US presidential candidate calls Netanyahu 'racist'

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - Democratic 2020 presidential hopeful Beto O'Rourke has taken a major swipe at Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu, calling him a "racist" for forging a political alliance with a far-right Jewish political party ahead of general elections.

O'Rourke made the comments Sunday while on the campaign trail in Iowa.

While saying the U.S.-Israel relationship "is one of the most important relationships" the U.S. has, O'Rourke argued it "must be able to transcend a prime minister who is racist as he warns about Arabs coming to the polls, who wants to defy any prospect for peace as he threatens to annex the West Bank, and who has sided with a far-right racist party in order to maintain his hold on power."

"I don't think that Benjamin Netanyahu represents the the true will of the Israeli people or the best interests of the U.S.-Israel relationship or any path to peace for the people of the Palestinian Authority, the Gaza Strip and the State of Israel," he said.

Netanyahu has stirred controversy for forming an electoral alliance between his Likud Party's ruling bloc and the far-right Jewish Power (Otzma Yehudit) Party ahead of Tuesday's parliamentary election.

Netanyahu's electoral gambit provoked an exceedingly-rare rebuke from the staunchly pro-Israel AIPAC lobbying group, calling Otzma Yehudit "racist and reprehensible" and throwing its support behind an also-rare statement on domestic Israeli politics from the American Jewish Committee.

"The views of Otzma Yehudit are reprehensible. They do not reflect the core values that are the very foundation of the State of Israel. The party might conceivably gain enough votes to enter the next Knesset and potentially even become part of the governing coalition," the committee said.