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Michele Bachmann, a three-term House member and erstwhile presidential candidate, is closely associated with the Tea Party movement and right-wing social activism. She founded the Tea Party Caucus in the House, and her most fervent supporters tend to be right-wing conservatives.

Like nearly all the 2012 GOP primary candidates—including, notably, Rick Santorum and Rick Perry—Bachmann has expressed fervent suppor for hardline Israeli policies. Bachmann consistently espouses views in line with the Israeli Likud Party—and has frequently attacked the Obama administration for allegedly not being friendly enough toward that country.

During her 2012 presidential candidacy, Bachmann’s campaign website reads like a laundry list of classic conservative talking points on foreign policy: a shot at Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize and his alleged betrayal of close U.S. allies; promoting war with Iran; shrill warnings about the “war on terror”; and religiously based support for Israel. The website stated, “We have a President who tells our true friend, Israel, that it must surrender its right to defensible borders to appease forces that have never recognized that nation’s right to exist.”

Bachmann—whose congressional Tea Party Caucus previously endorsed an Israeli military strike on Iran—frequently weighs in on Middle East issues. She has charged that Iran “fail[s] to respect the U.S. and our presence” in the Middle East, and pledged that she would “take everything at our disposal to make sure that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon.”

When Obama referred to the 1967 borders as the basis for a future Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement—a stance that has been U.S. policy for decades—Bachmann released an ad claiming Obama “betrayed Israel” and that it “is yet another example of his policy of blaming Israel first.”[1] Arch-neoconservative blogger Pamela Geller called Bachmann’s ad “The greatest speech by an American leader on Israel.”[2]

Perhaps unique among the 2012 Republican field, Bachmann’s attitude toward Israel is rooted deeply in her history and is not merely political posturing. Bachmann spent the summer of 1974 working and living on Kibbutz Be'eri. Bachmann described her experiences to Matthew Continetti of the Weekly Standard, who wrote: “The youth housing on the kibbutz was called the ghetto. Lizards climbed the walls. She would wake up at 4 a.m. and get on a flatbed truck that was pulled by an old diesel tractor. Occasionally Michele operated the rig: ‘It was my first time driving a clutch.’ They would drive out to cotton fields to pull weeds. Armed soldiers escorted them wherever they went. The soldiers searched for mines as the kids cultivated the soil. ‘You're hoping at 4 o'clock in the morning that they see everything,’ she told me. The group would work until noon, drive back to the kibbutz, make lunch in the kitchen, and promptly conked out.”[3]

Bachmann’s devout support for Israel is derived from her conservative Christian worldview. As reported by the Minnesota Independent, at a February 2010 Republican Jewish Coalition event in Los Angeles, Bachmann grounded her support for Israel in the Bible: “I am convinced in my heart and in my mind that if the United States fails to stand with Israel, that is the end of the United States. … [W]e have to show that we are inextricably entwined, that as a nation we have been blessed because of our relationship with Israel, and if we reject Israel, then there is a curse that comes into play. And my husband and I are both Christians, and we believe very strongly the verse from Genesis [Genesis 12:3], we believe very strongly that nations also receive blessings as they bless Israel. It is a strong and beautiful principle.”[4]

Hawkish “pro-Israel” journalist Jeffrey Goldberg wrote, “Bachmann has built her foreign-policy platform on the nuance-free defense of Israel. She does this not because Israel is a strategic ally, or because it’s a democracy, but because the Bible states that God will curse those who betray it.”[5]

Like her one-time primary rival Herman Cain, Bachmann has been criticized for having an insufficient grasp of a number of policy issues and current events. “Voters … frequently say they are drawn to support Bachmann's presidential campaign by the litany of statistics and facts that stud her speeches,” says a Los Angeles Times analysis. “Yet what she says is often inaccurate, misleading or wildly untrue.”[6] In November 2010, for example, Bachmann erroneously claimed Iran was a nuclear power, saying, “We know that they have nuclear capability” and that the country is “a danger to every nation in the world.”[7]

Despite her hawkish tendencies, Bachmann opposed the Obama administration’s intervention in Libya, calling it in April 2011 “foolish” and adding, "The only reports that we have say that there are elements of al Qaeda in North Africa and Hezbollah in the opposition forces."[8] On May 1 she made an egregious error, telling Fox News Chris Wallace, “He [Obama] said he wanted to go in for humanitarian purposes and overnight we are hearing that potentially 10 to 30,000 people could have been killed in the strike.”[9] She was in fact referring to U.S. Ambassador to Libya Gene Cretz’ assertion that 10,000-30,000 Libyans had been killed in the fighting between anti-Qaddafi rebels and Libyan forces.

Bachmann first gained national notoriety during the 2008 presidential race. On Hardball she infamously told Chris Matthews that there was an active anti-American wing of Congress, and that Barack Obama himself held an anti-American worldview. When prodded by Matthews to name an “anti-American” congressperson, Bachmann said, “What I would say is that the news media should do a penetrating expose and take a look. I wish they would. I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out if they are pro-America or anti-America." Referring to Obama’s past associations with the Revered Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers, Bachmann took aim at what she claimed were Obama’s view of the country: “That's not the way that most Americans feel about our country. Most Americans are wild about America and they are very concerned to have a president who doesn't share those values."[10]

Bachmann rode the Tea Party’s momentum to stardom during the 2010 electoral cycle, and infamously gave the “Tea Party Response”[11] to President Obama’s 2011 State of the Union Address.

Prior to serving in the House, Bachmann was a member of the Minnesota Senate. She was a tax lawyer before entering public life.

Please note: IPS Right Web neither represents nor endorses any of the individuals or groups profiled on this site.