Pete Buttigieg, the 37-year-old Democratic mayor of the city of South Bend, Indiana, and a 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful, slammed Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s pledge to annex Israeli towns in Judea and Samaria.
On Saturday, Netanyahu vowed that if reelected, he would work to apply Israeli sovereignty to Israeli towns in Judea and Samaria.
Shortly afterwards, Buttigieg tweeted his condemnation of Netanyahu’s announcement, calling it a “provocation”.
“This provocation is harmful to Israeli, Palestinian, and American interests. Supporting Israel does not have to mean agreeing with Netanyahu‘s politics. I don’t. This calls for a president willing to counsel our ally against abandoning a two-state solution.”
Buttigieg, who has served as mayor of South Bend – home to some 100,000 residents – since 2012, announced in January that he had would pursue the Democratic party’s nomination for the 2020 presidential election.
If elected, Buttigieg would be the first openly gay president, and the youngest person ever elected to the office.
Since his January announcement, Buttigieg has raised some $7 million for his campaign, leading some pundits to dub his presidential bid the dark horse of the 2020 Democratic primaries.