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Beto O'Rourke Talks to Haaretz About Annexation, Two-states, Netanyahu and Trump
NEW YORK — If elected president in 2020, Democratic candidate and former Congressman Beto O’Rourke would not allow Israel to be a partisan issue, he told Haaretz on Wednesday.
O’Rourke spoke to Haaretz at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, the LGBTQ synagogue in Midtown Manhattan, as he was touring the synagogue’s weeky legal clinic — where volunteers help asylum seekers prepare and file their applications to the U.S. government.
“Certainly the president is trying to [turn Israel into a partisan issue]; I don't think he’ll be successful in that,” he said. “Certainly Prime Minister Netanyahu has tried to do that [with] the lack of respect that he showed to President [Barack] Obama, the partisan politics in which he’s participated here in the United States.
“But we don't have to accept that, and I don't,” O’Rourke added.
O’Rourke has previously faced criticism for his handling of the Israel issue, especially after he voted against a 2014 resolution to fund Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system. On the whole, though, the 46-year-old Texan lawmaker is preaching a return to former U.S. positions.
Read more: https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-trump-should-not-be-allowed-to-turn-israel-into-a-partisan-issue-o-rourke-says-1.7801016