In an address delivered two weeks ago before the Iranian-American Community of Arizona, Rudy Giuliani attacked President Obama's "feckless" foreign policy, at times "screaming with rage" while doing so.
And in the course of his attack upon Obama's diplomatic efforts with Iran, Giuliani accused the President of not protecting America, contrasting him with Israel's Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu.
Witness:
"We are upset that Prime Minister Netanyahu wants to come here and defend his country? When someone who is a few hundred miles away wants nuclear weapons and has threatened to destroy his country of six or seven million people? It’s smaller than New York City. Believe me, when I was Mayor of New York, if someone threatened to destroy New York City I would go anywhere, any place, any time, and I wouldn’t give a damn what the President of the United States thought, to defend my country. That is a patriot. That’s a man who loves his people. That’s a man who protects his people. That’s a man who fights for his people. Unlike our president."
This is a disgusting display. Netanyahu, the leader of a foreign ally who will soon attempt to subvert U.S. foreign policy by slamming our President before Congress, is not coming here as a patriot. He is a man who,
behind our President's back, orchestrated his March 3 speech with John Boehner for his own political gain. With Israel's elections set for March 17, Netanyahu hopes the standing ovations he receives will bolster his leadership credentials before the Israeli public.
However, what Netanyahu is actually doing, hawking his already-known militarism before Congress, is damaging Israel's relationship with the United States and further weakening its standing.
As for Giuliani, a politician willing to call such a man a "patriot" while portraying, in contrast, our sitting President as a feckless leader who doesn't protect America?
That's subversion. Not patriotism.
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David Harris-Gershon is author of the memoir What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife?, recently published by Oneworld Publications.