RUTHFULLY YOURS

Texas governor and potential Republican presidential nominee Rick Perry called on the U.S. to stonewall the Palestinian declaration of statehood at the U.N. later this week, in an op-ed piece for the Wall Street Journal published on Friday.

Perry, who is leading in some polls as the top contender to square off against President Barack Obama in 2012, implored the Obama administration over the weekend not to abandon Israel, whom he calls an historic ally with “shared democratic principles.”

“The U.S. and the U.N. should do everything possible to discourage the Palestinian leadership from pursuing its current course,” Perry wrote.

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He lashed out against the Palestinian bid, calling it an “insult to the U.S.,” and even went so far as to suggest cutting off U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority in light of its bypassing a negotiated settlement to the conflict in favor of U.N. recognition.

Perry, an evangelical Christian, is considered a staunch supporter of Israel and has logged more visits to the Jewish state than any other of his fellow Republican presidential contenders (although Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann volunteered on a kibbutz when she was a teenager).

Israel Hayom has also learned that Perry plans to hold a pro-Israel press conference with American and Israeli-Jewish leaders in New York this week, to coincide with the Palestinian request at the U.N.

As governor of Texas Perry has repeatedly condemned President Obama’s policies toward Israel. He has often cited his Christian faith as the reason for his support of Israel.

In 2008, the President Obama enjoyed 78% of the Jewish vote, but scoring a repeat of such numbers seems more and more unlikely, especially after last week’s upset in one of New York’s most reliably Democratic and heavily Jewish districts.

In a major upset in a special election that many viewed as a referendum on Obama’s policies on Israel, Republican Bob Turner, a retired television executive, pummeled Democrat David I. Weprin, an Orthodox Jew, in a contest for the seat vacated by Anthony D. Weiner.

Weiner was a Democrat who famously resigned in June after an explosive scandal in which it was revealed he had tweeted lewd photographs of himself to several young women he met on the Internet.

Turner took 54% of the vote in a district that has a 3-1 ratio of Democrats to Republicans. His campaign got a major boost this summer when former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, a Democrat and a Jew, stepped across party lines and endorsed Turner.