Israel Matzav

Pawlenty seeks the Jewish vote

Former Senator Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) (pictured) has been taking his state's governor, Tim Pawlenty (R) around the AIPAC convention in Washington. Pawlenty, who is rumored to be a candidate for the Republican nomination for President in 2012, is going out of his way to establish his bona fides as a pro-Israel candidate. They're not very hard to establish. Here's Coleman:

We need responsibility at two levels. On the level of leadership, and, the folks here. A leader without followers is a guy taking a walk. I look at the challenges that Israel faces today, and I think about what kind of leadership is needed to meet those challenges. You got to be smart, but also have resolve. You need folks who are there. Who have a clear vision. How we respond to Israel is a reflection of who we are as a people.

People ask me why I’m thin. It’s because I worry a lot. But if Pawlenty was in charge, I’d never lose a night of sleep on the issue of Israel.

And here's Pawlenty himself at an AIPAC dinner for high rollers ($25,000 and up):

Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to begin this evening by laying out a process for Middle East peace. It might be difficult to follow along, but bear with me, please.

Step one: the Palestinian people reject terror.

Step two: peace.

Everyone in this room understands that all Israel wants is to live peacefully, side by side, with its Palestinian neighbors.

Israel simply desires to be left alone. It is not too much to ask.

Everyone in this room understands that peace is in the hands of the Palestinians.

There will be peace only when the Palestinians are led by people willing to break with the past—only when they have leadership that has abandoned the anti-Zionist principles, the violence, and the corruption that have been bad for Israel but catastrophic for the Palestinians.

Everyone in this room understands that Israel is not the cause of the conflict in the Middle East--or anywhere else for that matter.

And everyone in this room understands that a strong Israel is in the best interest of the region, the United States, and the cause of freedom everywhere.

Together, the US and Israel must be clear not to blur the lines between friend and foe, and we must see our most dangerous enemies as they are—and not as we imagine them to be.

...

We must never undermine Israel’s diplomatic ability to negotiate peace. When we do, we put Israeli lives at risk by emboldening the most murderous actors in the region, including Hamas and Hezbollah.

Sadly, as I look around the globe today, I see disappointed allies, I see missed opportunities to support freedom and human rights, and worst of all, I see emboldened enemies who perceive weakness.

But this is not the way it has to be.

America has a key role in the world—as a steadfast ally, as a defender of freedom, and as a symbol of hope for the oppressed. Those of us in this room understand that.

We believe that our foreign policy involves more than managing America’s supposed decline. That we should never publicly scold an ally for defending itself. That the oppressed around the world should never doubt the American government and the American people who stand beside them. That the exercise of American influence was the greatest force for good in the twentieth century, just as it will be in the twenty-first century…

And I believe, as Ronald Reagan did, that pressure and engagement—are not mutually exclusive tactics. He proved that you can face down your enemy without betraying your values.

Reagan met with the Soviets, but he also showed great strength. He negotiated, but he also called the Soviet Union what it was: an “evil empire” and told Mr. Gorbachev to “tear down that wall.”

He made compromises, but he also made clear to the Russian people that we stood with them. When Sharansky sat in a prison cell for the crime of teaching Hebrew, he knew exactly where Ronald Reagan stood.

We must show strength to our enemies.

And let’s start with Iran.

The President has said that a nuclear Iran is unacceptable. On that, we all agree. And, we all agree military force is the option of last resort.

But we need to do a much better job of raising the costs and lowering the benefits of Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.

This means increasing political pressure on Ahmadinejad and imposing sanctions that would heighten the pressure. The US needs to better enforce its existing sanctions against Iran and impose new measures now.

It also means the UN Security Council taking action. Despite progressively alarming reports from the IAEA, the Council has not imposed new sanctions against Iran in over two years.

I find this inexplicable and inexcusable. The Security Council was created to address threats to international peace and security, but it continues to sleep while Iran continues to enrich.

I also believe that we must be investing in our missile defense systems that would deny Iran the ability to threaten its enemies.

And, we must publicly and strongly back those risking their lives in Iran to oppose the regime and its thugs.

To deter Iran, we must also work with China, which has not done enough to end business as usual with Iran and help enact tougher sanctions.

But we should also realize that now more than ever, our national security is imperiled by America’s out of control spending. We do not have much leverage over places that prop up our economy by buying our debt. These issues are related and we must as a nation face these difficult facts.

The United States should leverage our strengths, all of our strengths, in support of our great ally, Israel.

We need to further strengthen a strategy to build Palestinian institutions in the West Bank and cultivate a new, peaceful Palestinian political elite—one that rejects terror.

We should ensure that our assistance to the Palestinians immediately ends the teaching of hatred that still goes on every day in Palestinian classrooms and over their airwaves.

The U.S. has let that pass for too many years. We must insist that incitement ends now.

We should also ensure that our assistance cultivates and empowers moderate forces in Palestinian society. New leaders who are honest and capable, who appreciate the rule of law, who understand that war against Israel has doomed generations of Palestinians to lives of bitterness, violence, and poverty, and who are more interested in improving Palestinians’ lives than eliminating Israel.

These potential new leaders are Israel’s best hope for honest, earnest negotiators. Peace is possible but only with the right partners.

Ladies and gentlemen, America and Israel face the same enemies, who hate us for many of the same reasons: our belief in freedom, democracy, and human rights.

Relations between the American people and Israel are strong.

The global war against Islamic extremists has brought our nations closer together, not divided us.

In this war, Israel is the indispensable ally of the United States. It is our closest friend in the world’s most important and volatile region. Israel must keep the light of freedom alive in the face of those working to extinguish it.

In these efforts, the United States must stand with Israel--just as we have for the past 60 years.

Our shared challenges can and will be overcome.

Note the two words that do not appear next to each other anywhere in that speech: "Palestinian state." I like this guy already.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:27 AM