Standing on Israeli soil, U.S. presidential
candidate Mitt Romney on Sunday declared Jerusalem to be the capital of the
Jewish state and said the United States has “a solemn duty and a moral
imperative” to block Iran from achieving nuclear weapons capability.
“Make no mistake, the ayatollahs in Iran are testing our moral
defenses. They want to know who will object and who will look the other way,”
he said. “We will not look away nor will our country ever look away from our
passion and commitment to Israel.”
The presidential election hovered over the
speech. The Old City formed a made-for-television backdrop behind Romney, while
some of his campaign donors listened in the audience.
Romney’s declaration that Jerusalem is
Israel’s capital was matter-of-fact and in keeping with claims made by Israeli
governments for decades, even though the United States, like other nations,
maintains its embassy in Tel Aviv.
He did not say if he would order the
embassy moved if he wins the White House, but strongly suggested so in a CNN
interview.
“My understanding is the policy of our nation has been a desire to
move our embassy ultimately to the capital (Jerusalem),” he said, adding, “I
would only want to do so and to select the timing in accordance with the
government of Israel.”
His remarks on the subject during his
speech drew a standing ovation from his audience, which included Sheldon
Adelson, the American businessman who has said he will donate millions to help
elect Romney to the White House.
Romney’s embrace of Israel was on display
throughout the day when he met with Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu and other
leaders. He also visited the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site, where he was
mobbed by worshippers. In addition, Romney met with Palestinian Prime Minister
Salam Fayyad.
In his remarks, Romney steered clear of
overt criticism of President Barack Obama, even though he said the threat of a
nuclear-armed Iran “has only become worse” in the past five years.
In an unspoken rebuttal to Obama and other
critics, Romney said, “It is sometimes said that those who are the most
committed to stopping the Iranian regime from security nuclear weapons are
reckless and provocative and inviting war.
“The opposite is true. We are the true peacemakers,” he said.
The former Massachusetts governor also
stepped back from a comment a senior aide made a short while before the speech.
“We
recognize Israel’s right to defend itself,” he told the audience. Earlier, the
aide, Dan Senor, previewed the speech for reporters, saying that “if Israel has
to take action on its own, in order to stop Iran from developing the
capability, the governor would respect that decision.”
Israel is the second of three stops on an
international trip for Romney in the weeks before he claims the Republican
nomination at his party’s national convention in Tampa, Fla.
He flew to the Middle East from Britain,
where he caused a stir by questioning whether officials there were fully
prepared for the Olympic Games. A stop in Poland will complete his trip.
Four years ago, then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama
also visited Israel as a candidate, part of a five-nation trip meant to
establish his own foreign policy credentials.
In his speech, Romney said Syrian President
Bashar Assad “desperately clings to power” in Damascus in the face of an
attempted overthrow, but he did not call for his removal.
He noted that Egypt is now headed by an
“Islamist president, chosen in a Democratic election. … The international
community must use its considerable influence to insure that the new government
honors the peace agreement with Israel that was signed by the government of
Anwar Sadat” more than three decades ago, he said.
A goal of Romney’s overseas trip is to
demonstrate his confidence on the world stage, but his stop in Israel also was
designed to appeal to evangelical voters at home and to cut into Obama’s
support among Jewish voters and donors. A Gallup survey of Jewish voters
released Friday showed Obama with a 68-25 edge over Romney.
Romney and other Republicans have said Obama
is insufficiently supportive of Israel, noting statements the president has
made about settlements and his handling of evident Iranian attempt to develop
nuclear weapons.
Tehran is closer to developing nuclear
weapons capability than before, Romney said. “Preventing that outcome must be
our highest national security priority.”
In a March speech before a pro-Israel lobby
in Washington, Obama warned of “loose talk of war” that serves only to drive up
oil prices. “Now is not the time to bluster,” he said then. “Now is the time to
let our increased pressure sink in and sustain the broad international
coalition we have built.”
It was unlikely that the day’s events would
settle the issue.
Obama’s former press secretary, Robert
Gibbs, told ABC’s “This Week” that the administration has delayed Iran’s
nuclear program. The president has imposed U.S. penalties against Iran and
worked to tougher strictures applied by other nations. There have been numerous
published reports of a coordinated U.S.-Israeli cyberattack that caused damage
to Iranian equipment vital to creating weapons-grade nuclear material.
Even so, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu said before the speech that “all the sanctions and diplomacy so far
have not set back the Iranian program by one iota.”
Whatever the reality, the administration
has taken steps in recent days to reassure Israel of its support.
Most notably, Obama approved an increase in
assistance to strengthen a missile defense system that is designed to protect
Israel from rocket attacks launched from the Gaza.
Senor’s comments caused a stir in the hours
leading to Romney’s speech, a reminder of the controversy that Romney had
created a few days earlier in London.
He later clarified his comments in a
written statement, saying that the candidate “believes we should employ any and
all measures to dissuade the Iranian regime from its nuclear course and it is
his fervent hope that diplomatic and economic measures will do so. In the final
analysis, of course, no option should be excluded.”
Pentagon officials have spoken publicly
about the difficulty of such a strike and American officials have expressed
concern about the destabilizing effect such military action could have in the
region, even if carried out successfully
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