At Park East Synagogue's Rosh Hashannah High Holiday service, September 17, 2012, Former Mayor Ed Koch during his annual "sermon" from the pulpit, in front of over a thousand worshippers, said "I'm distressed."
"President Obama is refusing to publicly make clear to Iran that 'If you get the bomb, we will take you out.'"
Mayor Koch previously had publicly boasted of his close ties to President Obama. Mayor Koch also said "Nobody understands what 'We have your back'" means. We shouldn't have Israel's 'back' we should have Israel's 'front'.
"As the brave Senator Inouye from Hawaii said last year, the President should say 'An attack upon Israel will be deemed an attack against the United States.':
Former Mayor Koch went on to say "President Obama is showing weakness to the Muslim world."
Koch said the entire country should call and send letters to President Obama and their senators and congressmen expressing their outrage at the weak United States stance taken in the face of the murder and violence against our embassies, and demand that the US take a clear firm stance.
Koch added, "Any other self-respecting western country where their embassy was attacked, their ambassador and his security detail murdered, and the local police ran away would withdraw their embassy immediately in protest."
Koch concluded by demanding that the US should stop all US foreign aid and tourism to countries like Egypt where they have allowed US embassies to be attacked.
What made Mayor Koch's current stance on Obama a dramatic shock is that Koch was, until recently, a staunch supporter of President Obama. Throughout Koch's short and to the point speech, the stunned worshippers broke into repeated, thunderous, and prolonged applause. altogether about eight times.
Mayor Koch opened his talk by saying he had just gotten out of the hospital where they took 55 pounds of water out of his body, and he "weighed the same weight as when he came out of the army in World War II - 67 years ago." A listener commented to Arutz Sheva that from the clarity of his speech, Koch sounded as if his mental faculties are also the same as when he got out of the army 67 years ago.