Congressman Ted Poe: US-Israeli ties 'very tenuous at best'
In an interview with Al-Monitor, Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he hopes "that the United States would mend its relationship with Israel."
WASHINGTON — Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, who serves as chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade, characterized US-Israel relations as “very tenuous at best.”
Poe, who is serving his fifth term representing Texas’ 2nd District, met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem earlier this month.
“The United States gives inconsistent signals to Israel, so therefore they are in a situation where they don’t know what the United States policy really is, not only in Israel but in the Middle East as well,” Poe said. “I see a distance between the strong relationship between the United States and Israel in the past, and that is the United States’ doing. We have distanced ourselves from them.”
Poe is skeptical of any nuclear agreement that might be reached with Iran, arguing that Congress should press ahead on sanctions and only offer Iran sanctions relief in return for dismantling its nuclear weapons program.
