WASHINGTON (JTA) — Mitt Romney, launching his presidential bid, said President Obama treats Israel with "distrust."
Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, announced his second bid Thursday for the Republican presidential nomination at a farm in New Hampshire.
Much of his speech focused on what he said were Obama’s failures with the economy, but he also faulted the president’s foreign policy, particularly when it came to Israel.
"He seems firmly and clearly determined to undermine our longtime friend and ally," he said. "He’s treating Israel the same way so many European countries have: with suspicion, distrust and an assumption that Israel is at fault."
Romney had accused Obama of "throwing Israel under the bus" after the president’s May 19 policy speech in which he called for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations to be based on 1967 lines, with mutually agreed land swaps.
In the same speech, Obama said that Israel must have security guarantees, called for a non-militarized Palestinian state and faulted the Palestinian Authority for its recent pact with Hamas and for seeking statehood through U.N. recognition.
