News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) Former American Ambassador to Israel Dan Kurtzer, who is backing Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama, told the Philadelphia Jewish community, "We have had eight years of disaster with respect to our foreign policy, and I have to share with you as an analyst, we have had eight years that have compromised the security of the State of Israel." He added, "We have now had years of presidents who have talked the talk of support for Israel, but have left in the wake of their administrations an Israel which is less secure."

He called the recent Annapolis, Maryland Middle East conference a "sham" and stated that American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, for all her efforts at advancing Arab-Israeli peace negotiations, has brought no ideas with her.
 
Kurtzer also debunked charges that Israel pushed the United States into war with Iraq. "I can tell you it is nonsense, because there was not one Israeli official and not one Israeli academic who suggested that this war was going to end well," Kurtzer revealed. "They all warned against exactly the problems we have experienced since this war started, because Israel experienced many of those same problems."