AIPAC Luncheon
Sacramento, California
February 12, 2017
For the last eight years, these luncheons have marked a steadily darkening scene in the Middle East.The Arab Spring brought the Muslim Brotherhood to temporary power in Egypt and made possible the military supply of Hamas in Gaza.
The Iran Nuclear Agreement freed billions of dollars for that regime to finance its terrorist operations around the world, and has done little to slow Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons and the ballistic missiles to deliver them.
Ransom payments of $400 million in untraceable euros, Swiss francs and other currencies to Iran are no doubt financing terrorist attacks yet to unfold.
The U.N. condemnation of Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria, severely undermined Israel’s security and diplomatic standing.
Clearly we are approaching a period of maximum danger for both Israel and the United States as these policies play out.
But rather than despair, today, for the first time in many years, there is cause for optimism. It is always darkest before the dawn and dawn is now breaking.
After the U.N. ambush in December, Prime Minister Netanyahu said this was – quote -- "The swan song of the old world biased against Israel.” He said, “We are entering a new era and as President-elect Trump said yesterday, this is going to happen much quicker than people think.”
Our new administration has declared its unabashed support for Israel, a position in concert with the will of Congress and of the American people.
There will be no more pallets of American cash for the mullahs, no more backstabbing at the United Nations, and no more patience for terrorist attacks made by Islamic extremists against America or its allies.
President Trump has vowed to move the American embassy in Israel to its rightful and official capital city of Jerusalem, and the early fulfillment of this promise must not be delayed. It will stand both as a symbol of American resolve and of the Administration’s integrity.
America must now stop funding our mutual enemies in the region; and once again treat our friends better than our enemies.
America takes no notice of a person’s religion. But it has every right and every reason to take notice of alien political ideologies that pose a direct threat to our nation’s Constitution, its founding principles, the fundamental tenets of Western Civilization and to world peace. And it has every responsibility to act to protect itself and its allies from those who would impose this ideology either at home or abroad.
Time will tell whether the moment of maximum danger for Israel, the United States, and Western civilization is indeed now passing into the wake of history. But I am confident that the litany of setbacks and defeats that we have bemoaned at these luncheons for the past eight years will soon begin to be replaced by advances and victories in the days and years and generations ahead.
Source: Congressman Tom McClintock
