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Tuesday, Mar 24, 2015 5:28 PM UTC
Ben Carson’s cringe-inducing foreign policy ignorance: Israel edition
Wannabe commander-in-chief clueless on basic facts about the country
Topics: Ben Carson, GQ, jason zengerle, Israel, knesset, Foreign policy, Republicans, GOP 2016, 2016 Elections, Ferguson, Alan Greenspan, clinton impeachment, Barack Obama, News, Politics News
Ben Carson is a living, breathing example of why being a celebrity among Fox News viewers doesn’t qualify someone to be president of the United States. For starters, he has a tendency to say deeply insane things: That America in the Obama era is increasingly like Nazi Germany; that prisons prove homosexuality is a choice; and that gay people are akin to murderers, for instance. Over the last few weeks, the neurosurgeon-turned-2016 hopeful has also demonstrated an understanding of foreign policy that makes one pine for the sage cosmopolitanism of Sarah Palin. Carson appeared ignorant of the fact that the three Baltic states belong to NATO and argued, in an interview meant to combat the perception that he’s unschooled on international affairs, that we should figure out a way to “just sort of slip” the Palestinian population down into Egypt. Can’t you just see this guy strolling out to “Hail to the Chief”?
The April issue of GQ contains yet another Carson foreign policy blunder. While Carson touts himself as a stalwart defender of Israel, Jason Zengerle reveals in his profile of the Republican that Carson lacked even a rudimentary understanding of the country’s basic political dynamics. As he waited to catch a flight to Tel Aviv in December, Carson struck up a conversation with his Israeli guide, asking her, “In the United States, we have Republicans, Democrats, and independents — what do you have?” Zengerle relates that the guide explained the Likud, Labor, and other smaller parties that animate Israel’s political scene and jockey for power in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset.
“And what is the role of the Knesset?” Carson begged.
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