Palin’s Instincts

NRO Weekend, August 30, 2008 by Tom Gross - Don’t discount Palin’s foreign-policy credentials.

Critics are already trying to damn Sarah Palin for her perceived lack of foreign-policy experience, but what they are not allowing for is something more important — that she has the right basic attitudes and sense of priorities. She understands that aggression has to be resisted and commitments have to be honored.

Certainly there is every sign that she will be better for at least one of America’s closest friends and allies, Israel, than Joe Biden.

It is true that Biden talks of his support for Israel in principle, but the reality is that he has done his utmost to thwart keeping the possibility of a military option open to stop Iran acquiring nuclear weapons. As a result he was even praised recently on the Iranian regime’s official propaganda arm, Press TV.

It is no accident that Biden was dubbed “Tehran’s favorite senator” in an article in the Washington Post last week.

By contrast, the very first reference to foreign policy that Palin made in her acceptance speech after being chosen as John McCain’s vice-presidential candidate Friday was that Iran must be stopped from getting nuclear weapons. She mentioned this even before she mentioned the issues of Iraq and Russia.

Palin has a record for integrity and for getting the job done matched by very few politicians, as shown by her success in tackling the corrupt Republican-party establishment in Alaska, and her highly effective economic program there.

The U.S. and Israel can have every confidence that, like McCain, she is a doer who means what she says — not someone like Joe Biden who may come out with fine sentiments but seems unwilling to get to grips with fundamental problems posed by Iran and Syria.

— Tom Gross is a former Mideast correspondent for London’s Sunday Telegraph.