After Newt Gingrich’s address to the Republican Jewish Coalition’s presidential candidates’ forum, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Rep. Michele Bachmann took the stage:
* Perry said that he supports the goal of a Palestinian state but with preconditions, including that it be the result of direct negotiations with Israel and the Palestinian leaders, that Palestinians recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state; and that Palestinian leaders “renounce the terrorist activities of Hamas.” He also vowed to increase strategic defense aid to Israel.
* Bachmann recounted her experience as a kibbutz volunteer in 1974 after graduating high school, saying her “love for Israel and for the Jewish people deepened.” She also vowed to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and said she had already heard from a donor willing to pay for the ambassador’s residence to be moved (which would seem to be a fairly unconventional means of paying for such things).
Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Jon Huntsman spoke in the morning.
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