Valatie, NY – In a debate hosted by WAMC and WNYT, Antonio Delgado proclaimed that Israel is not a Jewish Democracy. The stunning statement raises a red flag about Delgado’s position regarding our closest ally in the Middle East, especially due to his enthusiastic support of the dangerous Iran Deal, and his opposition to the recent decision to move the American Embassy to Jerusalem.
“Democrat Antonio Delgado, who is trying to unseat GOP Rep. John Faso in one of the nation’s closest contests for the House, said during a debate Monday that Israel “is not a Jewish democracy” because of its settlements in disputed territories.” (New York Post, 10/23/18)
- “As currently constructed, you know, Israel is not a Jewish democracy.Those settlements make it so that it can’t be.” (New York Post, 10/23/18)
Even after given a chance to clean up his remarks in the moment “Delgado stood by his statement during a brief rebuttal”
- “I said it is not a Jewish democracy. Meaning that given the fact that we have settlements currently in the region, it is not deemed a nation of Jewish democracy until we deal with the settlements. Until we deal with the settlements we will have that issue,” he said.” (New York Post, 10/23/18)
“Antonio Delgado’s statement is a real red flag for his position on the state of Israel – our closest ally in the region. Add this to his enthusiastic support of the Iran Deal, which both he and Nancy Pelosi deemed a historic achievement, and his opposition to the administration’s decision to move our embassy to Jerusalem, and it becomes clear that Antonio Delgado’s naïveté on foreign policy is too glaring to ignore.” – Joe Gierut, communications director for the Faso campaign.
The full NY Post article is here: https://nypost.com/2018/10/23/
The full exchange between the candidates is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?