Rubio Campaign Press Release - Marco Rubio Explains Exactly Why President Obama's Disrespect for Israel Is So Foolish

Originally published on Medium, November 9, 2015
By Marco Rubio

President Obama's foreign policy is teaching us a timeless lesson: An America that fails to support Israel is an America that undermines its own vital interests. When President Obama receives Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today, it will be the first meeting between the two leaders since the Iran deal was finalized.

Hardly a day goes by without new incidents that underscore Iranian hostility to the United States, all with little to no response from the White House. Since the Iran deal was concluded, Iran has detained more Americans. In recent weeks, Iran launched cyber attacks against senior American officials and last month it conducted a ballistic missile test in flagrant violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1929. Iran has doubled down its effort to prop up Syria's Bashar al-Assad, sending additional troops to aid a Russian-backed offensive against moderate opposition forces. Meanwhile, the mullah's threats against Israel continue on a regular basis. At every turn, the Obama administration has ignored or downplayed Iran's provocations.

Allies and enemies alike are watching, and what they have learned from the administration's attacks on Israel and its indulgence of Iran is that antagonism toward America goes unpunished while friendship goes unrewarded. The visit of the prime minister of Israel, our greatest ally in the Middle East, offers the President an opportunity to begin to counter these perceptions.

But I have no illusions. Barack Obama is not interested in countering the prevailing perception of America and will likely use the meeting to address narrow, bilateral issues, such as weapons sales, rather than to address the real problem: America's lack of credibility in the world.

As President, I will restore respect for America in the world. Just as the Obama administration's intentional degrading of our alliance with Israel signaled to friends around the world that the United States was not a reliable ally, reviving our alliance with Israel is central to reassuring our friends that the America they relied on for the last seventy years has returned. I will make restoring the U.S.-Israel relationship a top priority.

My administration's foreign policy will be conducted with the understanding that defending Israel, like defending other democratic allies, is a form of American self-defense — an idea with which the Obama administration obviously disagrees. When the administration falsely suggested, for example, that Israel was using excessive force in response to a wave of terror attacks, it undermined the legitimacy of America's fight against terror. After all, our forces follow almost identical rules of engagement and are routinely subjected to the same false claims of targeting civilians and wielding disproportionate force.

Instead of criticizing Israel's fight against terror, my administration will support it — morally and diplomatically. I will not force Israel to make compromises for peace when there is no viable partner on the other side of the table. The consequences are too great for the United States to force Israeli leaders to make deals with Palestinian officials who are only interested in inciting violence instead of actually achieving progress for their people.

To Israel's north, Iran has armed the terrorist group Hezbollah with over 100,000 rockets and missiles capable of striking targets throughout Israel. We will partner with Israel in cracking down on arms smuggling to Hezbollah and intensify our joint R&D on the next generation of missile defense, drawing on the successes to date of Arrow, Iron Dome, and David's Sling systems — technology that can be used to defend the United States and other allies as well.

However, I will not follow the Obama precedent and pretend that enhancing Israel's military hardware is the sole sign of true commitment to its security. Maintaining Israel's Qualitative Military Edge is indeed vitally important, but Jerusalem doesn't need better planes so much as it needs better American strategy. I will therefore never suggest, as some Democrats are suggesting today, that the nuclear deal can somehow be reconciled with a policy that truly meets the full challenge that Iran represents. The nuclear agreement strengthens Tehran economically, diplomatically, and militarily. It is ludicrous to argue that we can strengthen Iran with our right hand and yet contain it with our left.

Terminating the Iran deal, therefore, will be a top priority of my administration. The United States and its allies will not be safe until Iran dismantles its nuclear program and allows intrusive inspections — the "anytime, anywhere" inspections the Obama administration repeatedly promised before caving to Tehran. And, finally, Iran must cease threatening its neighbors and promoting terrorism. Unlike the current administration, my administration will not treat Iran as a legitimate state while it acts like a terror state.

The task of dismantling the Iranian nuclear program will not be easy, but doing so is a prerequisite for bringing stability to the Middle East. President Obama's failure to back Israel has undermined American credibility, American defense, and American interests. As the Israeli prime minister arrives in Washington, let us all pause and remember a time, not long ago, when American presidents needed no tutorials to understand that the United States can only achieve the peace and security we seek by standing with our friends and standing up to our enemies.