At a campaign event in Skokie, Illinois, Former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer launched a blistering attack on President Obama's Middle East policy, accusing him of treating Israel like "an annoyance" and "the real threat to peace on the Middle East."
Fleischer told the crowd of Jewish Republicans it is time for the President to "be silent" when it comes to criticism of Israel.
"You get the sense that when Nobel Peace Prize winning, Barack Obama looks at the Middle East, he sees Israel -- small, free, and democratic -- as the true threat to peace," Fleischer told the Republican Jewish Coalition of Illinois at an event with Republican candidates, including GOP Senate nominee Mark Kirk.
"You get the sense that when he looks at Israel," Fleischer continued, "he sees Israel as somewhat of a bother, somewhat of an annoyance, that is getting in the way of his views of what the Middle East ought to look like. And perhaps that is why so many in the Jewish community, particularly so many Jewish Democrats like former New York Mayor Edward Koch, have now gotten a case of buyers remorse."
Fleischer hammered the President for criticizing Israeli developments in the West Bank and failing to speak out against anti-Israeli actions by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Palestinian Mahmoud Abbas.
"We have a President who speaks when he should be silent and is silent when we need him to speak," Fleischer said.