WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, spoke recently with the Heritage Foundation about the inconsistencies and disappointments of U.S. foreign policy under the Obama Administration. Ros-Lehtinen discussed President Obama’s policies towards Cuba and Israel, as well as her bill to reform the United Nations.  To view the entire interview, please click here. Excerpts follow:

Cuba and Human Rights:

“One of the biggest disappointments is the Obama Administration’s lack of attention about the violations of human rights and lack of freedom [and], multi-party elections…nothing is really being said or done to help the Cuban people.”

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Israel and Palestinian Statehood:

“All we keep doing is badgering Israel saying ‘Oh this housing complex is inconvenient’ as if that housing complex is the impediment to Middle East peace. Israel wants a partner for peace, the Palestinian leadership is not that partner. We should have been more forceful stopping the Palestinian statehood scheme early on because the Palestinians have been going around the world for years getting governments to sponsor resolutions and pass resolutions supporting their statehood schemes. So we let this build up until then at the last minute we wake up and we really don’t do the ground work that is needed to say we are with our friends and we want to isolate our enemies.”

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UN Reform: 

“It is a scandal, it is unbelievable to me how much American dollars are propping up a system that is not functioning; it is absolutely dysfunctional. The United Nations is really the bully pulpit for third world countries to berate the United States and chastise our democratic values and human rights, and to isolate and demonize Israel.”

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