U.S. Elections
“It would have been better done as part of a negotiation for a two-state solution,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.). “I think it’s unfortunate it was done the way it was done, but I wouldn’t reverse it.”
Like the first debate, matters such growing anti-Semitism and U.S. President Donald Trump’s pro-Israel policies were omitted from Thursday night’s showdown.
Only Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) cited Iran as the “greatest geopolitical threat.” Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) was the sole candidate who did not commit to rejoining the Iran nuclear deal.
The Navy veteran and former U.S. representative of the 7th Congressional District of Pennsylvania—a swing state that could help decide the winner next year in November—from 2007 to 2011.
“What’s done is done,” said the mayor of South Bend, Ind., and a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president in 2020.
Presidential candidate and Mayor of South Bend, Ind., Pete Buttigieg criticized U.S. President Donald Trump for withdrawing from the 2015 Iran deal, saying it was “close to a true ‘art of the deal,’ ” a reference to one of the president’s books.
After opposing the version that passed as part of a bigger bill in the Senate in February, U.S. Sen. Cory Booker came out in support of the current version of the Israel Anti-Boycott Act.
“Our concern is that when this deal is in place, Iran, all they have to do is wait. They don’t have to change their behavior. They just wait,” said Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer.
“Let me be really clear, suggesting that support for Israel is beholden to a foreign power is absolutely unacceptable—and it’s illogical, too,” he said. “I’m a proud American who believes in the State of Israel and believes it must exist.”
The former vice president is followed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Kamala Harris and Mayor Pete Buttigieg.
“This is not an ‘even-handed’ situation, but Palestinian terrorism and violence across an international border that every candidate and elected official should be able to condemn unequivocally,” Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, stated unequivocally.
A Democratic candidate for president, the mayor of Miramar, Fla., recently visited Israel and the disputed territories, where he remains convinced in the viability of at a two-state solution as a way to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
