International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, 3 Oct 2008

During their much anticipated US vice presidential debate on Thursday, both Sen. Joe Biden and Gov. Sarah Palin declared their support for Israel but disagreed over whether the Bush Administration has pursued the right approach to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

After Biden pronounced himself as second-to-none in his congressional backing of Israel, Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin said, "I’m so encouraged to know that we both love Israel, and I think that is a good thing to get to agree on, Senator Biden. I respect your position on that."

Biden, the running mate of Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama, had also asserted that the Bush Administration’s policy concerning Israel and the region had been an "abject failure" that has bolstered Hamas’ power via Palestinian elections, and Hizbullah by failing to protect southern Lebanon with NATO forces.

Palin disputed Biden’s assessment of President Bush’s policy and declared that she and her running mate Sen. John McCain would focus on reaching an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement like the Bush Administration has done.

"A two-state solution is the solution," she said, falling back on the conventional view of the problem. "Trying to forge that peace, that needs to be done, that will be a top-of-the-agenda item, also, under a McCain-Palin administration."

Palin also said it was time to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Meantime, Biden stated that Obama would engage in "thoughtful, real, live diplomacy that understands that you must back Israel in letting them negotiate, support their negotiation, and stand with them, not insist on policies like this administration has."

He said that Bush’s Middle East stance has only bolstered Iran. "Speaking of freedom being on the march, the only thing on the march is Iran," he said. "It’s closer to a [nuclear] bomb. Its proxies now have a major stake in Lebanon, as well as in the Gaza Strip with Hamas."

When asked during the debate which would be a bigger threat, a nuclear Iran or a volatile Pakistan, Biden said both situations would be "dangerous" and "game-changers." Pakistan has arranged nuclear arms that "can already hit Israel and the Mediterranean," and "Iran getting a nuclear weapon would be very, very destabilizing," but noted that "they are not close to getting a nuclear weapon that’s able to be deployed."

Palin agreed both situations would be "extremely dangerous." She also said that Iran "cannot be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons," and that we cannot allow "a second Holocaust."

"Israel is in jeopardy, of course, when we're dealing with Ahmadinejad as a leader of Iran, Iran claiming that Israel, as he termed it, [is] a 'stinking corpse,' a country that should be wiped off the face of the earth," she said, reiterating McCain's comments from last week’s debate with Obama.

"Now a leader like Ahmadinejad, who is not sane or stable, when he says things like that, [he] is not one whom we can allow to acquire nuclear energy, nuclear weapons," she insisted.

Copyright © 2006 International Christian Embassy Jerusalem