Rudolph W. Giuliani said this morning Democrats are drawing moral equivalency between U.S. allies such as Israel and enemy countries and terrorists and that they failed to learn the lesson of peace through strength that President Reagan showed.In a major foreign policy speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition in Washington, Mr. Giuliani, the Republican leading the national race for his party's presidential nomination, said the next president must openly threaten war in order to make war less likely. "You have to stand up to dictators, to tyrants, to terrorists. Weakness invites attack. Strength keeps you safe," he said.
"You cannot negotiate with someone who is threatening to destroy you and your family. This is the great fallacy in this now very strong Democratic desire to negotiate, negotiate, negotiate and negotiate," he said. "You've got to know with whom to negotiate and with whom you should not negotiate."
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"I say this most respectfully — you're not Ronald Reagan," he said. "Here's what Ronald Reagan did before he negotiated with the communists. First, he called them the 'Evil Empire.' Then he took missiles — he put them in European cities, and he pointed the missiles at Russian cities with names on them. And then he said, in his very nice way, 'Let's negotiate,' ..." Mr. Giuliani said, drawing waves of laughter and applause.
He repeatedly attacked the foreign policy of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democratic presidential front-runner, saying she "hesitates" too much to be an effective president.
He also blasted fellow Republican candidate Mitt Romney, who last week said he would consult with lawyers to decide if as president he could attack a nuclear-capable Iran without congressional approval. The audience clearly belonged to Mr. Giuliani, who won strong applause when he retold the story of having tossed Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat out of a United Nations concert in New York. He then turned to attack Mrs. Clinton and her husband, who as president criticized Mr. Giuliani's actions. "Holding [Arafat] on a morally equivalent plane to like the prime minister of Israel, like these two people were equal, was a terrible, terrible mistake," he said, adding he thinks that approach set Middle East peace back at least a decade.