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Jeb: Bad Feelings Cannot Jeopardize U.S.-Israel Alliance

Something as personal as bad feelings between President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may have broken the special U.S.-Israel relationship, Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush charged on Tuesday.

During a town hall meeting in Columbia, South Carolina, Bush described it as laughable that the Obama administration “has broken this relationship because of bad feelings? I mean, come on, man! The president of the United States doesn’t like the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister — you know, they have a personal problem.”

“We better overcome that problem,” Bush continued. “If you are dealing with the United States, if you are the president of the United States, your feelings can’t get hurt. I laugh at it because presidents have always had bad relationships with their counterparts in countries where we have strong alliances. You don’t jeopardize that alliance because you’ve got a bad relationship.”

Bush maintained that a strong relationship with Israel creates stability in the Middle East. “The world looks at our relationship with Israel and wonders, ‘How can we get a good deal’ if Israel can’t,” he stressed.

The Republican presidential hopeful reiterated his commitment to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on the first day of his presidency “to send a powerful signal that our strongest ally in the region is — there’s no light between — shoulder to shoulder with the United States again. Israel is a stalwart [ally] in our national security.”

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