(Image source: Facebook.com/GovernorPerry)


BY ZACH TOOMBS

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Arrogant, misguided and dangerous. Those are the harsh words Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry used to describe President Obama’s handling of Israel-Palestine relations on Tuesday.

The comments came during a Perry press conference with Jewish leaders in New York, just a few blocks away from the United Nations, where Mr. Obama met with various world leaders. CNN has it.

“The Obama policy of moral equivalency, which gives equal standing to the grievances of Israelis and Palestinians, and then including the orchestrators of terrorism, is a very dangerous insult. There is no middle ground between our allies and those who seek their destruction.”

Although Mr. Obama does support Palestinian statehood, his administration had been trying to head off a vote in the U.N. for official recognition of Palestine, hoping instead to resume peace talks between it and Israel.

Nevertheless, Perry and other Republicans see an opportunity to gather Jewish voters who take issue with comments like this one made by Mr. Obama at last year’s annual meeting of the U.N. General Assembly.

“Those of us who are friends of Israel must understand that true security for the Jewish state requires an independent Palestine, one that allows the Palestinian people to live with dignity and opportunity.” (Video source: The White House)

As The New York Times points out, not since Jimmy Carter in the 1970s has a Democrat not carried the vast majority of Jewish voters in a presidential election. But Obama’s support of a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine could change that.

“American Jews are clearly less enchanted with Mr. Obama than they were in 2008, when nearly 8 out of 10 voted for him (in a Gallup poll last July, the most recent month for which data was available, his approval rating was 60 percent). Jewish lawmakers have been warning the White House that this disaffection could hurt the president in turnout, fund-raising and enthusiasm.”

Obama’s potential falling out with Jewish voters is thought to have already hurt Democrats in New York’s recent special election. Fox News gives the details.

BOB TURNER (R): “I’m the messenger from the Ninth Congressional District.”
REPORTER: “Obama’s slide with Jewish voters helped Republican Bob Turner, who appeared today with Perry, win a special election last week in a heavily Democratic and Jewish New York City congressional district. Perry said Israel should be allowed to continue controversial, new West Bank settlements and that the US embassy in Israel should in the disputed capital of Jerusalem.”

After catching heat for Obama’s support of Palestinian statehood and moving borders back to 1967 levels, Democratic party leaders established a Jewish outreach program to gather campaign support and counter claims that Obama is anti-Israel.

Transcript by Newsy.