Clinton: Create US Security Umbrella for Israel

Both Democratic presidential candidates threatened a tough response to Iran should it attack Israel, while sparring over the role of faith in American life and the validity of judging their candidacies by those with whom they associate during a debate Wednesday night.

"An attack on Israel would trigger massive retaliation from the United States," said New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, who proposed that the US create a security umbrella for Israel and other allies in the region to protect them from a nuclear Iran. "So would an attack on those countries that are willing to go under the security umbrella and forswear their own nuclear ambitions."

Clinton pointed to Saudi Arabia and the UAE as states that had concerns about Iran's nuclear ambition. "We've got to deter other countries from feeling they have to acquire nuclear weapons," she said.

Both she and her rival for the Democratic nomination, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, had been asked whether it should be US policy to treat an Iranian attack on Israel as an attack on the US.