Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin came out strongly in favor of continued U.S. foreign aid to Israel in a Sunday interview with Judge Jeanine Pirro on Foxnews.
"You know I'm sure that there's some waste and fraud in our foreign aid we need to find efficiencies and not give to any regime that would seek to harm Americans in any sense of the word 'harm,'" Palin said, "I don't support that kind of foreign aid at all. but when it comes to Israel - NO... I stand strong with Israel and unapologetically I say that America should keep this strong democratic ally that we have there in the Middle East and allow for protections around Israel."
"Think of what this state Israel has gone through, and what they have suffered through and what they have triumphed over," she said. "It is really telling about their tenacity and their character and it's just one reason, that character, as to why it is that we want them as our friend."
In a confident, articulate appearance and what some see as one of her best interviews to date, Palin was also asked why the Obama Administration was so hesitant to call the shooting of the US airmen in Germany an act of terror. Carefully, she said: "Our president's world view certainly seems a bit different than, I believe, most Americans because... I think if you ask most Americans on the street if someone was hell bent on killing one of our military personnel yelling Allah Akbar and had terrorist ties and you can't see that clearly as a terrorist, then we've got some things quite askew in our Administration."
Regarding the situation in Libya, where dictator Muammar Qaddafi is fighting to retain control, Palin came out in favor of a US-imposed no-fly zone there.
"Yes, 41 years of Qaddafi, he's got to go," she stated. "I think what was unfortunate there in Libya was that it took our Administration so long to finally have any full-throated support for ousting Qaddafi. We finally saw the writing on the wall. But what we should have done, instead of being hesitant that perhaps he would harm the American citizens who are over there, we should have told him through strong verb[i]age, we should have said "Qaddafi, if you touch a hair on one American citizen's head, we're going to hit you, we're going to hit you hard and you're not going to be left standing. Instead we were kind of hesitant, kind of dithering, vacillating on our position it seemed and that leads to a kind of perception of weakness around the globe. I wish that we would have been stronger there with our language about Libya and now actions have to follow the language that President Obama finally did articulate."
Judge Pirro asked Palin why she thought Obama was so slow about taking sides against Qaddafi when he was relatively quick about choosing sides against Egypt's Hosni Mubarak. Palin replied with a question:
"Why was he so hesitant back with the Green movement in Iran, when freedom fighters wanted to oust Ahmadinejad and our president didn't really want to participate there, with the language at least that should have showed the support for ousting a dictator, ousting an oppressor?"
"It's tough to pinpoint why it is that President Obama (...) would seek to oust at least a quasi-ally in Mubarak who had been by our side for those 30 years... quick to oust him but quite hesitant on Qaddafi, on Ahmadinejad... that scares me."