V. Bennett's Israeli Statements Belie Misunderstandings and Weakness

Question: With support from Iran and Syria, Hezbollah has nearly tripled the rocket inventory it had before the 2006 war, directly violating numerous elements of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended that war and called for Hezbollah to be disarmed. Do you view this as a threat to American interests in the region and what role should our country take in attempting to resolve the multi-dimensional issues of Israel, the Palestinians, Hezbollah and Hamas?

Congressman Charlie Dent: "Well, first, there should be no negotiation with Hamas until Hamas renounces terrorism and recognizes Israel's right to exist.

"With respect to Iran, Iran is a rogue nation led by an awful man, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a very bad man. I am committed to a missile defense program for Israel's benefit as well as ours. It's in our interest to protect Israel from that missile threat and Iran does represent an existential threat to Israel. I met with Prime Minister Olmert. I met with who I think will soon be the Prime Minister, Tzipi Livni, as well as many others. We have a very clear understanding and we have an unshakable alliance with respect to this Iranian threat.

"It is unfortunate that in the United States of America, some leading newspapers think it is in the national interest to splash some of our best methods in dealing with how to impose tough sanctions on Iranian banks on the front pages of their newspapers or some of our best methods to electronically intercept some of the communications of our enemies operating overseas with al-Qaeda. They splash it on the front pages of their newspaper.

"We work closely with Israeli intelligence. They're our partners. They don't deal with some of the same problems that we deal with here, in terms of having to protect their country. They understand the threat. I think most Americans do, too. But we have to be better.

"One thing on Hamas and Hezbollah. I'll tell you I've met with Mr. Goldwasser, who lost his son, who was abducted during the Israel-Lebanon war. I'll tell you, you really understand what the Israeli people are facing. You can stand in Tel Aviv and see the West Bank as well as the Mediterranean Sea. It's a small country, and those rockets raining in from the Gaza and from Lebanon are a real threat to Israel. I think we have to do our best to work with our partner, Israel, in mitigating that very real threat and understanding where the problem originates. it originates in Iran and Syria.

"We must stand by Israel."

Sam Bennett: "A strong U.S.-Israel relationship is not only important to Israel and the United States; it's important to the world. U.S. and Israel have a strong, historic relationship based on common values - that of respecting individual rights and both having strong democracies.

"We have to respect that Israel is not only our strongest ally in the Middle East, it is our strongest ally in the world.

"What is the biggest threat we face today for our way of life? Quite simply put, it's terrorism. Let me be perfectly clear. A threat to any democracy is a threat to all democracies.

"In Iran, we have a President who has sworn to destroy America and has sworn to destroy Israel. He is building up nuclear armaments as we speak and he is funding Hamas and he is funding Hezbollah. This must end.

"First, we need to engage in fierce diplomacy. They must behave.

"Finally, we need to isolate and contain, particularly Iran. We need to make sure that countries no longer export to Iran. We need to discourage banks that invest in Iran. Iran is the problem. We have to be willing to invest in humanitarian aid and empower those peoples in all of these countries that truly desire peace.

"Finally, we as a country must be prepared to stand up and be counted and take military action if needed. If we find out, through actionable intelligence, that Iran has had any action against Israel, our country or any ally, we absolutely must respond. Period."

Blogger's Note: Although there is abundant evidence that Iran is currently engaged in nuclear activity, no one has yet established that it is actually "building up nuclear armaments as we speak." Once that is clear, I suspect Iran's nuclear program will be ended very quickly by Israel. Bennett's dangerously false claim about Iran's nuclear capability, coupled with her suggestion that we engage in "fierce diplomacy" and that Hamas "must behave", betrays a serious weakness in foreign policy. That's something that we we can't permit.