Ted Cruz: History will record Obama, Kerry as ‘relentless enemies’ of Israel
Texas senator and ex-presidential candidate issues sharp rebuke of president in wake of UN resolution, slams top diplomat for Wednesday’s speech
Former presidential candidate and Texas Senator Ted Cruz excoriated on Wednesday US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry, calling them “relentless enemies” of Israel, for the US abstention at the UN Security Council Friday where an anti-settlements resolution was passed, followed up by a speech by Kerry on Wednesday laying out a vision for solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In a scathing rebuke of the outgoing president and the secretary of state, Cruz said the two are spending the last weeks of the administration’s term “wreaking havoc domestically and abroad,” by pursuing “actions… designed to weaken and marginalize Israel, and to embolden its enemies.”
“These acts are shameful. They are designed to secure a legacy, and indeed they have: history will record and the world will fully understand Obama and Kerry as relentless enemies of Israel,” Cruz wrote Wednesday on social media.
“It is a sign of their radicalism and refusal to defend American interests, that Obama and Kerry choose to attack the only inclusive democracy in the Middle East — a strong, steadfast ally of America — while turning a blind eye to the Islamic terrorism that grows daily,” he said.
Kerry’s speech on Wednesday, in which he described the settlements as a centrol obstacle to achieving an agreemnt and warned that the two-state solution was “in serious jeopardy,” was slammed as “disgraceful” by Cruz, who also argued that the remarks will “enflame rising anti-Semitism in Europe,” “encourage the [Iranians] mullahs who hate Israel and hate America” and facilitate the “growing legal assaults on Israel through transnational legal fora.”
In the wake of the UN resolution, Cruz launched a petition to halt US funding to the United Nations until the decision is reversed, saying that he hopes the incoming Trump administration together with Congress will back the effort to eliminate the the funding.
Cruz said he looked “forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle as well as the incoming administration to chart a new path forward based on America’s national security interests and clear-eyed reality, not on the Obama administration’s globalist agenda and wishful thinking.”
Cruz’s criticism was preceded by other rebukes by Republican leaders, including Speaker Paul Ryan who said Kerry had “no credibility to speak on Israeli-Palestinian peace.”
