Republican front-runner Donald Trump has affirmed complete support for Israel, declaring that a Trump presidency will veto any UN-imposed Middle East peace deal and dismantle Iran’s global terror network, even as he sought to articulate a largely non-interventionist US foreign policy.
Trump used a major address to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee on Monday to quietly dump his much-assailed position of neutrality in peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine and project himself as “a lifelong supporter and true friend of Israel”.
Israel and Palestine must negotiate a settlement themselves, with the US at best being a facilitator of negotiations, he said, making it clear that no one can tell Israel it must abide by some agreement made by others thousands of miles away. “When I’m President, I will veto any attempt by the UN to impose its will on the Jewish state,” he said.
A little earlier in the day, speaking to The Washington Post Editorial Board, Trump sought to project a different world-view in which he would like to see the United States reduce its stake in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and curtail its military presence in Asia. NATO, as he put it, is “costing us a fortune” and the US can’t afford it anymore.
He made the case for America steering its resources towards rebuilding its crumbling infrastructure rather than take care of allies, commenting: “I know the outer world exists, and I’ll be very cognizant of that. But at the same time, our country is disintegrating, large sections of it, especially the inner cities.”
Trump quickly changed gear at AIPAC, where Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton had sought to expose him hours earlier, remarking: “We need steady hands, not a president who says he’s neutral on Monday, pro-Israel on Tuesday, and who knows what on Wednesday, because everything’s negotiable.”
“Israel’s security is non-negotiable. America can’t ever be neutral when it comes to Israel’s security or survival,” Clinton had said to prolonged cheers at the packed venue, adding: “Anyone who doesn’t understand that has no business being our president.”
When he took his turn, Trump took swipes at President Obama and his administration, including Clinton as his former Secretary of State, for allegedly pursuing wrong deals that pressured America’s friends and rewarded its enemies, thereby emboldening those who hate America.
“When I become president, the days of treating Israel like a second-class citizen will end on Day One,” Trump asserted as he condemned the Iran nuclear deal which, as he put it, has ended up with the US rewarding “the world’s leading State sponsor of terrorism with $150 billion” and receiving “absolutely nothing in return”.
“My number one priority is to dismantle the disastrous deal with Iran. I have been in business a long time. I know deal-making and let me tell you, this deal is catastrophic – for America, for Israel, and for the whole Middle East,” he said but later in the course of the same address said he, as President, would ensure “restructuring” the terms of the deal.