Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani met Tuesday with ten Israeli soldiers wounded in last summer’s Operation Protective Edge.
Giuliani met with the soldiers at a midtown Manhattan kosher restaurant, on their last day of a ten-day trip to New York City, arranged by the Chabad-affiliated nonprofit group Belev Echad (With One Heart).
Echoing previous criticisms of the Iranian nuclear deal, Giuliani noted his hope that Congress stops President Barack Obama’s pact with the Islamic Republic, a country, he said, who was led by a man who “appears to be insane and wants to destroy the state of Israel.”
“I would not make a deal with Iran,” Giuliani asserted. “I don’t believe in making a deal with a government that’s run by a person who appears to be insane.”
“He has continually all throughout our negotiations said he wants to destroy Israel so what’s the point of making peace? What’s the point of making a deal on nuclear capacity with a country that’s run by a man who wants to destroy the state of Israel?”
“There’s something about that I don’t get and it’s deeply disturbing and I hope the United States Congress who I know have tremendous doubts about what the President is doing … is able to stop it,” Giuliani added.
The former mayor also stressed to the soldiers that the United States and Israel are fighting a common enemy in Hamas and other Islamic terror groups, further criticizing Obama for refusing to use that term.
Noting American admiration for the Israelis’ service to their country, Giuliani praised one of America’s “greatest allies” for also helping to defend the US against terrorist threats.
“We’re both fighting, America and Israel, the same terrorists, the same ideas about Jihad and because of Israel I think the United States gets a lot of help and a lot of support. We learn a lot about security … Hamas is an enemy of the United States also,” Giuliani argued.
“Thank you very, very much for what you’re doing because by defending Israel you’re also defending America,” he said with gratitude.
At the end of the meeting, Giuliani took a photo with the soldiers which he then sent in a text to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
“With #belevechad wounded IDF soldiers. (Lubavitcher) Rebbe called them Metsuyanei Tzahal (special IDF soldiers),” he wrote, with a little help from Belev Echad Founder Rabbi Uriel Vigler.
