Sen. Marco Rubio tried to separate himself from his 2016 rivals and the perceived foreign policy failures of the Obama administration in a pro-Israel speech Thursday.
Addressing the Republican Jewish Coalition, Rubio accused President Barack Obama of pursuing a policy of “abandonment” with regard to Israel and the Middle East.
“President Obama — and, I’m afraid, Hillary Clinton — have a different policy,” Rubio said, comparing the Democrats to the past Middle East consensus. “They call it ‘engagement,’ but what it should really be called is ‘abandonment.’ Instead of standing up to those who single out Israel, the Obama administration takes the path of least resistance. It throws up its hands and says, in essence, ‘not our problem.'”
Rubio went on to tear into Obama’s lack of response to comments from Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas before the United Nations after he suggested that the Jewish state is an “occupation” of their land.
“This is not unusual rhetoric from a Palestinian leader — but what matters is that it should have provoked a harsh condemnation from the United States,” Rubio railed. “But our current president said no. By his silence, our government emboldened those who seek Israel’s destruction and made ourselves a bystander to a poisonous lie.”
The Florida senator, who trailed only Donald Trump in the most recent Quinnipiac poll, also condemned the pro-Palestinian “BDS” movement (boycott, divest, sanction), which aims to push Israel out of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, among other things.
“This coalition of the radical left thinks it has discovered a clever, politically correct way to advocate Israel’s destruction,” Rubio told the crowd, adding that the movement “couches hatred in the language of human rights and social justice” and “reeks of hypocrisy.”
During his Q&A after his address, Rubio made his final pitch to the RJC crowd, arguing that no one has the “foresight” that he does among the GOP contenders and that “time and again” he has predicted recent occurrences in the Middle East.
“We need a president with the foresight to understand this. A president that doesn’t just understand what’s in front of him, but understands what it’s going to turn into in two to three to five years if you don’t do something about it,” Rubio said. “I repeatedly warned about the premature withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. I repeatedly warned what would happen in the aftermath of a withdrawal in Iraq, and I repeatedly warned about what would happen in Syria.”
“Time and again, I warn about these things before they happen and I think what it shows is insight and foresight into what can happen on those issues when America takes the lead,” Rubio argued.
The 2016 GOP hopeful currently sits behind only Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz in the Washington Examiner’s latest batch of power rankings.
