Democratic front-runner criticized Republican Donald Trump today in a speech at the pro-Israel American Israel Public Affairs Committee saying his changing positions on Israel are more than disconcerting.
This is the kind of solidarity talk Israel wants to see coming from an American president.
Via the New York Times:
In a rock-ribbed speech in Washington that previewed how she might confront Mr. Trump on foreign policy in a general-election campaign, Mrs. Clinton said, “We need steady hands, not a president who says he’s neutral on Monday, pro-Israel on Tuesday, and who-knows-what on Wednesday.”
“America can’t ever be neutral when it comes to Israel’s security and survival,” Mrs. Clinton said, speaking to the annual policy meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the nation’s most influential pro-Israel lobbying group. “My friends, Israel’s security is nonnegotiable.”
Mr. Trump has said in recent weeks he would be “neutral” when it came to negotiating a peace accord between Israelis and Palestinians. The remark, in substance, did not stray far from traditional American policy. But his blunt language rattled some Israelis, who worry that it might mean a less supportive United States.
Clinton also invoked Tel Aviv’s huge LGBT pride parade as an example of both countries continuing histories of self-determination and liberty.
“We cannot be neutral about Israel and Israel’s future because in Israel’s story, we see our own and the story of all people who struggle for freedom and self-determination,” Clinton said. “There’s so many examples. We look at the Pride parade in Tel Aviv, one of the biggest and most prominent in the world, and we marvel that such a bastion of liberty exists in a region so plagued by intolerance.”
