Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul (R), that called recently for the US to cut annual foreign aid to the middle east including Israel, criticized today President Obama for the "fool's errand" of using Israel’s pre-1967 border lines as a starting point for Middle East peace negotiations.
“Peace from weakness or peace from outside coercion of Israel is a fool’s errand. Unfortunately, the President today proved himself willing to play that fool," Paul said in a statement.
“For President Obama to stand up today and insist that Israel should once again give up land, security and sovereignty for the possibility of peace shows an arrogance that is unmatched even in our rich history of foreign policy".
U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor says President Barack Obama's support of a return to Israel's 1967 borders to make way for an adjacent Palestinian state is "unworkable."
Appearing on CNN today, Cantor discussed the president's speech and policy:
"I strongly disagree with the President on the notion that somehow the '67 lines should be a starting point for any discussion having to do with the Arab-Israeli conflict. I think that the prior Administration had said all along that the '67 lines really don't reflect realities on the ground, and that's one of the reasons why I disagree with it. I also think that the fundamental problem in the Arab-Israeli conflict is that you have parties around Israel that frankly refuse to recognize its right to exist as a Jewish state. And until that recognition is there, it's very difficult to see how Israel can accomplish any lasting peace.""Israel is on the front lines of the same ideological struggle that we're on against radical Islam. That should be our focus in our foreign policy mission in the Middle East. We have a regime in Iran that continues to say it wants to annihilate our only democratic ally in the region, Israel. We have the same regime in Iran, who continues to point to us, seeking to do whatever it can to stop America and everything we stand for."
"I think the President needs to join the bipartisan majority in Congress and say that the United States’ security in the region goes hand in hand with Israel's, and that our country is going to stand with our democratic ally and provide the resources necessary for Israel to secure itself, while the parties around Israel try and work out how they're going to come to the table and recognize Israel's right to exist."