In His New York Times Op-Ed, former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy argued that Republicans are the only U.S. presidents who have mounted "serious, sustained pressure on Israel’s leaders."
In response, Commentary’s Jonathan Tobin offers a lengthy survey of how Democratic presidents — including those who were unquestionably friends of Israel — have also pressured the Jewish state.
Tobin writes:
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The problem with his op-ed is not that Republicans have not always backed up the Israelis. The fallacy here is that he cites this in order to refute Mitt Romney’s charge that President Obama has repeatedly thrown Israel “under the bus.” It’s that he chooses to ignore the many instances of pressure from Democrats. Indeed, just as every Republican occupant of the White House has some blots on his ledger with regard to Israel, the same is true of almost every Democrat dating back to Harry Truman. Yet what’s truly odd about the piece, and causes me to question the judgment not only of the Times editors that chose to publish it but those liberals circulating the article around the Internet today as if it was a damning refutation of Romney’s allegations, is that none of this stuff about past Republicans or Democrats has anything to do with Obama.
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