Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney held a conference call with Jewish community leaders on Thursday night, but did not mention the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
Romney stressed the need to adopt an aggressive policy toward Iran’s nuclear program, which the Islamic Republic has long insisted is being cultivated for non-military purposes.
In an interview published on Thursday, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization admitted that his country had deliberately provided false information about its nuclear program to Western investigators and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The Republican nominee made no mention of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, after a leaked video released Tuesday revealed his pessimism on the issue.
In the video, which was filmed clandestinely at an intimate high-stakes fundraiser in Florida, Romney said Palestinians are “committed to the destruction and elimination of Israel” and that the prospects of a two-state solution to Mideast peace were dim.
An American Jewish Committee poll released on Thursday revealed that support among Florida Jews for Barack Obama had fallen 7 percentage points since 2008.
A 7 percentage-point drop in the Jewish vote likely represents over 50,000 votes in a state that the Republicans won in 2000 by fewer than 600 votes.
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