Democratic senior statesman Ed Koch says Israel is facing its “most dangerous and critical period” and he is ready to break with his party in the next presidential election over President Obama’s policies on the Middle East.
In an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV, the former New York City mayor said, “Mitt Romney correctly summed it up when he said that President Obama has once again thrown Israel under the bus.
“I believe this is the most dangerous and critical period that Israel has ever faced and regrettably it does not have the support of the President of the United States, which in past difficult situations it could count on.”
Koch, who crossed party lines to support President George W. Bush against John Kerry in 2004 due to his foreign policy stance, said he would do it again. All it would take is the right candidate.
“I’m a Democrat. I support the Democratic domestic philosophy and policies and will always be supportive of them,” said Koch, mayor of America’s largest city from 1978-89. “But I have no hesitation in crossing party lines when I think America’s interests demand that I cross party lines.
“I supported President Obama, believing he would be good on foreign policy, particularly with respect to the support of Israel. It turned out badly.”
But 86-year-old Koch said that no “decent” Republican candidate has yet come forward – “their efforts to privatize social security and Medicare and Medicaid absolutely turn me off,” he said.
“Now if a Republican candidate were to appear who was good on Medicare and Social Security and Medicaid and support of Israel, I wouldn’t hesitate to cross party lines.”
Koch was speaking in the light of Obama’s Thursday speech on the Middle East in which the President called for a two-state solution to the Israel/Palestine gridlock with borders that were in place before 1967.
Koch said he believes the president took the position because “he thinks it’s more important that America have the support of the Arab nations as opposed to the support of what we heretofore have said was our ally in the Mideast – the only democratic state there.”
But he said he has doubts that the speech will affect the support that Jewish voters have traditionally given Democratic presidential candidates.
“Regrettably the Jewish vote has been tied to the Democratic Party since FDR. No matter who’s running for president, many Jews think it’s still FDR.
“That’s been harmful to the Jewish community supporting the State of Israel.”
(Source: Newsmax)
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8 Responses
Good for him for speaking out but i still dont want the Queensboro bridge named after him
Who cares what Ed Koch said, he is irrelevant, he already has a burial plot and “matzevah” in a christian cemetery
Why did you defend Tony Kushner????
Have you forgotten about Jeremiah Wright and Rashid Khalidi?
simon01-i don’t know who you are but you just wrote a monstrous loshon horah….go back to bais hamedrassh and learn to be civil
Obama is Wright Light
“Now if a Republican candidate were to appear who was good on Medicare and Social Security and Medicaid and support of Israel, I wouldn’t hesitate to cross party lines.”
There are no such Republicans.
Liberals think “being good of Social Security and Medicare” means totally controlling everything by a corrupt liberal government that will continue to restrict who can get what as they decide they don’t have the money to ,give proper care to the elderly people they are trying to brainwash into blindly accepting their lies about Republicans supposedly being against them while the liberal leaders telling these lies refuse proper care to these people and tell them as Obama said about one women who needed a hip replacement that she should not get it because there wasn’t enough money in the budget and she should just “take the pain pill”.
“There are no such Republicans.”
Well, after the stunning Democratic victory in yesterday’s special election in the congressional district that had sent GOP leaders Jack Kemp, Bill Paxson, and Tom Reynolds to Washington, the Republicans are starting to desert the sinking ship. Four Republican Senators just voted to preserve Medicare. Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, Scott Brown, and Lisa Murkowski jumped ship and voted with the Democrats. (One other Republican — Rand Paul — voted “no” because the Ryan plan doesn’t destroy Medicare fast enough.)