Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch is crossing party lines to endorse a Republican candidate for Congress, citing what he called President Barack Obama’s “hostility” towards Israel.
“President Obama imposes conditions on Israel — says the ’67 Lines — and doesn’t impose any conditions on the Palestinian Authority, which now includes Hamas, a terrorist organization,” Koch said.
Koch held a press conference Monday morning in which he threw his support behind businessman Bob Turner, who is running for the 9th Congressional District seat vacated by the scandal-scarred Anthony Weiner.
Turner will be running against Democrat David Weprin.
“I disagree with him on the way he views the State of Israel and what I perceive to be his hostility,” Koch said.
Koch said the President’s demands on Israel would have a negative affect on its national security and was critical of his policy because it doesn’t make comparable demands to the Palestinians.
“I want to send a message that’s not the vision that New Yorkers and Jewish and Christian supporters of the State of Israel have,” Koch said.
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This has nothing to do with Israel — Weprin himself criticized Obama’s policies regarding Israel — and everything to do with the fact that Weprin’s father endorsed Mario Cuomo rather than Koch for governor in 1982.
Further proof of this is in the comparison of Obama’s policy to that of George Bush. Bush said that a “foundation” was a proposal in which Israel withdrew to the 1967 borders, Obama said that the boundary should be “based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps”. Yet Koch endorsed Bush over Kerry after he made that US policy. This is clearly not about Israel but about something else.
Koch has been a Democrat in name only for several years now. He is still bitter over the fact that he lost the nomination for governor. He just doesn’t have the guts to change his registration.