Palin: peace a McCain priority

Israeli-Palestinian peace talks would be a priority of a McCain administration, Sarah Palin said.

“A two-state solution is the solution,” said Alaska Gov. Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee in a debate Thursday night with Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.). “And Secretary Rice, having recently met with leaders on one side or the other there also, still in these waning days of the Bush administration, trying to forge that peace.  And that needs to be done, and that will be top-of-an-agenda item also under a McCain-Palin administration.”

Palin was referring to recent shuttle diplomacy by Condoleezza Rice, the U.S. Secretary of State, aimed at securing an agreement before President Bush leaves office in January. Previously, spokesman for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) had played down expectations of McCain’s involvement in forging a deal.

Palin and Biden sparred at length over who would better protect Israel’s interests.

Palin targeted a commitment last year by Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), the Democratic presidential candidate, to meet with leaders of rogue states within his first year of office without preconditions. “A statement that he made like that is downright dangerous because leaders like” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, “who would seek to acquire nuclear weapons and wipe off the face of the Earth an ally like we have in Israel, should not be met with without preconditions and diplomatic efforts being undertaken first,” she said.

Obama has since walked back from that position, made in answer to a debate question, saying he meant he would not rule out such a meeting and would prepare for it extensively.

Palin also suggested she opposed Iran achieving nuclear energy capacity, not just nuclear weapons; that would be a shift from Bush administration polices, which have been to offer Iran nuclear energy independence as a incentive to ending its nuclear weapons program. “A leader like Ahmadinejad, who is not sane or stable when he says things like that, is not one whom we can allow to acquire nuclear energy, nuclear weapons,” she said.

Biden said Republican policies had endangered Israel, targeting President Bush’s encouragement of elections in the region and its reluctance to engage with Iran.

“Speaking of freedom being on the march, the only thing on the march is Iran,” Biden said. “It’s closer to a bomb. Its proxies now have a major stake in Lebanon, as well as in the Gaza Strip with Hamas.  We will change this policy with thoughtful, real, live diplomacy that understand that you must back Israel in letting them negotiate, support their negotiation and stand with them, not insist on policies like this administration has.”