A view of Jerusalem. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz lamented that under Obama, the US will open an embassy not in Jerusalem, but in the capital of a Communist country whose leader ‘hates America.’

“I think this is a serious mistake,” declared US presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) last Wednesday on America’s Hugh Hewitt Show. regarding US President Barack Obama’s decision to open an embassy in Havana, Cuba.

“It’s a manifestation of the pattern of weakness and appeasement towards our enemies that has characterized the Obama-Clinton foreign policy. It’s the same pattern that occurred — that is occurring with regard to Russia, with regard to Iran, and it’s a very dangerous pattern. How sad is it that under the Obama administration the United States is going to have an embassy in Havana before we have an embassy in Jerusalem, that this administration will be friendlier to a Communist dictator who hates America and seeks to undermine our nation, than it is willing to stand with our close friend and ally, the nation of Israel? I think it’s wrong.”

Cruz mentioned his discussions with Cuban dissidents Guillermo Farinas and Elizardo Sanchez, who had come to the US about a year ago. “I interviewed both of them for about a half hour in Spanish,” he said. “We put out the video interview, but it was interesting, both of them predicted what the Obama administration has done. And both of them said that the Castros are following — Putinissimo is what they called it — basically the philosophy of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, of appearing to liberalize while in fact strengthening the repression. What Obama’s doing is sending billions of dollars that will only make the Castros stronger, oppressing, torturing, murdering their people, and also spreading terrorism throughout Latin America.”

Cuban Dissidents Feel ‘Abandoned, Crushed’

“I’ll tell you, Guillermo Farinas was back in the United States recently accepting an award for his principled stand against Communism,” Cruz continued. “It was after the Obama administration had announced their rapprochement. And he said that the opposition movement in Cuba is heartbroken, they are abandoned, they are crushed. You know, the administration is not insisting on any role for dissidents. The Castros are continuing to imprison and torture people. They have no political rights. And all of the money going there is just propping up a cruel dictatorship that hates America, and that is 90 miles away from America. And it’s an example — consistently under the Obama-Clinton foreign policy, we have abandoned our friends and allies, whether it is the UK, whether it’s Canada, whether it’s Israel, and we have shown weakness and appeasement to our enemies.”

Congressman Trent Franks. (AP/Ross D. Franklin)

Cruz’s remarks came shortly after a group of congressmen from both sides of the political aisle urged Obama to officially recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

This followed a Supreme Court decision from last week that Americans born in the city of Jerusalem cannot list Israel as their birthplace on their US passports, siding with the White House in a foreign-policy power struggle with Congress.

Moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem would be “one of the most important ways America can send a strong signal to the world that there is no space between us and Israel,” Congressman Trent Franks (R-AZ), co-chair of the Congressional Israel Allies Caucus (CIAC), declared. “Let the president once and for all make it clear that the United States officially and unequivocally recognizes Jerusalem as the undivided capital city of the State of Israel.”

By: United with Israel Staff