Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX)
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX)Reuters

Leading Republican Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) came out swinging at Sunday's Israel Day Concert, voicing his support for the "unbreakable alliance" between the US and Israel, and blasting the Obama administration for its handling of Iran's nuclear program.

Speaking to the roughly 10,000 supporters of Israel gathered at Manhattan's Central Park, Cruz - a conservative favorite for the Republican party's presidential candidate - struck an optimistic note, but warned that Obama was repeating the errors of the Clinton administration, which failed to prevent North Korea from gaining nuclear weapons.

Cruz noted Congress's unanimous support for his bill to bar Iran from appointing a suspected terrorist as its UN ambassador, as well as Israel's thriving economy, as cause for celebration. But he warned a nuclear Iran was a serious threat to both Israel and the US, and vowed to support Israel if the Jewish state felt it necessary to carry out a military strike to thwart Tehran's plans.

Speaking to Arutz Sheva after his address, he repeated those messages, saying that "the friendship between Israel and America is and should be unbreakable," and branding "the prospect of Iran gaining nuclear weapons capability" as "the gravest threat to both" countries.

The Senator repeated his position that, far from easing sanctions, the US government should be tightening them "until Iran dismantles every single centrifuge and hands over its enriched uranium."

Cruz also branded the Palestinian Authority unity pact between Fatah and Hamas as "highly highly disturbing" and "a serious impediment to any lasting peace."

Peace would only be reached when there were "two parties who will negotiate in good faith", he asserted, but added that Mahmoud Abbas's decision to embrace Hamas - which calls for the destruction of Israel and a genocide against Jews - clearly meant that was not the case.