Politics

Herman Cain: I’d offer Palestinians ‘nothing’ in peace deal

Alex Pappas Political Reporter
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Herman Cain said that if he were president and negotiating a Middle East peace deal, he would offer the Palestinians “nothing.”

“I’m not convinced the Palestinians are really interested in peace,” Cain, the former CEO of Godfathers Pizza, said on Fox News Sunday.

President Obama last week gave a speech calling for Israel to withdraw to pre-1967 boundaries, with “mutually agreed swaps.”

Cain, who formally announced his Republican candidacy for president Saturday, said that, “if we look at history, it has been clear that the Palestinians have always wanted to push the Israelis and push Israel for more and more and more.”

He also said “it’s Israel’s decision, not President Obama’s decision as to where those border lines ought to be.”

But Cain, who has never held elective office, may have also given the impression that his foreign policy skills are not very strong. He looked like he was scrambling for an answer at first when Chris Wallace, the moderator, asked him his position on the “right of return,” a contentious demand by Palestinians that the millions of descendants of Arab refugees that fled during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War be allowed to return to Israel.

“That’s something that should be negotiated,” he said.

And — as he’s done before — he refused to layout his own detailed plan for the war in Afghanistan, saying he doesn’t have the information at his disposal that the president has. He said he would need to see it before formulating a “responsible plan.”

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