Unwavering American Support for Israel Is Key to Middle East Peace

Last week, I had the privilege to visit Israel and speak about the Trump Administration’s record of successful policies toward one of our strongest allies.  Our policies represented a historic shift in thinking and posture toward the entire Middle East, one which was built upon common sense and a proper understanding of the reality on the ground.

From Day One, the Trump Administration stood unabashedly in support of Israel.  We moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem in recognition of that old and great city being the true capital of Israel.  We recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, acknowledging its necessity to the security of the State of Israel, as well as Israel’s long-standing administration of the territory for decades.  We called out the United Nations Security Council for its blatant anti-Israel bias, stood against entities who embraced the antisemitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and stopped American taxpayer dollars from continuing to fund terrorist entities in the West Bank. In short, we were the most pro-Israel Administration in the history of the United States.

For years, rational policies such as these were unthinkable.  Administrations on the Left, in particular saw the embrace of such policies as a critical barrier to achieving peace in the Middle East.  The Obama Administration, for example, felt that a lasting peace throughout the region could only be achieved once the United States distanced itself from Israel and proved itself to be an unbiased mediator of affairs.  They identified other nations, namely Iran, with which to support and cultivate “good” relations.  They pushed money to terrorists in the West Bank in hopes that they would change or become more moderate, and sent pallets of cash to the malign Iranian regime in hopes that a stronger Iranian economy would help the regime abandon its deeply held hatred for Israel, America, and the rest of the world, which did not share in its Islamic fundamentalism.  Such thinking was, of course, foolish, but it took the Trump Administration to reveal that these long-held orthodoxies were fictitious at their core.

What followed our historic changes in American policy was remarkable.  Instead of the violence, war, and suffering which we had been assured would result (most notably by President Biden’s “climate czar,” John Kerry), we instead achieved a peace in the region that had previously been unthinkable.  The Abraham Accords, one of the proudest and most significant achievements of the Trump Administration, embody this monumental shift towards peace.  Full, unwavering American support for Israel signaled to our partners in the region that the United States was no longer going to walk a middle ground between supporting Israel and courting nations which desired Israel’s utter annihilation.  These agreements brought about actual economic and political ties between Israel and its Arab neighbors, all without the Iran nuclear deal and without supporting Palestinian terror groups.  Instead, we recognized Israel, not as an occupier of land that was not theirs, but instead as the rightful claimant of land bestowed to them by covenant with God.

In order to continue building on the success of the Abraham Accords, the United States must continue its unwavering commitment to Israel.  That means continuing to fund its Iron Dome defense system, helping to counter the malign ambitions of the Iranian regime wherever possible, not giving in to the narrative of Palestinian victimhood embraced by so many in the U.N. and within our own halls of government (a narrative which blinds them to the very real threat of terror Israel must protect itself against each and every day), and not forcing Israel to cede land that belongs to them.

Israel stands today as the only truly pluralistic, democratic state in the Middle East.  Its citizens are guaranteed freedom of religion under Israeli law, and they are each accorded the same rights regardless of their race or creed.  Though it is a Jewish state, Christian and Muslim communities alike within Israel’s borders are protected from attack by Israel’s military and security forces.  Israel is in fact the example of what every American should want to see across the Middle East – a nation with real religious freedom and a citizenry guaranteed equal freedoms under the law.  Israel has a right to exist as the homeland of the Jewish people – it has earned that right many times over by defending itself against constant attacks.  Successful U.S. policy in the Middle East must start with an uncompromising assertion of these facts.  We have seen such policies lead to the success of the Abraham Accords, and the peace promised by those agreements will only expand if we continue to employ the policies which preceded them.