SDEROT - US Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Wednesday showed vigorous support for Israel, where he made a highly symbolic visit to a town hit by near-daily rocket fire from Gaza. “No nation in the world can be attacked incessantly and have its population killed and intimidated without responding,” McCain said in the southern town of Sderot, where he visited a house hit by a rocket fired by Islamists in the Gaza Strip, just a few kilometres (miles) away.
“Seeing it first-hand, the situation here is one that is very compelling,” McCain told reporters in Sderot after touring the town with Defence Minister Ehud Barak. “Nine hundred rocket attacks in the last three months; this puts an enormous strain on everyone here, especially the children.”
Especially when you can't or won't fight back. | Earlier in the day, the senator and his colleagues Joe Lieberman (Democrat) and Lindsey Graham (Republican) were taken on a helicopter tour by Barak, who briefed them on security issues.
McCain warned in an interview with the Jerusalem Post that Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah militia threatened not only the Jewish state but also US and Western interests. “If Hamas-Hezbollah succeed here, they are going to succeed everywhere.
“They are dedicated to the extinction of everything that the US, Israel and the West believe and stand for,” the Republican candidate added.
I'm hoping that a President McCain doesn't get turned by the State Department. | He also called Iran “a threat for the region”, expressing certainty Tehran was “pursuing nuclear weapons”.
Boy howdy, you let McCain be himself and you end up with a pretty decent statesman. And I like this quote as reported here: | On the topic of Hamas, McCain said, "Someone is going to have to answer me the question of how you are going to negotiate with an organization that is dedicated to your extinction."
I dunno John, that's a pretty simple idea in a complex world. And this quote: | "No nation in the world can be attacked incessantly ... without responding," he said. "The fact is that I come from a border state, and if people were rocketing my state, I think that the citizens from my state would advocate a very vigorous response," he added. |