Republican presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani told a Jewish audience that Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, deserved assistance.
Giuliani, speaking Tuesday at a Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington event, said assistance to Abbas, a relative moderate, was worthwhile now that he has severed his relationship with the Hamas terrorist group, but it must be monitored closely.
“We should try to help Abbas, we should be real cautious and make sure that it’s realistic,” Giuliani said. “Make sure that we’re getting help from Jordan, other places so the burden doesn’t fall all on Israel, fall all on the United States. Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. It means we should try with a sense of steely realism, and not such a great desire for peace that we’ll agree to anything.”
Giuliani also said that the United States needs to find new ways to pressure Iran to end its suspected nuclear weapons program while continuing sanctions and negotiations. Speaking of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he said: “If a man says ‘I’m going to destroy Israel, I’m going to kill Americans,’ and that man runs a government I’m going to take that risk seriously. And I’m going to stop him.”
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