The best indication an American politician was seriously considering a run for president used to be either a trip to Israel or lending their name to an effort to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Most of the candidates have already taken their trips, and hypocrisy on the embassy is a bit old-fashioned (especially since all of the candidates who pledged to move it never did so). But if you’re a presidential candidate who wants to lay down a pro-Israel marker, putting your name on an op-ed in the Jerusalem Post as a supporter of the Jewish state will do just as well.
It is in this moderately cynical light that backers of Israel will read the piece published in the Post yesterday as well as the Wall Street Journal today) with Perry’s byline. Pro-Israel rhetoric is not wasted even in Republican primaries in which few Jews vote, as so many evangelical Christians also care about the issue. But though the text of the article is excellent, the main point is it is the beginning of Perry’s outreach to American Jews on the one issue on which he can appeal to them.
Perry’s column is exemplary. It rightly blames the current sorry state of Middle East diplomacy on President Obama’s foolish insistence on distancing the United States from Israel early on in his presidency while seeking engagement with Iran and Syria. Without expressing explicit support for Israel’s position on Jerusalem, Perry says Obama’s call for a settlement freeze in the West Bank as well as the capital was a mistake that only encouraged the Palestinians to think the U.S. was abandoning Israel. He goes on to note, so long as the “right of return” is on the table, the Palestinians are signaling their intention remains Israel’s destruction. He pointedly warns the PA its unwillingness to negotiate may endanger their flow of U.S. aid.
To be fair to Perry, this is not his first pro-Israel statement, having once led a trade mission to the Jewish state where he compared Masada to the Alamo. But the timing of the piece shows Perry’s staff is already thinking ahead to next year when they will try and exploit President Obama’s sinking popularity among Jewish voters. To do so, Perry will have to show them he is not the fire-breathing evangelical most American Jews fear more than Islamist terrorists. But establishing his pro-Israel bona fides is a start.
