Republican hopefuls criticize Obama on Israel

Republican presidential hopefuls took turns lambasting President Barack Obama's policy toward Israel on Wednesday, accusing him of being timid in the face of Iran's attempt to develop nuclear weapons and allowing a dangerous distance to develop between the U.S. and its longtime ally in the Middle East.

Six of the seven top Republican candidate - including pack leaders Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House of Representatives, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney - went before the Republican Jewish Coalition in Washington to compete with one another and the president to court Jewish voters and pro-Israel conservatives.

In recent years te Republicans have been trying to win Jewish voters by casting themselves as stronger defenders of Israel than the Democrats. Jews have tended to support Democratic candidates in overwhelming numbers - including as an essential voting bloc in the key presidential election state of Florida.

The event is also a are opportunity for the candidates to discuss U.S. foreign policy, an issue that has largely been ignored so far in the Republican campaign, which has been dominated by the US economy. While Obama's approval ratings on foreign affairs are comparatively high, Republicans think he could be vulnerable on Israel.

Gingrich and Rep. Michele Bachmann promised to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Texas Gov. Rick Perry pledged he would increase military aid to Israel.

Romney said that the president, by his actions, has "emboldened Palestinian hard-liners who now are poised to form a unity government with terrorist Hamas and feel they can bypass Israel at the bargaining table."

"President Obama has immeasurably set back the prospect of peace in the Middle East," Romney contended.

Recent remarks about anti-Semitism by Howard Gutman, the U.S. ambassador to Belgium, also figured in the assault on the administration that became a rotating audition before Jewish Republican activists.

In a speech earlier this month, Gutman identified two types of anti-Semitism, a traditional kind that he said must be combatted, and a newer strain in Europe that results from "tension, hatred and sometimes even violence between some members of Muslim communities or Arab immigrant groups and Jews ... largely born of and reflecting the tension between Israel, the Palestinian territories and neighboring Arab states in the Middle East over the continuing Israeli-Palestinian problem.

"It, too, is a serious problem. It, too, must be discussed and solutions explored," he added.

Jon Huntsman, Obama's first ambassador to China, suggested that Gutman's comments about anti-Semitism reflect "ambiguity that the administration has toward Israel."

Only Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who is making a strong showing in polls in the key first caucus state of Iowa, is not scheduled to attend the Wednesday event. He also is the only one of the party hopefuls to say that the United States should never take military action or support an attack by Israel to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon. Tehran has called for the destruction of the Jewish state, although it denies U.S. and allied charges it is trying to assemble a nuclear arsenal.

The White House and its allies were quick to counter the allegations lodged by the contenders for the Republican nomination.

In a statement aimed at Romney, Democratic Rep. Nita Lowey of New York, said it was "highly irresponsible for a presidential candidate to spread reckless accusations about our foreign policy that could lead anyone to question the United States' commitment to Israel's security." Lowey is a senior Democrat on the House panel with jurisdiction over foreign aid.

Mindful of the political stakes, the White House also arranged briefings and a Hanukkah party at the White House for Jewish leaders on Thursday. Obama is expected to speak next week to a conference of the Union for Reform Judaism.

The maneuvering nearly a full year in advance of the presidential election reflects not only the importance of Jewish voters in the political base of any Democratic president, but also the traditionally outsized importance of their financial contributions for any presidential hopeful of any party.

Jews accounted for a mere 2 percent of the electorate in 2008, and Election Day polling showed Obama drew the support of 78 percent of them. More recently polling by the Gallup organization has placed his approval among Jews at 51 percent.

Even given those polling statistics, the eventual Republican presidential contender is highly unlikely to capture a majority of the Jewish vote in 2012. The often unspoken, more modest goal of the party is to hold down the level of the president's support in hopes it can make the difference in one or more of the states likely to be most competitive.

Against that backdrop, there was little reason to hold back, and the Republicans who took a turn on Wednesday's stage didn't.

"In his inaugural address to the United Nations, the president chastised Israel but said little about the thousands of Hamas rockets raining into its skies," said Romney, who is running roughly even with Gingrich at the head of the Republican pack in recent polls.

In fact, Obama did in that address present the image of "the Israeli girl in Sderot who closes her eyes in fear that a rocket will take her life in the middle of the night."

After insisting that "Israel respect the legitimate claims and rights of the Palestinians" he criticized other countries' refusal to "recognize Israel's legitimacy and its right to exist in peace and security." He made no reference to aggression by Israeli forces.

Romney also said that Obama had "publicly proposed that Israel adopt indefensible borders ... insulted its prime minister, Bibi Netanyahu, and he's been timid and weak in the face of the existential threat of a nuclear Iran," Romney said, using Benjamin Netanyahu's nickname. He repeated a pledge to make his first foreign trip as president to Israel.

The U.S., the international community and even past Israeli governments have endorsed a settlement based on the 1967 lines, but a statement by Obama this year was more explicit than in the past.

"I will reaffirm as a vital national interest Israel's existence as a Jewish state," Romney went on to say. "I want the world to know that the bonds between Israel and the United States are unshakable. I want every country in the region that harbors aggressive designs against Israel to understand that their ambition is futile and that pursuing it will cost them dearly."