Trump UN speech defines moral clarity
The lack of international moral clarity was never more clearly defined than at the UN meeting in New York City on Tuesday. When US President Donald Trump spoke of the progress that he has made in his time in office, the assembly laughed derisively. The reason is quite easy to identify. He has clearly aligned himself with America’s trusted ally, Israel.
The president took a stand against a decades-long policy of not recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel; he authorized the move of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to the Holy City. In his speech, he said:
“America’s policy of principled realism means we will not be held hostage to old dogmas, discredited ideologies, and so-called experts who have been proven wrong over the years, time and time again.”
Trump has also defunded the UN agency on Palestinian refugees. To some UN member nations that rally behind the Palestinians, it is a politically correct way of hating Israel and assisting those who seek her obliteration.
He has also decreased funding to the Palestinian Authority over its response to the recognition of Jerusalem. The president is in favor of reducing foreign aid for those countries which openly belittle the US while accepting her dollars. Trump said: “Moving forward, we are only going to give foreign aid to those who respect us and, frankly, are our friends.”
Making good on Trump’s campaign pledge to withdraw from Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the Iran nuclear deal instituted by then-president Barack Obama was not a popular move at the UN. Its members seemed to welcome the rebuttal of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani just hours after Trump’s speech. Rouhani accused the American president of having a “Nazi disposition” and of being a racist. This accusation comes from the leader of a country which openly conspires with terrorist organizations to destroy Israel and annihilate the Jewish people.
According to Trump, Iran has violated the spirit of the agreement. One only has to look at Iran’s funding of Hezbollah, Hamas, and its Shia crescent, as well as proxies across the Middle East, and in the support of Syrian President Bashar Assad to see how correct the president was.
Trump declared that the Iranian regime supports terrorism and exports violence, bloodshed, and chaos. The chaotic mix is a toxic poison combining apocalyptic fanaticism with terrorism.
Rouhani’s boss, the blatantly antisemitic Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, laid out in his book a plan for a coordinated campaign of terror attacks, stopping just short of open warfare, to weaken and eventually destroy the Jewish state. He also called for a single state in the land of Israel to be named Palestine, and for it to be a Muslim nation.
It is unfathomable that at Tuesday’s session of the UN, it was Rouhani who drew no derisive laughter from the assembly – many of whom have benefited from America’s largess – when he made charges against the US
In his speech, Trump mentioned Saudi Arabia, Poland and India, in addition to Israel, as dependable partners. He declared:
“Sovereign and independent nations are the only vehicle where freedom has ever survived, democracy has ever endured or peace has ever prospered. And so we must protect our sovereignty and our cherished independence above all.”
In a meeting on Wednesday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, National Security Advisor John Bolton, White House Chief of Staff John Kelley, advisers Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, Trump assured the prime minister that the US was “one hundred percent” with Israel.
Netanyahu responded by commending the president for having “changed history” by acknowledging Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. He also applauded Trump for his “robust defense of Israel’s right of self-defense” and for championing Israel at the UN – something few others have been brave enough to do.
Trump’s worldview, simply put, is one of moral clarity, of good versus evil. He sees terrorists and those who support them as evil. He is joined in that view by Netanyahu, and others who support the rule of law rather than mob rule.
The writer is a #1 New York Times bestselling author with 89 published books, including The New Iran. He is the founder of Friends of Zion Museum in Jerusalem of which the late President Shimon Peres, Israel’s ninth president, was the chair. He also serves on the Trump Evangelical Faith Initiative.