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Pence Discusses President’s Speech in Cairo on CNN |
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(Excerpts Below)
"I certainly always welcome the presence of the President of the United States of America on the world stage. I think many of the themes the President touched on were laudable, but there were very troubling aspects of the speech as well. I think many millions of Americans cherish our strong support for the state of Israel, and there was a sense in here of moral equivalency between those who are driving for a Palestinian State and the State of Israel.
"I think first and foremost the people of the United States stand with Israel. I think we support a Middle East peace process so long as we begin to see Palestinians follow that historic road map, disarm terrorists within their midst, and those are things we haven't seen yet. So moral equivalency between those two causes from the President of the United States of America I thought was disappointing and was a disservice to our ally Israel."
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"It seems to me we ought to be asking not our cherished ally Israel to make yet another concession, another step. Remember, they pulled out of Gaza and then Hamas has taken all of that over completely, necessitating military action a number of months ago. We need, and I think, the President of the United States of America standing strongly with our ally Israel would have done well to at least in the first instance call on the Palestinians and their supporters across the Arab world to begin to see real concessions within the Palestinian movement, a real effort to defang Hamas, to disarm terrorists.
"Focusing so strongly in the first instance on ending settlements as Democrats did on Capitol Hill, as the President did in Cairo today, I think it's putting the cart before the horse. Israel is our ally. America cherishes our relationship with Israel. We stand with her for her security, and we ought to have the President of the United States of America, I think, delivering a message that says, ‘look, it's time for the Palestinian leadership to begin to act on that road map in a way that can foster the interests of peace in the region.'"
