Cain stumbles on Palestinian question

Formally announcing his presidential campaign on Saturday, former Godfather’s Pizza executive Herman Cain batted away the complaints that he didn’t have enough of a background in foreign affairs.

"I love it when the skeptics want to criticize me because of lack of foreign policy experience. I know that you don't throw your friends under the bus. You don't need to have years in the State Department to figure that out,” Cain said, picking up the line of attack on President Barack Obama’s position on Israel expressed in his Middle East policy speech at the end of last week.


On Sunday morning, though, he came up blank when asked by Fox News host Chris Wallace about the Palestinian right of return.

“The right of return," Cain asked, pausing before asking again. "The right of return?”

When Wallace explained that the issue concerned whether Palestinian refugees should have the ability to automatically enter and gain citizenship in a Palestinian state, Cain deferred, saying it was Israel's choice, but offering few specifics.

"”I don’t think [Israelis] have a big problem with people returning. The issue is there are some things that they simply do not want to give in on," he said

Late last night, the Cain campaign was out with a statement, that expressed a position and looked to minimize the damage of the blunder.

"I have long been a vocal and unwavering supporter of our friend and ally, Israel. All Israeli governments have rejected the 'right' of large numbers of Arabs of Palestinians to return to what is now the state of Israel. Such an en masse return would unbalance Israel's demographic makeup as the world's sole Jewish state," the statement read. "In this light, should the 'right of return' be negotiated, as I said, if that is a decision that Israel wants to make? Certainly, and to reiterate, it's Israel's call."