Palin Wants Embassy in Jerusalem; Biden: No Comment

Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

(IsraelNN.com) Republican vice presidential candidate Governor Sarah Palin, in a televised debate Thursday night with Democratic nominee Senator Joe Biden, called for moving the American embassy to Jerusalem, echoing Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain's policy. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama has backtracked on a statement that Jerusalem is the "undivided" capital of Jerusalem, and Sen. Biden did not comment on the status of the capital or moving the embassy.
Sen. Biden did not comment on the status of the capital or moving the embassy.



Gov. Palin opened up the foreign policy part of the debate with support for the two-state solution and a statement that "Israel is our strongest ally." She added, "We have got to assure them that we will never allow a second Holocaust, despite, again, warnings from Iran and any other country that would seek to destroy Israel…. We will support Israel [and] a two-state solution, building our embassy, also, in Jerusalem--those things that we look forward to being able to accomplish, with this peace-seeking nation, and they have a track record of being able to forge these peace agreements."



Sen. Biden countered that "no one in the United States Senate has been a better friend to Israel" than himself. He focused his comments with criticism of the Bush administration, which he blamed for backing elections in the Palestinian Authority that resulted with a Hamas legislative majority. He similarly slammed the current government for allowing Hizbullah to become a part of the Lebanese government.



"We will change this policy with thoughtful, real, live diplomacy that understands that you must back Israel in letting them negotiate, support their negotiation, and stand with them, not insist on policies like this administration has," he stated.



Concerning Iran, Gov. Palin said that the United States could use its nuclear arsenal as a deterrent. "That's a safe, stable way to use nuclear weaponry," she explained, while backing strong economic sanctions against North Korea and Iran to discourage them for acquiring nuclear weapons.



Biden did not comment except to comment that Sen. Obama once told a Republican senator, "We've got to do something about keeping nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists."