Cantor: White House ‘openly hostile’ to Israel

Former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) accused the White House of being “openly hostile” to Israel’s government in an interview Thursday.

“You have seen a White House that, for the first time in a very long time, has almost been openly hostile to the Israeli government. There have been enough instances here where there have been snubs,” he said during an interview at the Council on Foreign Relations with ABC’s Jonathan Karl. 

He criticized President Obama for calling himself rock-solid on Israel’s security. Cantor noted that, in March, the White House said it would “re-evaluate” its support for Israel at the United Nations after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu balked at a two-state solution in his reelection campaign.

{mosads}“I don’t recall a White House or a president taking that position because I don’t think there is enough money or weaponry in the world that we could give to our ally Israel that can guarantee the security of Israel if the U.S. decides to isolate and allow Israel to dangle out there by itself in the international forum,” Cantor said.

But he also played down the idea of a congressional rift over Israel and said lawmakers do not share the administration’s “shift.”

Cantor also questioned the letter championed by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and signed by 46 other Republican senators to Iranian leaders. The letter warned that any deal over the country’s nuclear program wouldn’t have force of law without congressional backing.

Democrats and some Republicans panned the move as antagonistic and meant to stunt the international negotiations over the Iranian nuclear program.

“It has certainly served a purpose in drawing attention to the issue,” Cantor said.

“Did I think that was the best way to go and do it, to demonstrate the kind of objection that we had with the White House in terms of republicans? Probably not.”

He added that he is “very suspicious” of the nuclear negotiations with Iran.

Cantor, who became House majority leader at 47, had been seen as a rising star within the GOP before he lost his 2014 primary battle to college professor and now Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.).