Former New York Gov. George Pataki applauded Mitt Romney’s performance in Monday’s final presidential debate, praising him for his stance on Israel and denouncing President Barack Obama for failing to keep Israel as a favored ally over the course of his four years in office.
Pataki, in an exclusive Newsmax TV interview conducted at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla., said Obama chose to discuss Israel at length during the debate mainly because his failed policies in the Middle East created a weakness in his relationship with Israel.
That division has serious implications for the U.S. because Israel has long been considered an ally of the United States and is the most stable democracy in the region. Obama has been wide criticized concerning both his actions and attitude towards the Jewish state and the lack of communication and friendship his administration has created with Israel.
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“Words one night don’t make up for a failed policy for four years,” Pataki said to Newsmax. The erstwhile New Yorker was a three-term governor presiding over the state with the largest Jewish population in the country.
Florida has the third-largest Jewish population, 638,000, and Jewish voters there are an important voting block. New York has the largest population of Jews, over 1.6 million.
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“President Obama basically indicted himself with words as opposed to his actions,” said Pataki. “He talked about his close relationship with Israel. We have never seen greater distance in the last 50 years between the US and Israel.”
Pataki added that Israel’s supporters, him included, recognize that Romney supports a strong alliance with Israel, while Obama actually had policies in place to create distance between the two countries, and that undermined security not only here and in Israel, but throughout the world.
As far as comportment under fire during the whole of the debate, Pataki gave his nod to Romney and seemed surprised that Obama came off defensively and decidedly unpresidential.
“Gov. Romney looked very presidential. President Obama actually looked like a candidate who was behind, attacking Gov. Romney,” Pataki said.