Romney Lies to Israeli Press on Obama’s UN Record

NJDC — July 30, 2012 – 11:00 am | Barack Obama | Israel | Mitt Romney Comments (0) Add a comment

When Mitt Romney speaks these days, it’s fair to question how much of what he says is actually the truth. So when Romney told Amos Regev and Boaz Bismuth of Israel Hayom that:

I cannot imagine going to the United Nations, as Obama did, and criticizing Israel in front of the world. I believe that he should have mentioned instead the thousands of rockets that are being fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel.

We have to wonder which speech he was referring to.

Was it President Barack Obama’s speech to the General Assembly of the United Nations in September 2011, where he said:

America’s commitment to Israel’s security is unshakeable, and our friendship with Israel is deep and enduring. And so we believe that any lasting peace must acknowledge the very real security concerns that Israel faces every single day. Let’s be honest: Israel is surrounded by neighbors that have waged repeated wars against it. Israel’s citizens have been killed by rockets fired at their houses and suicide bombs on their buses.  Israel’s children come of age knowing that throughout the region, other children are taught to hate them. Israel, a small country of less than eight million people, looks out at a world where leaders of much larger nations threaten to wipe it off of the map. The Jewish people carry the burden of centuries of exile, persecution, and the fresh memory of knowing that six million people were killed simply because of who they were.

That was, after all, the speech that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised by saying, “I think that standing your ground, taking this position of principle… I think this is a badge of honor and I want to thank you for wearing that badge of honor.”

This is, of course, not the first time Romney has willfully lied on the issue. After spreading the same mistruths during a Republican presidential debate in January, Romney was immediately rebutted by both The New York Times and PolitiFact.

If this was the speech Romney was referring to, then he lied again—this time to the Israeli press about the powerful pro-Israel address Obama gave before a hostile crowd at the UN. 

If Romney can’t seem to tell the truth when it comes to the current state of the U.S.-Israel relationship, how exactly are American Jews supposed to believe him when he makes other statements on the issue?

 

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