10:58 PM
- APFILE: Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, seen in this Nov. 9, 2011, photo, are participating in Wednesday's Republican Jewish Coalition forum.
WASHINGTON – The United States need to stand strong against radical Islamists, particularly Iran, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said Wednesday, characterizing the Iranian regime as the greatest threat to U.S. and Israeli national security.
Santorum was the first of six Republican presidential candidates to speak in a forum in Washington sponsored by the Republican Jewish Coalition. He used the opportunity to criticize what he says has been a policy of appeasement by the Obama administration, and emphasize his position as aggressively pro-Israel.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney also criticized the president's policy, saying Obama has set back the cause of peace in the Middle East by chastising Israel as weak in the face of a nuclear threat from Iran.
During his three years as president, Obama has visited Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iraq and offered to meet Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Romney said.
"Yet in three years, he has not found it in his interest to visit Israel, our ally, our friend, the sole Middle East nation that fully shares our values, the nation in President Truman's words, that is an "embodiment of the great ideals of our civilization,'" he continued.
"No, over the past three years, President Obama has instead chastened Israel. In his inaugural address to the United Nations, the president chastised Israel, but said little about the thousands of Hamas rockets raining into its skies. He's publicly proposed that Israel adopt indefensible borders. He's insulted its prime minister. And he's been timid and weak in the face of the existential threat of a nuclear Iran."
Candidate Jon Huntsman suggested recent controversial comments by the U.S. ambassador to Belgium were cleared by higher-ups in the State Department or the White House. The ambassador's comments, which have been denounced by several groups, suggested there is a difference between traditional anti-Semitism and the sentiment that results from continuing tensions between Israel and the Palestinian territories and other Arab countries. Romney, Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry all called for the administration to fire Ambassador Howard Gutman.
Texas Rep. Ron Paul is the only candidate not participating in the forum. He is also the only Republican hopeful to say the United States should never take military action or support an attack by Israel to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon.
Tehran has called for the destruction of the Jewish state, although it denies U.S. and allied charges it is trying to assemble a nuclear arsenal.
The candidates were expected to attack what they believe is Obama's diminishing support for Israel, but the event also gave the candidates an opportunity to respond to Obama's sweeping indictment Tuesday of economic inequality in the U.S. -- the theme that is emerging as the centerpiece of his re-election campaign next year.
In his speech, Romney said the United States has weathered terrible challenges, but has overcome them by living in part on the principle of "a merit-based society" in which "people achieve success and rewards through hard work, education, risk taking, and even a little luck."
"A merit-based, opportunity society gathers and creates a citizenry that pioneers, that invents, that builds and creates. And as these people exert the effort and take the risks inherent in invention and creation, they employ and lift the rest of us, creating prosperity for us all. ... American prosperity is fully dependent upon our opportunity society. I don't think President Obama understands that. I don't think he understands why our economy is the most successful in the world. I don't think he understands America."
Obama's campaign responded shortly afterward, accusing Romney of blaming the middle class for the challenges they face.
"Instead of believing that Americans are greater together, he believes the middle class and those fighting to enter it are on their own," said Obama campaign Press Secretary Ben LaBolt. "In fact, he's stacking the decks against them by adopting the same policies that created the economic crisis we're still recovering from -- more tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires and large corporations and letting Wall Street write its own rules again."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/12/07/presidential-hopefuls-make-case-on-mideast-to-republican-jewish-group/#ixzz1fsC30Mfd
