Bachmann blames ‘weakness’ of Obama for wave of democratic movements in Middle East

At a campaign stop Thursday in North Carolina, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann blamed Pres. Barack Obama for the outbreak of the Arab Spring, the wave of democracy uprisings across the Middle East.

“Just like Jimmy Carter in the 1970s didn’t have the back of the Shah of Iran, we saw the Shah fall and the rise of the Ayatollah, and we saw the rise and the beginnings of radical jihad, which have changed this world and changed this nation,” Bachmann said, according to a video posted by MSNBC. “So too under Barack Obama, we saw him put a lot of daylight between our relationship with our ally Israel.”

Bachmann linked the Arab Spring, which has resulted in pro-democracy uprisings in countries like Egypt, Syria and Libya, to the President’s earlier stance that negotiations between Israel and Palestine should begin at the 1967 boundaries.

“And when he called upon Israel to retreat to its indefensible 1967 borders, don’t think that message wasn’t lost to Israel’s 26 hostile neighbors,” Bachmann said. “You want to know why we have an Arab Spring. Barack Obama has laid the table for Arab Spring by demonstrating weakness from the United States of America.”