Lee Zeldin, the only Republican in Congress of Jewish faith, said on national television in the hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party took the majority vote, President Obama now owes the Israeli leader an apology.
"The president, who has apologized for American greatness, can use this opportunity to apologize for his team and his allies doing just about everything in their power to oust the Israeli prime minister," Zeldin said, during an interview about the Israel election turnout with Greta Van Susteren on Fox News. "It was unprecedented."
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Zeldin also said that Obama, while watching the ballot count, was "probably disappointed."
The New York lawmaker went on: "There was a very ACORN [atmosphere] ... on the ground trying to oust [Netanyahu] ... but it didn't work. [Obama] should be apologizing for the the fact that his team has done so much in so many different ways to try and oust the leader of our nation's strongest ally. We have a country [Israel] that is a freedom of democracy. It is a shining light in a region that's filled with darkness."
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And bluntly, Zeldin went on, Obama's obvious try to drive Netanyahu from office was "embarrassing," he said.
Van Susteren also asked Zeldin why he was the only Jewish Republican in office, if the perception among Obama critics is that he's so anti-Israel.
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"I think a lot of Democrats ... won't speak up and call him out on it because he is the leader of their party," Zeldin said.