“They hate everything about Israel, and they should be ashamed of themselves,” Trump said of liberal U.S. Jews.

By World Israel News Staff

Presumptive Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. president Donald Trump spoke out about liberal American Jews during a podcast interview on Monday, saying that Jews who vote for the Democratic party are essentially voting against their own interests.

“Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion,” Trump said on a podcast hosted by his former adviser Sebastian Gorka.

“They hate everything about Israel, and they should be ashamed of themselves, because Israel will be destroyed.”

Trump continued by insinuating that the days of bipartisan support for Israel were over, and that the Democratic party and Biden administration are damaging the Jewish State.

He referred to a controversial speech by Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer, who called for new elections and for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be replaced.

Schumer’s remarks sparked serious backlash from numerous Israeli politicians, who slammed the U.S. for interfering in Israel’s domestic policies.

“I actually think they hate Israel,” Trump said of Democrats, though he went on to say he believed the harder line many are taking on Israel was linked to concerns over the upcoming election.

“Don’t forget, when you see those Palestinian marches — even I am amazed at how many people are in those marches,” Trump said.

“And guys like Schumer see that, and to him it’s votes. I think it’s votes more than anything else, because he was always pro-Israel. He’s very anti-Israel now.”

Earlier in March, Trump told Fox News that the October 7th terror “attack on Israel, and likewise, Israel’s counterattack… would never have happened if I was president.”

The Biden administration claimed that Trump’s interview remarks were “vile and antisemitic.”

But Trump’s campaign manager doubled down on the remarks, releasing a statement on Tuesday, saying that the Democratic party “has turned into a full-blown anti-Israel, antisemitic, pro-terrorist cabal.”

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When Trump was in office, he said, Iran “had no money for Hamas, for Hezbollah, they were broke.”

By World Israel News Staff

Former president Donald Trump said that the Hamas terror group would not have launched its unprecedented attack against Israel on October 7th if he had remained in the White House.

Speaking to Fox and Friends in a phone interview, Trump said that the brutal massacres were a sign that Hamas did not fear American intervention.

October 7th “would have never happened if I was president,” Trump said, adding that “Iran was broke.”

Notably, less than a month before the attack, President Joe Biden unfroze some $6 billion in Iranian assets as part of a hostage exchange deal, which Trump at the time said would lead to greater terror in the Middle East.

When Trump was in office, he said, Iran “had no money for Hamas, for Hezbollah, they were broke.”

Hamas and Iran “wouldn’t have done it to me. I guarantee you that. They did this because they have no respect for Biden.”

When asked by the host if he supported the intensity with which Israel is conducting its war in Gaza, Trump replied that “you’ve gotta finish the problem. You had a horrible invasion [that] took place.”

Trump also asserted that the Russian invasion of Ukraine had also occurred due to a lack of American deterrence, caused by Biden.

“Likewise, Russia would never never have attacked Ukraine,” he said. “Never. You know it, everybody knows it. This is all on Biden.”

The former president raised concerns about Biden’s mental faculties, stating that he believes the octogenarian is not the one making decisions in his administration.

“It’s the fascists and the communists [who] surround him. They’re making the calls,” Trump said.

Regarding a potential ceasefire, Trump reiterated once again that “this attack on Israel, and likewise, Israel’s counter attack — which is what it is — would never have happened if I was president.”

He added that if he had remained in office, “all these people that are dead in Ukraine and Russia and Israel, all these areas that are destroyed — people would be leading great lives right now.”

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An Iraqi official said the rocket had struck near the U.S. Embassy. Previous attacks have frequently targeted the American presence in Iraq.

By Associated Press

A rocket struck Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, the seat of Iraq’s government, early on Tuesday morning, according to an Iraqi military statement, the first attack on the area since a new prime minister was sworn in earlier this month.

The Katyusha rocket hit an empty house, causing minor damages. The Green Zone is where government buildings and foreign embassies are located. A preliminary investigation indicated the rocket was launched from the nearby Al-Idrisi neighborhood on Palestine Street, the statement said.

An Iraqi official said the rocket had struck near the U.S. Embassy. The official did not elaborate and spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Previous attacks have frequently targeted the U.S. presence in Iraq, including the embassy and Iraqi bases hosting American troops. The U.S. has blamed Kataib Hezbollah, an Iraqi militia group backed by Iran, of perpetrating the attacks.

The new administration of Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, who came to power earlier this month, is preparing for a strategic dialogue with Washington, expected to take place next month. The talks will touch on security and economic cooperation between both countries.

The issue of militias acting outside of state control is also expected to be on the agenda.

Al-Kadhimi’s government, meanwhile, is scrambling to address a severe financial crisis brought on by falling oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic.

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Pentagon chief Mark Esper said he’s considering leaving an additional contingent in eastern Syria to work with Syrian Kurdish fighters to combat ISIS.

By Associated Press

American President Donald Trump says he still wants to get all U.S. troops out of Syria, but Israel and Jordan have asked him to keep some there.

Just last week, Trump said the roughly 1,000 American troops in northeastern Syria will go home, leaving about 200 at a base in the southeast of the country. Then officials said the bulk of the troops would shift to Iraq.

Trump’s Pentagon chief, Mark Esper, said Monday that he is considering the possibility of leaving an additional contingent in eastern Syria to work with Syrian Kurdish fighters to combat the Islamic State.

Trump also told reporters at the White House Monday that the U.S. would “work something out” with the Kurds in eastern Syria to ensure they have access to income from Syrian oil. He suggested sending an American oil company there to help.

Earlier in the day, Esper said he was discussing an option that would keep a small residual U.S. military force in northeast Syria to secure oil fields and continue the fight against ISIS terrorists.

Trump has insisted he’s bringing home Americans from “endless wars” in the Mideast, but Esper says all U.S. troops leaving Syria will go to western Iraq.

The Pentagon chief said the plan for was still in the discussion phase. Trump has repeatedly said the Islamic State has been defeated and has portrayed the withdrawal of American support for Kurdish forces as part of his larger goal of bringing troops home from the Middle East.

Esper emphasized that the proposal to leave a small number of troops in eastern Syria was intended to give the president “maneuver room” and wasn’t final.

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Trump is crediting his threat of sanctions on Turkey as ‘tough love’ that led the country to agree to a five-day ceasefire in its battle with Kurds in northern Syria.

By Associated Press

The U.S. and Turkey agreed Thursday to a five-day ceasefire in the Turks’ attacks on Kurdish fighters in northern Syria to allow the Kurds to withdraw to roughly 20 miles away from the Turkish border. The arrangement appeared to be a significant embrace of Turkey’s position in the weeklong conflict.

After more than four hours of negotiations with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said the purpose of his high-level mission was to end the bloodshed caused by Turkey’s invasion of Syria. He remained silent on whether the agreement amounted to a second abandonment of America’s former Kurdish allies in the fight against the Islamic State.

Turkish troops and Turkish-backed Syrian fighters launched their offensive against Kurdish forces in northern Syria a week ago, two days after Trump suddenly announced he was withdrawing the U.S. from the area.

Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo lauded the deal as a significant achievement, and Trump declared it “a great day for civilization.”

Kurdish forces were not party to the agreement, and it was not immediately clear whether they would comply. Before the talks, the Kurds indicated they would object to any agreement along the lines of what was announced by Pence. But Pence maintained that the U.S. had obtained “repeated assurances from them that they’ll be moving out.”

Ankara has long argued the Kurdish fighters are nothing more than an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, which has waged a guerrilla campaign inside Turkey since the 1980s and which Turkey, as well as the U.S. and European Union, designate as a terrorist organization.

Trump’s withdrawal of U.S. troops has been widely condemned, including by Republican officials not directly associated with his administration. Republicans and Democrats in the House, bitterly divided over the Trump impeachment inquiry, banded together Wednesday for an overwhelming 354-60 denunciation of the U.S. troop withdrawal.

Trump has denied that his action provided a “green light” for Turkey to move against the longtime U.S. battlefield partners or that he was opening the way for a revival of the Islamic State group and raising worldwide doubts about U.S. faithfulness to its allies.

President Donald Trump is crediting his threat of sanctions on Turkey as “tough love” that led the country to agree to a five-day ceasefire in its battle with Kurds in northern Syria.

Talking to reporters in Fort Worth, Texas, on Thursday, Trump said the Kurds are happy with the deal.

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“This plan is very strong. It has a deep idea, which is fundamentally important and genuine,” Netanyahu said regarding the Trump administration’s economic vision for the Palestinian people.

By World Israel News Staff

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking at the Israel Hayom Forum on U.S.-Israel Relations Thursday evening at the Davidson Center in the Old City of Jerusalem, praised Trump’s economic plan for the Palestinians.

“I do not understand how it can be that the Palestinians, who need to look out for their people, receive proposals for massive investments worth tens of billions of dollars, and say: ‘We are not interested.’ This tells you that the ideology is much stronger and does not allow them even to help their own people,” Netanyahu said.

“[Senior Trump adviser] Jared Kushner and [U.S. negotiator] Jason Greenblatt were in Jerusalem and showed me the details of the plan,” the prime minister added. “This plan is very strong. It has a deep idea, which is fundamentally important and genuine, and that is to replace welfare with investments.”

Regarding Washington’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal last year, Netanyahu remarked:

“When the president walked away from the deal, Iran tried to do two things. First, they tried to implant themselves militarily in Syria. We resist that all the time. We refuse to accept; we will not let Iran entrench itself militarily in Syria. And we do what is necessary to prevent that.

“We’re fighting Iran militarily in Syria, and President Trump essentially is waging a very forceful confrontation with Iran economically.

“Iran is the single greatest threat to world peace today and on the horizon, and it should not be allowed to get nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu stated. “To go back to the JCPOA means letting Iran get nuclear weapons. President Trump has said he will not let Iran get nuclear weapons. I, as the Prime Minister of Israel, will tell you I will not allow Iran to get nuclear weapons. It’s a mistake to go back to the JCPOA.”

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The Muslim Brotherhood accused the government of “assassinating” Morsi through years of poor prison conditions during which he was often kept in solitary confinement.

By Samy Magdy, AP and World Israel News Staff

Egypt’s former president, Mohammed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood leader who rose to office in the country’s first free elections in 2012 and was ousted a year later by the military, collapsed in court during a trial and died Monday, state TV and his family said.

The 67-year-old Morsi had just addressed the court, speaking from the glass cage he is kept in during sessions and warning that he had “many secrets” he could reveal, a judicial official said. A few minutes afterward, he collapsed in the cage, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.

In his final comments, he continued to insist he was Egypt’s legitimate president, demanding a special tribunal, one of his defense lawyers, Kamel Madour told the Associated Press. State TV said Morsi died before he could be taken to the hospital.

The Brotherhood accused the government of “assassinating” Morsi through years of poor prison conditions during which he was often kept in solitary and barred from visits. Egypt’s chief prosecutor said a team of forensic experts would examine Morsi’s body to determine the cause of his death.

It was a dramatic end for a figure who was central in the twists and turns taken by Egypt since its “revolution” — the Arab Spring uprising that in 2011 ousted the country’s longtime authoritarian leader, Hosni Mubarak.

Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s most powerful Islamist group, dominated the elections held after Mubarak’s fall, considered the first free votes the country had seen. First, they gained a majority in parliament, then Morsi squeaked to victory in presidential elections held in 2012.

Critics accused the Brotherhood of seeking to monopolize power and using violence against opponents, and soon massive protests grew against their rule. In July 2013, the military — led by then-Defense Minister, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi — ousted Morsi, dissolved parliament and eventually banned the Brotherhood as a “terrorist group.”

El-Sissi was elected president and re-elected in 2018 in votes that some human rights groups sharply criticized as undemocratic.

US calling Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist entity

The U.S. administration has recently been moving toward designating the Muslim Brotherhood a foreign terrorist organization.

After talks were held in Washington on April 9 between President Donald Trump and his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, the White House reportedly directed national security and diplomatic officials to find a way to place sanctions on the group.

Since his ouster, Morsi and other Brotherhood leaders have been in prison, undergoing multiple trials. Morsi was sentenced to 20 years on charges of ordering Brotherhood members to break up a protest against him, resulting in deaths. Multiple cases are still pending. Monday’s session was part of a retrial, being held inside Cairo’s Tora Prison, on charges of espionage with the Hamas terror group.

Morsi was held in a special wing in Tora nicknamed Scorpion Prison. Rights groups say its poor conditions fall far below Egyptian and international standards. Morsi was known to suffer from diabetes.

Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director with the Human Rights Watch, said in a tweet that Morsi’s death was “terrible but entirely predictable” given the government “failure to allow him adequate medical care, much less family visits.”

Morsi’s son, Ahmed, confirmed the death of his father in a Facebook post, saying, “We will meet again with God.”

Mohammed Sudan, leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood in London, said Morsi was banned from receiving medicine or visits and there was little information about his health condition.

‘Premeditated murder’

“This is premeditated murder. This is slow death.”

Freedom and Justice, the Brotherhood’s political arm, said in a statement on its Facebook page that prison conditions led to Morsi’s death in what amounted to “assassination.”

The judicial official said Morsi had asked to speak to the court during Monday’s session. The judge permitted it, and Morsi gave a speech saying he had “many secrets” that, if he told them, he would be released, but he added that he wasn’t telling them because it would harm Egypt’s national security.

Madour, the defense lawyer, said Morsi spoke for around five minutes before collapsing inside the cage. “He was very calm and organized. He summarized our argument in three to five minutes. He insisted on a special tribunal as he is the president of the republic,” Madour said.

A spokesman for the Interior Ministry did not answer calls seeking comment.

In audio leaked from a 2017 session of one of his trials, Morsi complained that he was “completely isolated” from the court, unable to see or hear his defense team, his eyes pained by lighting inside the cage.

“I don’t know where I am,” he is heard saying in the audio. “It’s steel behind steel and glass behind glass. The reflection of my image makes me dizzy.”

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The NATO ally cannot have both the Russian S-400 anti-missile defense system and America’s most advanced stealth jet, Washington says.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The United States officially informed Turkey last week that it will no longer be a welcome partner in the program producing the F-35 stealth fighter if it insists on going ahead with its purchase of advanced Russian air defense systems.

In a June 6 letter sent to his Turkish counterpart, acting U.S. Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan said that possessing Moscow’s S-400 anti-missile batteries while also being part of the international consortium that is building – and eventually buying — America’s most advanced jet goes against U.S. and NATO interests.

Turkey was planning to purchase a total of 100 F-35A planes. It took formal possession of four jets last year, although Washington has not yet delivered them.

“While we seek to maintain our valued relationship, Turkey will not receive the F-35 if Turkey takes delivery of the S-400,” Shanahan told Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar.

Leaving a window open for Ankara to reconsider its purchase of Russia’s S-400 systems, the letter said that the four Turkish pilots and 38 maintenance personnel who are currently training on the F-35 in the U.S. would be asked to leave only by the end of July.

Furthermore, unless Turkey cancels its purchase of the Russian planes, by early next year the U.S. will end all its contracts with major Turkish companies that are receiving millions of dollars for building parts for the stealth fighter, Shanahan added. This includes Turkish Aerospace Industries, Roketsan and Tusas Engine Industries, among many others, marking a significant blow to Ankara’s sinking economy.

The Pentagon has already found new companies that could take their place in the supply chain, said Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen Lord.

There was never any danger of the Turks getting their hands on secret technical information even while being part of the F-35 program, Lord noted. “We control what is downloaded from our computers,” she said. “We have shared what’s appropriate. The Turks have no critical documentation that we’re concerned about.”

In previous talks on the issue, the Trump administration offered to substitute the American Patriot air defense systems for the S-400, but President Recep Erdoğan refused the offer.

Two of the Russian systems will reportedly be delivered in the coming weeks. According to Akar, Turkish military personnel are already in Russia training on them.

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Pompeo would not be specific about the more recent threat information involving Iran except that they involved “imminent” plans for attacks on U.S. forces.

By Matthew Lee, Associated Press

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a lightning visit Tuesday to Baghdad aimed at showing support for the Iraqi government as the United States has been picking up intelligence that Iran is threatening American interests in the Middle East.

The top American diplomat’s unannounced trip to the Iraqi capital began and ended after nightfall under heavy security following the abrupt cancellation of a visit to Germany.

Journalists from The Associated Press and other organizations accompanying Pompeo were not told of his new destination until his plane left for Baghdad and were not allowed to report on his whereabouts until after his plane had taken off for London.

The secretary told reporters on the flight that his meetings with Iraq’s president and prime minister were intended to demonstrate U.S. support for “a sovereign, independent” Iraq, free from the influence of neighboring Iran.

Pompeo also said he wanted to underscore Iraq’s need to protect Americans in their country.

“We wanted to let them know about the increased threat stream that we had seen and give them a little bit more background on that so they could ensure that they were doing all they could to provide protection for our team,” he said. “They understood, too, it’s important for their country.”

Pompeo’s visit came as the Trump administration intensified its pressure campaign against Iran. The U.S. said this week that it was rushing an aircraft carrier group to the Middle East to deter or respond to any Iranian attack.

U.S. officials have said there were indications Iran was planning to retaliate for the Trump administration’s stepped-up sanctions on the country, although the threat information remains vague.

Pompeo would not be specific about the more recent threat information involving Iran except that they involved “imminent” plans for attacks. “We’re taking every action to deter them,” he said. “Other than that, I just can’t say any more.”

Before landing in Baghdad he said that that he would make clear in his meetings that any attack by Iran or its proxies on American forces in Iraq would affect the Iraqi government too.

The “campaign to continue to prevent ISIS terror inside of Iraq itself is something that’s very central … to the Iraqi government,” Pompeo said.

In Washington, an American official said the decision to deploy the carrier group and a group of Air Force bombers to the Middle East was based in part on intelligence indications that Iran had moved short-range ballistic missiles by boat in waters off its shores.

Iran, meanwhile, was expected to announced Wednesday that it would partially withdraw from the nuclear deal it struck with world powers in 2015.

As tensions rise between Washington and Tehran, Baghdad in some ways is caught in the middle. Iraq has a close relationship with the U.S., which is leading the international coalition in the war against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. More than 5,000 U.S. troops are stationed on Iraqi soil.

But Iraq is also tightly enmeshed with Iran in trade, security and political matters, and it has been loath to antagonize its larger neighbor. Iran won the ear of many top Iraqi politicians after it stepped in to fill the political vacuum following the 2003 U.S. invasion. It also can count on the loyalty of several powerful Iraqi militias, which have fought previously against U.S. forces in the country and on the side of Iran’s allies in Syria in that country’s civil war.

Responding to a question about whether Iraq could protect U.S. interests from attacks by Iran and its proxy forces, Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi said Tuesday that Iraq takes its responsibilities seriously. “This is an obligation that Iraq honors,” he said.

The Trump administration has made several recent moves to squeeze Iran. Last month, President Donald Trump announced the U.S. would no longer exempt any countries from U.S. sanctions if they continue to buy Iranian oil. The U.S. also designated Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist group, the first time it has ever taken such a step for an entire division of another government.

President Trump withdrew from the Obama administration’s landmark nuclear deal with Iran in May 2018 and, in the months that followed, reinstated punishing sanctions, including those targeting Iran’s oil, shipping and banking sectors.

While the president has sought to dismantle much of President Barack Obama’s policies, he particularly criticized the Iran nuclear deal for failing to address Tehran’s ballistic missile program and what he described as its malign influence across the rest of the Mideast.

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“We’re not trying to impose our will,” Trump adviser Jared Kushner said regarding the soon-to-be-released ‘deal of the century.’ 

By Atara Beck, World Israel News

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, was interviewed at the TIME 100 Summit Tuesday, answering questions on a wide range of issues, including criminal justice reform, the Mueller report findings, the Middle East, immigration, his role in the Trump administration, and more.

Asked about the U.S. relationship with Saudi Crown Prince, who, according to U.S. Intelligence Services, ordered the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Kushner said he would not dispute the intelligence agency nor would he discuss intelligence-related issues.

What he did say was that during the president’s trip to Saudi Arabia in May 2017 – his first trip abroad as president – the administration laid out its top four priorities in the region.

Number one priority: Iran

The number one priority, he said, is “countering Iran… We worked with allies to push back at Iran’s aggression.”

“Everywhere in the Middle East where you look, there’s terrorism…all being funded by Iran, and they’re trying to destabilize the region. They chant Death to America, Death to Israel,” he added.

The second priority, he said, was to defeat ISIS, and “we have now destroyed the physical caliphate and taken that land back.”

Third is “defeating the ideology of extremism. We’ve worked very closely with the Saudis to try to figure out how do you clean out a lot of the poison that was being taught in the mosques, and I think we’re making more progress than people thought we would be able to do.”

The fourth priority is the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Kushner reiterated that President Trump’s long-awaited peace plan for the Israelis and Palestinians will be unveiled after Ramadan, which ends on June 4.

‘We’ve taken an unconventional approach’

“Hopefully it provides a framework to maybe break through a very difficult problem that’s been plaguing that region for a very, very long time. We’ve taken an unconventional approach,” analyzing why previous attempts have failed, he said, while allowing that “there’s been some tremendous work done” by previous negotiators.

“We’ve tried to do it a little bit differently,” Kushner explained. “Normally they start with a process and then hope that the process leads to a resolution for something to happen. What we’ve done is the opposite. We’ve done very extensive research and a lot of talking to a lot of the people. We’re not trying to impose our will.”

Asked whether the plan will involve a two-state solution and whether it could get Arab countries’ support, he didn’t answer the question directly, saying, “I think that if people focus on the old traditional talking points, then we’ll never make progress.

“Our focus is really on the bottom up, which is: How do you make the lives of the Palestinian people better? What can you resolve to allow these areas to become more investable? We deal with all the core status issues because you have to do it, but we’ve also built a robust business plan for the whole region…

‘Tough compromises for both’ sides

“I think that the two together have the opportunity to push forward,” he continued. “And then, from Israel’s point of view, their biggest concern is just security.

“We’ve done a lot of things that are very important for Israel’s security. That’s one of the president’s priorities; he campaigned on it…

“I’m not saying they’re going to look at it and say, this is perfect and let’s go forward. I’m hopeful that what they’ll do is to say, look, there are some compromises here, but at the end of the day, this is really a framework that can allow us to make our lives all materially better. And we’ll see if the leadership on both sides has the courage to take the lead to try to go forward…

“There’ll be tough compromises for both,” Kushner said.

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Pompeo thinks Trump may have been chosen to help save the Jews. But even if you leave religion out of it, there’s no denying that this is the most pro-Israel administration yet.

By Jonathan S. Tobin, Editor-in-Chief, JNS

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said something last week timed to the Jewish holiday of Purim that made a lot of people snicker.

He was asked by an interviewer from the Christian Broadcasting Network if U.S. President Donald Trump had been “raised for such a time as this, just like Queen Esther to help save the Jewish people from the Iranian menace?”

Pompeo’s response went directly to the point: “As a Christian, I certainly believe that is possible.”

He went on to say that he was confident that “the Lord is at work here,” when he surveyed “the work our administration has done to make sure this democracy in the Middle East, that this Jewish state, remains.”

Many heard this and mocked (with good reason) the notion that Trump could possibly be compared to the heroine of the Purim story.

But so deep runs the contempt for Christian conservatives among some sectors of the chattering classes, as well as the foreign-policy establishment, that Pompeo’s willingness to speak of “the Lord” was enough to set eyes rolling.

Others, like Rabbi Jonah Pesner, head of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, deplored the introduction of theology—even one that is favorable to Zionism and the Jewish people—into any discussion of foreign policy.

That was an opinion echoed in The New Republic. It published a scathing attack on Trump and Pompeo for seeking to carry out a “Christianization of U.S. foreign policy.” The magazine blasted the administration’s policies on Pompeo’s own evangelical faith. TNR and other voices on the left have often blamed Trump’s tilt towards Israel on a desire to curry favor with evangelicals.

As with every discussion of Christian support for Israel, Pompeo’s comments prompted some to regurgitate the familiar claims from some on the left that avowed Christian Zionists, like the secretary of state, are only supporting Israel because they wish to set off an apocalyptic scenario that would generate the return of the Christian messiah.

The support of evangelicals like Pompeo is sincere and rooted in a genuine concern for Israel’s well-being that is rooted firmly in biblical texts, not eschatological scenarios. The notion that Jews should be wary of Christians because of their theology is also absurd. Even if all of them were focused on what would happen after Jesus’ return, the idea that Jews, who don’t believe in such a possibility, should worry about what would happen then is ridiculous.

But the more important question to be asked is how Jews—the vast majority of whom purport to care about Israel and its safety—can dismiss Trump’s record on this issue as being of either negligible importance or assert that his policies are actually bad for the Jewish state?

Debate about Trump’s attitude should be over

After this week’s signing by Trump of a proclamation recognizing Israeli sovereignty on the Golan Heights, the debate about his attitude towards Israel should be over. The timing of the declaration was almost certainly aimed at aiding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s re-election campaign. But the recognition of Israel’s hold on the Golan sent a stronger message to Iran, whose forces and Hezbollah auxiliaries are occupying Syrian territory, than it did to Israel’s voters. It at least partially offset Trump’s ill-advised desire to pull U.S. troops out of eastern Syria and reinforced the administration’s tough stance against the Islamist republic.

Moreover, when placed in the context of Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, his unwillingness to accept—as did previous presidents—the Palestinian Authority’s intransigence and financial support for terrorism, and his pulling out of the disastrous 2015 nuclear deal with Iran brokered by his predecessor, there’s no longer any room to deny the depth of the support of this administration for the Jewish state.

This isn’t to argue that this one aspect of his administration must cancel out any other consideration when thinking about 2020. But it does mean that an honest discussion about Trump’s policy when it comes to Israel requires us to discard our partisan lens and understand that whatever his true motivation or how he arrived at his conclusions, what he has done has greatly strengthened Israel’s strategic position.

Argument made against Trump in 2016 falls flat

Some have argued that Trump’s “America First” beliefs will undermine America’s position in the world and ultimately weaken Israel. But while that was a reasonable argument to make in 2016, before we knew how he would govern, it no longer makes sense in light of Trump’s strong stance on Iran or his desire to persuade NATO allies to strengthen their defenses. Indeed, with France and Germany—whose leaders are supposedly the epitome of true Western values—bent on appeasing Iran, that argument now falls flat.

Nor has his inconsistent policy towards Russia—a combination of weak talk and strong policies that are much tougher than those of our European allies—endangered Israel, given that it was Barack Obama who punted Syria to Moscow, not Trump.

Trump has done more than merely reverse Obama’s goal of creating more “daylight” between the United States and Israel. He has promoted policies that have discarded decades of foolish conventional wisdom about the Middle East and replaced it with stances on the conflict that are rooted in realpolitik and recognition of Israel’s rights and security needs.

That doesn’t mean Trump is perfect and, as whoever wins the April elections in Israel may find out, his peace plan may cause more harm than good. But it’s past time that his critics acknowledge that what he’s done with respect to Israel places him above any other American president with respect to friendship for the Jewish state, including Harry Truman (whom many Jewish admirers also spoke of in religious terms), Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush.

That doesn’t make Trump Queen Esther. But whether or not you intend to vote for him next year, it is past time to stop pretending that this administration’s policies towards Israel can be depicted as anything but a historic breakthrough that should be properly noted and applauded.

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Following US President Donald Trump’s official recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad told Lebanon’s Mayadeen TV that his country has the right to employ armed struggle to “liberate” the Heights.

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“We’ll spend a lot of time talking with the Lebanese government about how we can help them disconnect from the threat that Iran and Hezbollah present,” Pompeo told reporters earlier this week.

By Associated Press

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held talks with Lebanese leaders on Friday amid strong regional condemnation of President Donald Trump’s declaration that it’s time the U.S. recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

During his two-day visit, Pompeo is meeting with top officials, including some who are aligned with the Iran- and Syria-allied terrorist Hezbollah group.

The visit is the last leg of a Mideast tour that took Pompeo to Kuwait and Israel, where he lauded warm ties with Israel, met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on at least three separate occasions, including an official visit to the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem, and promised to step up pressure on Iran.

From Israel, Pompeo’s plane travelled through the Cypriot airspace, as Lebanon, which is technically in a state of war with Israel, bans direct flights from Israel.

Once on the ground, Pompeo was taken to the Interior Ministry for a brief meeting with Raya El-Hassan, who was named earlier this year as the Arab world’s first female minister in charge of security.

Pompeo also met with Lebanon’s powerful Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, before heading for a working lunch with Prime Minister Saad Hariri. The State Department’s deputy spokesman, Robert Palladino, said Pompeo highlighted in the meeting with Berri U.S. concerns about Hezbollah’s “destabilizing activities in Lebanon and the region” as well as the need to maintain calm along the border between Lebanon and Israel.

In his Lebanon visit, Pompeo hopes to step up pressure on Hezbollah, which wields more power than ever in parliament and the government.

“We’ll spend a lot of time talking with the Lebanese government about how we can help them disconnect from the threat that Iran and Hezbollah present,” Pompeo told reporters earlier this week.

“Hezbollah is a terrorist organization. You ask how tough I am going to be? It is a terrorist organization. Period. Full stop,” Pompeo said in Jerusalem on Thursday.

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“You made history,” Netanyahu told Trump in a phone call, thanking the U.S. leader for recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

By Associated Press

U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday that it’s time for the United States to recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the disputed Golan Heights, an announcement that signals a shift in U.S. policy and comes ahead of the Israeli prime minister’s planned visit next week to the White House.

The administration has been considering recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Six Day War, when the then-tiny Jewish state was threatened with annihilation by the surrounding Arab nations. Last week, in its annual human rights report, the State Department dropped the phrase “Israeli-occupied” from the Golan Heights section, instead calling it “Israeli-controlled.”

“After 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel’s Sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and Regional Stability!” Trump tweeted on Thursday.

Minutes later, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted his appreciation. “At a time when Iran seeks to use Syria as a platform to destroy Israel, President Trump boldly recognizes Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. Thank you President Trump!”

US promises to keep pressure on Iran

Trump’s announcement came as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in Jerusalem, lauding warm ties with Israel and promising to step up pressure on Iran.

Netanyahu thanked Pompeo for the Trump administration’s strong stance against Iran, which Israel regards as an existential threat.

“You could imagine what would have happened if Israel were not in the Golan,” Netanyahu said. “You would have Iran on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.”

Pompeo paid a solemn visit Thursday to Jerusalem’s Western Wall along with Netanyahu, where deposited written prayers in its crevices and then toured nearby tunnels and a synagogue.

The secretary said he thought it was important to visit the wall with the Israeli leader as a show of support for Israel.

“I think it’s symbolic that a senior American official go there with a prime minister of Israel,” he said before making the trip. “It’s a place that’s important to many faiths, and I’m looking forward to it. I think it will be very special.”

Israel also captured east Jerusalem and the Old City in the 1967 war, and for decades, U.S. officials refrained from visiting the Western Wall with Israeli leaders to avoid the appearance of recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the city’s most sensitive holy sites. The Palestinians seek east Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.

But the Trump administration has upended the longstanding policy, moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem last year after recognizing the city as Israel’s capital. Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its eternal and indivisible capital.

Senior U.S. officials, including Trump and numerous predecessors, have visited the wall privately in the past, but never with an Israeli leader.

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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, accompanied by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, visited the Old City of Jerusalem, where he placed a note in the Western Wall and visited the Shaarei Teshuva synagogue in the tunnels.

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After earlier reports that the battle against ISIS has been concluded, U.S.-backed forces now say that their effort has been slowed.

By Associated Press

U.S.-backed forces fighting to take back the last Islamic State group outpost in Syria say they are facing difficulties defeating the group.

A spokesman says their effort is being slowed by mines, tunnels and the possibility of harming women and children still in the village.

Dozens of men and women were seen walking around the besieged ISIS encampment in the village of Baghouz Sunday, as fighters from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) watched from a hilltop close by.

SDF spokesman Kino Gabriel said the camp was approximately 250 kilometers in size, much the same area that it was five weeks ago when the SDF said it was going to finally conclude the battle.

“We are facing several difficulties regarding the operations,” Gabriel told reporters outside Baghouz Sunday.

These difficulties contrast sharply with the report earlier this month of people leaving the last area held by Islamic State in eastern Syria. Under the cover of heavy coalition bombing on March 1-2, SDF forces had advanced on the besieged tent encampment, leaving a corridor for residents to leave.

However, while many thousands of residents and many fighters evacuated Baghouz over the next several days, many others remained behind, leading to speculation that another battle was about to begin.

A U.S. senior defense official said in Washington earlier in the month that it would not come as a surprise, based on the current conditions, if it were to take another week or two to finish “mopping up” the ISIS enclave. Amid the latest difficulties, it would appear that the assessment might have been too optimistic.

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