The ACLJ Needed Now More Than Ever: Our Agenda for the Future, Protecting Victories and Battling the Dangers Ahead – Foreign Policy
The ACLJ Needed Now More Than Ever: Our Agenda for the Future, Protecting Victories and Battling the Dangers Ahead – Foreign Policy
ACLJ Executive Director Jordan Sekulow
The following is the fifth installment of a six-part series focusing on why the ACLJ is needed now more than ever to protect the victories we’ve achieved and beat back the ominous challenges we now face under the Biden Administration.
One of the most critical responsibilities of the federal government is national security, and that requires sound foreign policy.
One of the most critical wins we’ve had in the last few years is when the United States cut funding for the allies of terror.
For decades Islamic terror networks have operated, and for decades the ACLJ has worked to defund them. In addition, we have worked to inform our members of the devastating impact of the Obama Administration’s Iran nuclear deal on Israel. Consider the following important efforts.
- For decades the Palestinian Authority (PA) has subsidized terror campaigns against the State of Israel. The Trump Administration brought the subsidization of terror to a halt. In 2018, President Trump promised to cut funding to the terrorist-affiliated Palestinian Authority as long as they continued to reward the families of terrorists.The Trump Administration has gone a step further, cutting off even more funding by withholding a significant sum of money – roughly $200 million dollars – that had been previously earmarked to go to the PA. The ACLJ has strongly supported the Taylor Force Act which stops funding to the PA until they stop their “pay for slay” program. Previously as we pointed out, the PA has been paying out an estimated $300 million each year to incentivize and reward terrorists. In addition, for years, the PA has used American aid money and money from the U.S. taxpayer-funded U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) to subsidize its “pay for slay” program. As ACLJ Chief Counsel Jay Sekulow notes, this program has been defunded and that move was absolutely correct.
- In a tremendous victory for America and our allies, President Trump, true to his word, officially withdrew the United States from what he accurately called the “defective at its core” Iran nuclear deal. Furthermore, President Trump reimposed sanctions on Iran. Recall that the 2015 deal, brokered by former Secretary of State John Kerry and implemented by President Obama, enriched Iran at the expense of the rest of the world and, worst of all, put our ally Israel in grave danger. Iran has lied over and over about their nuclear program and their intentions. We were once again reminded of this fact when Israel exposed their lies about their nuclear ambitions. They practically broadcast their plans and their target to the world when, as we reported, they tested ballistic missiles with the words “Israel must be destroyed” emblazoned on the sides. Iran clearly had every intention of developing a nuclear arsenal, and the nuclear deal as it stood did nothing to stop them. While other world leaders acknowledged the problems with the deal, they did nothing and let the agreement favoring Iran move forward. The ACLJ has maintained its consistent position that the deal in its original form needed to be fixed to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear threat, with stronger provisions put in place to force Iran to keep their word or else the U.S. needed to abandon it altogether. President Trump had no choice but to pull out and send a strong message that the U.S. will not be blackmailed.
Dangers Ahead in Foreign Policy
- Rejoining the Paris Climate Accord and imposing carbon mandates on American energy and manufacturing entities is part of an effort to drive climate change hysteria that includes the demand to shut down fracking, cripple U.S. energy production, and increase dependence on America’s foes.
This danger is driven first and foremost by liberal internationalists and global elites who are, once again, preparing to lead from behind by putting the interests of other countries, including the interests of countries that threaten us, ahead of American interests. The scent of danger multiplies exponentially because the Biden Administration has named John Kerry, the negotiator of the failed Iran Nuclear Deal and co-author of the Paris Climate Accord, as a cabinet-level special envoy for climate and the so-called “Climate Czar.” As the Wall Street Journal notes, Mr. Kerry, as a negotiator, “never drives a hard bargain, as his Iran nuclear deal showed.”
Rather than building on America’s success tied to our fracking-led boom in U.S. oil and gas production which has enhanced American security in multiple ways by making the U.S. less dependent on untrustworthy countries who would hold America’s economy hostage; and rather than applauding the fact that the fall in oil prices because of “U.S. production[] has reduced the clout of dictators in oil-producing countries like Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro[; and ignoring the fact that] U.S. natural gas sales also enhance America’s exports and economic influence,” the Biden Administration is prepared to shackle the U.S. economy, bow to the demands of China which doesn’t have to reduce carbon emissions until after 2030, and impose vast new rules issued by a vast and now internationally fortified bureaucracy in order to further reduce American emissions.
As the WSJ notes, “Sending Mr. Kerry to negotiate with Chinese President Xi Jinping on climate is a recipe for returning home dressed in a barrel. An obsession with climate will turn a U.S. security strength into a vulnerability.”
The ACLJ is poised to fully inform the American people of the ramifications of any additional attempt to shackle the U.S. with the bondage of unfair and unbalanced climate deals that fail to put the interest of America first – including the radical Left’s push for the socialist Green New Deal.
- The reinstitution of the Iran Nuclear Deal is now on the table. As the New York Times noted, “President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. has promised to move quickly to rejoin the nuclear deal with Iran so long as Iran also comes back into compliance.” But that vow is easier said than done. While President Biden’s pledge pleased the deal’s other signatories, who were angry that President Trump withdrew from it two years ago, returning to the way things were may be impossible, complicated by both Iranian and American politics.
Our job at the ACLJ is to help make rejoining the nuclear accord difficult, if not impossible. To be sure, President Trump made any change in policy difficult as he moved “quickly to increase American sanctions against Iran and sell advanced weapons to its regional enemies, policies that would be difficult for a new president to reverse” before leaving office.
And now as we reported, we’ve seen a coming-together of two of the world’s biggest threats to democracy, China and Iran. While it may actually render President Biden’s attempts to return to the table with Iran moot, this partnership poses a significant concern for matters of global security and peace.
Other Potential Foreign Policy Dangers
- Restoring United States’ membership in the failed World Health Organization
- Funding the Palestinian Authority despite their refusal to stop funding terrorists
- Weakening U.S. Policy supporting Israel
At the ACLJ, we’ve fought these battles before. We’re equipped with a team to fight back again to defend America’s foreign policy interests against the Left’s radical agenda.
In the next installment, I will conclude by laying out the dangers that we anticipate lie ahead in the Biden Administration in defense of the Constitution itself.
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