Vice President Joe Biden visits metro Atlanta
Good Times Joe gives rabbis a helluva speech
Vice President Joe Biden delivered a feisty address this morning to about 500 people at the 2012 Rabbinical Assembly National Convention at the Westin Perimeter in Sandy Springs.
Biden's 40-minute speech defended President Barack Obama’s handling of the United States' relationship with Israel and its policy towards Iran. The vice president said he was more worried about Israel than at any other point in his career. The country's legitimacy as a Jewish state was being questioned, he told the crowd of people, many of whom wore yarmulkes.
Biden, who arrived in Atlanta last night and attended a fundraiser in Ansley Park, said the Obama administration had given $3.1 billion in military aid and other weapon systems to Israel — the most support of any U.S. administration since Truman's. The vice president said the U.S. was Israel’s greatest ally and the only country to stand with the Middle Eastern nation after the release of a United Nations report chronicling human rights abuses during the Gaza War which accused the Israelis of violating international law.
Biden also said the United States was the only country to support Israel’s “right to defend its national security” when its soldiers killed nine activists attempting to deliver food aid to Palestinians and break the blockade of the Gaza Strip in 2010. The speech was interrupted by applause and bookmarked by standing ovations for Biden.
The vice president's strongest words — and his biggest defense of the Obama administration's policies — were about Iran. Biden said that U.S. and Israeli experts agreed that Iran is “some distance away” from obtaining nuclear weapons but the two countries needed to stay “exceedingly vigil.” He also said that the president would "prevent Iran from acquiring a nuke by whatever means necessary, period.” He added, while practically shouting in the microphone, that Obama "deserves the credit" for convincing other countries to support sanctions against Iran.
The speech follows the controversy that erupted over the weekend after Biden revealed on NBC's "Meet the Press" that he supported gay marriage — a position the Obama administration has not taken.
More photos after the break