Foreign Policy Experts/Grassroots Leaders Join Gary Bauer in Defense of Israel

News provided by

Mar 19, 2010, 12:57 ET

WASHINGTON, March 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Former presidential candidate Gary Bauer's campaign in defense of Israel, the United States' only reliable democratic ally in the Middle East, garnered the support of major foreign policy experts this week as well as thousands of signatures from across the country, Bauer said on Friday.

"More than 63 percent of the American people support Israel and recognize the special friendship we have with that nation," said Bauer, president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families. "The image of Obama bowing to foreign kings while lecturing Israel about whether that nation can build homes in its own capital is jarring. Across the country, Americans are organizing to protest Obama's anti-Israel foreign policy."

Bauer and leading foreign policy commentators sent a letter to President Obama this week insisting that he stop bludgeoning our ally and creating a false "crisis" between our two nations. Signers included: Clifford May, President, Foundation for Defense of Democracies; former Senator Rick Santorum; Tom Rose, former editor of the Jerusalem Post; Daniel Pipes, Middle East Forum; Dr. Michael Ledeen, Freedom Scholar at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies; Ralph Peters, Retired United States Army Lieutenant Colonel and columnist; Jamie Fly, Foreign Policy Initiative; Norman Podhoretz, former advisor to the U.S. Information Agency; Midge Decter, well known neoconservative author and journalist; Jeff Bell, Director of Policy, American Principles Project; and many others.

Foreign policy experts and leaders - as well as thousands of other Americans - are adding their names to the widely distributed letter.

"As a nuclear Iran becomes an imminent threat, as terrorist networks continue to threaten U.S. lives and soldiers at home and abroad and, as Muslim states allow terrorists safe refuge, it is outrageous that President Obama reserves his harshest language for a long-time ally and democratic friend," said Bauer. "We will continue to rally opposition to counter the Obama Administration's bashing of Israel and to urge the administration to come up with a serious plan to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran."

To view the letter or sign the petition, go to: http://www.ouramericanvalues.org/Israelletter.php.

For interviews or more information, call the American Values media office.

SOURCE American Values