Is GOP Eric Cantor Sabotaging Obama’s Middle-East Peace Push?

Senior US Republican Congressman Eric Cantor is currently leading a delegation of 25 Republicans lawmakers in Israel.

Today, in an interview he gave to Israeli public radio, he said that the world should stop pressuring Israel over the settlements issue, and instead concentrate on the threat from a nuclear Iran.

In the mind of the House’s Republican Whip, the main obstacle to Middle-East peace is the Palestinian refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, and not the Israeli settlements.

“I don’t quite know what is driving the focus on the issue of the settlements. We believe the focus should be on the existential threat to Israel from a nuclear armed Iran. If we are interested in a two states solution, we have to accept, and the Palestinians have to accept that Israel is a Jewish state. We share the view with Prime Minister Netanyahu that we do not want to see undue pressure placed on Israel,” said Cantor in the radio interview.

This statement follows closely the agenda of hawkish PM Netanyahu. Since winning the elections in February, Netanyahu has tried, with some success in Israel, to shift the world attention from the settlements, Gaza &  the Obama administration push for a  two states solution to Iran.

Eric Cantor is clearly undermining the effort of the Obama administration to put pressure on Israel over the settlements expansion issue in East-Jerusalem & the West-Bank  by telling Netanyahu exactly what the Israeli PM and the Likud’s hardliners want to hear.