Edward I. Koch, the former three-term Democratic mayor of New York, has some critical words about President Obama‘s relations with Israel and his handling of the attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya, this month.
In an interview with the New York Post columnist Michael Goodwin, Mr. Koch deemed as “unacceptable†Mr. Obama's decision not to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel while Mr. Netanyahu is in the United States this week for the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.
“There should be a certain courtesy involved,†Mr. Koch said. “You don't just say, ‘We can't fit him into our schedule.' â€
The column also quoted an interview Mr . Koch recently gave with Israel National News in which he faulted the Obama administration's response to the Sept. 11 attack in Libya that killed the United States ambassador and three members of his staff.
“Any other self-respecting country where their embassy was attacked, their ambassador and his security detail murdered and the local police ran away would withdraw their embassy immediately in protest,†Mr. Koch said. It was actually the United States Consulate in Benghazi that was attacked, not its embassy, which is in Tripoli.
The former mayor has been critical of Mr. Obama in the past, but ultimately endorsed his re-election bid, and says he sides with the president on issues like taxes, abortion and Medicare.
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