Israel was not an issue in the Franken-Coleman campaign, but both candidates appeared at a pro-Israel rally at a Minneapolis Jewish community center in January during the Gaza operation. Franken said then that the U.S. relationship with Israel is a “pillar of our foreign policy” and that he would continue to uphold that commitment “as a United States senator.”
“Let us stand together to send a clear message to the Israeli people,” he said. “In this complex and dangerous world, you do not stand alone.”
In a February 2008 interview with the American Jewish World newspaper, Franken talked of his hopes that the U.S. would get more involved in peace efforts in the region, which President Obama has already done in his first six months in office.
"We’re sort of the indispensable power in the Middle East, and in the world, and we have to play a much more active role than we’ve been playing," said Franken. "We kind of know what a two-state solution would look like, we just got to get there."
"We need patient diplomacy and that requires two things: patience and diplomacy. The bottom line is, Israel deserves to exist with neighbors that recognize its right to exist and who have renounced terrorism as a way of achieving political objectives. With Hamas in Gaza, that’s very, very hard right now.”
Back then, Franken also encouraged continued talks with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, as well as talks with the leaders of Syria and Iran.
“As Yitzhak Rabin said, ‘You don’t make peace with your friends, you make peace with your enemies,’ ” Franken said. “And I liked Yitzhak Rabin a lot.”Full Story
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