel activists for seeming to push the Jewish state harder than the Palestinians to make compromises to achieve peace. Among other things, Obama has called on Israel to cease building housing settlements in the West Bank and to negotiate the scope of the Palestinian state using 1967 borders as a starting point – a diplomatic position the US has long maintained but one that has never before been explicitly embraced by a US president. ….. "It 's vitally important for America to preserve alliances with leaders who seek to preserve peace and stability in the region," Perry said. "But today, neither adversaries nor allies know where America stands. Our muddle of a foreign policy has created great uncertainty in the midst of the Arab Spring." (Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com …
Recent Comments
Related Posts
