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Petraeus Sets the Record Straight on Israel

(American Spectator) Philip Klein - Gen. David Petraeus on Wednesday denied saying that U.S. support for Israel hinders America's national security interests. At a press briefing at St. Anselm College in Manchester, NH, Petraeus explained that the quote that bloggers attributed to his Senate testimony was actually plucked out of context from a report that Central Command had sent to the Armed Services Committee. "There's a 56-page document that we submitted that has a statement in it that describes various factors that influence the strategic context in which we operate and among those we listed the Mideast peace process," he said. "We noted in there that there was a perception at times that America sides with Israel and so forth. And I mean, that is a perception. It is there. I don't think that's disputable. But I think people inferred from what that said and then repeated it a couple of times and bloggers picked it up and spun it. And I think that has been unhelpful, frankly." He also noted that there were plenty of other important factors that were mentioned in the report, including "a whole bunch of extremist organizations, some of which by the way deny Israel's right to exist. There's a country that has a nuclear program who denies that the Holocaust took place....So we have all the factors in there, but this is just one, and it was pulled out of this 56-page document, which was not what I read to the Senate at all." Petraeus said he sent Gabi Ashkenazi, chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, a blog post written by Max Boot in Commentary, which he said "astutely" picked apart the erroneous information.
2010-03-25 09:34:19
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