Awesome interview with Representative Allen West

There was an awesome interview with RepresentativeAllen West (R-Fl) in Friday's JPost.

You are meeting tomorrow with the Palestinian Authority leadership. What is your message to them?

There is one very simple question I would ask: Do you really believe you are a credible peace partner? Because I think with the reconciliation pact with Hamas, that is a very telling thing. The fact is that they are trying to back-door the process by going to the UN for a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state, when we don’t have a firm recognition of Israel, we don’t have the renouncing of terrorism. I would also ask, what is a Palestinian state? It is something that never existed before.

And even the word Palestine.

You take it back to Palestina – which comes from Philistia – which was nothing but a declaration by Roman Emperor Hadrian in 73 AD.

This is a region, it is not anything tied to a certain group of people; it would be just the same as saying we should have an Appalachian state, separate from North Carolina. It’s those questions I’d like to ask.

Do you support two states for two peoples?

I think that you have to first of all support the modern-day state of Israel. I think you have to support Israel post the ’67 borders. Now, I am not going to sit here and dictate to Israel what their polices should be, but my perspective on it is that I have never seen a Palestinian state, and I think before that ever gets talked about, there are some concessions that have to be made on their side: the recognition of Israel and the renouncing of terrorism.

And once again it comes back to those very important words: a credible peace partner.

I think the last thing you need to have is an erosion of your state of security. Look at what is going on right now. You gave back Gaza and the only thing you got in return were Kassam rockets and 220-millimeter [mortar shells]. You pulled out of southern Lebanon, and what did you get? You got a more militant Hezbollah, which during the Second Lebanon War rained down rockets and missiles.

So I think the other side needs to come to the table and show they are a credible partner before we continue to say to Israel, “This is what you must do, and that you must believe in a two-state solution.”

And I think the other thing we have to do is a better job on the information, propaganda side of this thing... I remember during the flotilla incident, I was sitting there looking at the TV with my wife, and I said, “They have paint guns on their backs.” She said, “How can you tell?” And I said, “I can tell the silhouette of a paint gun.” So you did everything necessary to try and have less of a confrontation, but yet you were attacked.

What I told people in America was to think about what if America was participating in a sanctioned blockade, and all of a sudden we boarded ships, and our Navy SEALs were attacked, what would you expect our Navy SEALs to do? We should allow Israel to do the exact same thing.

If you have rockets and missiles coming in out of Mexico over into the Texas territory, guess what we are going to do? We are going to defend our sovereignty. So why should we expect Israel to do anything less?

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There are those who argue, however, that no matter how good the messenger, the message won’t be received because there is a double standard toward Israel and the Jews. 
Yes, there is a horrific double standard. We, as your best ally, need to help you on that.

Because a lot of our media sources follow that duplicitous hypocrisy as well. We need to do better in our country.

Look, there is no better bond than the bond between American and Israel. I grew up in Georgia. I grew up knowing probably more about this country through Sunday school, Bible study and everything before I was a high school graduate, than maybe a lot of people who live here in this region. So that when I came here in 2009, it was just the same as me coming home.

A part of me is here.

This is my wife’s first time here, and a part of her is here because of the Judeo-Christian faith heritage that we share, the values that we share, the democracy that we share, the sense of liberty and freedom.

We need to understand that we are in this fight together and what is being done to Israel is also being done to America, so as Israel falls, then guess who is the next target – America. Because America and Israel are truly the beacons and shining light in this world.

I call it a sea of darkness of despots, dictators, theocrats and autocrats. If we let the light go out here, there is no doubt that the next target is the next shining light. So I think we have to do a better job with Israel in helping getting that message across.

You mention the strong Israeli-US bonds. Has President Barack Obama hurt those – have they been weakened over the last three years?

I won’t say that it has been weakened; it has definitely been shaken. I think that when you make the declarations that he has made in some instances, that is very hurtful.

I would have thought that going into his third year [as president], he would have come to visit Israel and show that support, show that bond, show that closeness and stand here. It was a great event when Prime Minister [Binyamin] Netanyahu came and spoke at the joint session of Congress [in May], and I would expect the American president to come here and address the Knesset just as well – to show that inextricable bond, to show that we are two countries which have roots that are just so intertwined.

Do you think President Obama has hurt Israel?

I think that President Obama has left a question mark with a lot of the Israelis. They are really not sure which direction things are going. You may see this, but then you get that. So there is a lot of uncertainty, and really when you talk to people in the US, that is the big theme, uncertainty – be it in our financial markets, our unemployment situation, debt deficit, foreign policy, whatever, there is just a lot of uncertainty.

Read the whole thing. He's awesome.