Obama Says U.S. Connection With Israel Is ‘Unbreakable’
President Barack Obama told Democratic Party donors tonight that the bond between the U.S. and Israel is “unbreakable.”
“The United States and Israel will always be stalwart allies and friends,” the president told about 80 people at a dinner for Americans in Support of a Strong U.S.-Israel Relationship. “That bond is unbreakable and Israel’s security will always be at the top tier of considerations of how America manages its foreign policy.”
Obama said the protests sweeping the Middle East, which have toppled governments in Tunisia and Egypt and sparked military conflict in Libya, create opportunities for Israel to achieve its goal of living in peace with its neighbors.
“The consequences of what’s happening there are potentially as significant as what happened in Europe when the Berlin Wall came down,” Obama said.
Obama is raising at least $3 million tonight for his re- election campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
At a second fundraiser tonight, for donors from the mid- Atlantic region, Obama said the nation is going through “one of the toughest periods in American history,” which required difficult decisions by his administration.
Those decisions, Obama said, have led to a growing economy though there still is work to do.
“The reason that 2012 is important is that I did not run for president just to get us back to where we were,” he said. “What that means is what we’ve begun, we have to finish.”
Obama began fundraising for the 2012 elections in March and has already raised millions of dollars for Democratic candidates and party organizations across the country and in Puerto Rico.
Candidates, political parties and outside groups may spend as much as $3 billion during the 2012 presidential election, an increase from the more than $2 billion the Federal Election Commission said was spent during the 2008 election.
To contact the reporter on this story: Nicholas Johnston in Washington at njohnston3@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net
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