"Israel's fight against terrorism is our fight.... For reasons both moral and strategic, we need to stand with Israel in its fight against terrorism...
"If we do not move against Saddam Hussein and his regime, the damage our Israeli friends and we have suffered until now may someday appear but a prelude to much greater horrors."
So these are the folks Rubio is auditioning for. Does America really want Bill Kristol (of the Emergency Committee for Israel) and friends back in business, influencing Middle East policy? I thought we had ushered these folks off stage after the Iran Deal, but Rubio's campaign is surely their latest vehicle to power.
We reported on Rubio's godfather, Norman Braman, last spring. The octogenarian and self-made billionaire has said that he would spend $10 million on the talented politician. Days after Rubio was elected to the Senate in 2010, he went out to Israel to meet Braman there. Braman has given over $300,000 to an illegal West Bank settlement. I know, I keep bringing Israel into this post, when the connection is not always explicit. But it ought to be the business of our press, and of Democrats, to make these connections clear. As Peter Beinart wrote in Haaretz last week:
"Rubio is an articulate spokesperson for the view that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu deserves complete freedom of action, backed by American weaponry, money and diplomatic cover, and that the Palestinians don't deserve basic rights. Democrats deserve spokespeople able, and willing, to explain why he's wrong."
This is an ideological agenda, and it ought to be front and center in US coverage.
PS. Eli Clifton reports at Lobelog that Rubio will be coming to Manhattan this week to suck up to Republican Jewish Coalition stalwart Phil Rosen, who has said that President Obama feels "entitled to screw Israel."
"[Rubio] has said that he would 'absolutely' revoke the Iran nuclear deal, even in defiance of Washington's NATO allies, and has blasted the Obama administration for criticizing Israeli construction of settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem."
Here's the Phil Rosen tweet that Clifton refers to:
"So many of my good friends are Jewish!!! I'm entitled to screw Israel. Trust me."
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