If a war with Iran becomes necessary, Israel would have American support. That’s the message Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., gave in an interview with the Jerusalem Post last Wednesday.
coleman”If action is going to be taken, it’s not going to be Israel alone,” Coleman told the newspaper. “The reality is that Israel would have to have approvals and authorities. If something is taken, the United States is going to be part of that. We have to understand that. There is no saying, ‘Israel did it.'”
Coleman added that while Israeli lawmakers saw an imminent threat from Iran, the view was not shared unanimously by Americans.
Jeff Fecke :: Coleman: If War Comes to Iran, ‘It’s Not Going to be Israel Alone’
“I think there’s a consensus here as to the nature of the threat. I don’t think there’s consensus yet as to the span of time with which we have to address it,” he said.
The campaign of Democrat Al Franken, who is challenging Coleman in 2008, was sharply dismissive of the comments.
“It’s impressive how Norm manages to be out of step with Minnesotans on two wars at once,” said Andy Barr, Franken’s campaign manager, in a statement given to Minnesota Monitor.
Coleman’s antipathy toward Iran is not new. In September, he co-sponsored a sense-of-the-senate resolution calling on the U.S. government to “combat, contain, and roll back” what it called Iran’s “violent activities and destabilizing influence inside Iraq.” The resolution said that the U.S. should do so “through the prudent and calibrated use of all instruments…including diplomatic, economic, intelligence, and military instruments.”
The Coleman campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
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