BY: ROBERT SPENCER, PJ MEDIA MAY 18, 2017
Speaking Friday about President Trump’s trip to the Middle East, National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster said that Trump would:
… develop a strong, respectful message that the United States and the entire civilized world expects our Muslim allies to take a strong stance against radical Islamist ideology.
Those who are aware of how badly U.S. foreign policy has run off the rails over the last fifteen years should be deeply disturbed.
The world has been waiting in vain for that decade-and-a-half for “our Muslim allies to take a strong stance against radical Islamist ideology.” McMaster’s words were a disquieting indication that the foreign policy swamp, one in the most dire need of draining, has instead turned the tables on the president.
Trump now appears set to repeat all the mistakes his last two predecessors made in dealing with the global jihad threat.
McMaster added that jihad terrorists were operating according to “an ideology that uses a perverted interpretation of religion to justify crimes against all humanity.” But Trump, on the other hand, “will call for Muslim leaders to promote a peaceful vision of Islam.”
Here we go again.
How many times since 9/11 has one American spokesman or another declared that “the United States and the entire civilized world expects our Muslim allies to take a strong stance against radical Islamist ideology”? And what do we have to show for this expectation? How many years must we expect this before we realize that our “Muslim allies” have vastly different priorities than what mainstream counterterror analysts would wish to believe?
Pakistan’s government sheltered first bin Laden and now Zawahiri, was involved in the Mumbai jihad massacre and other jihad attacks, and has funneled much of the money the U.S. gave it to fight al-Qaeda and the Taliban to … al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
Turkey has repeatedly refused to strike strongly against the Islamic State (ISIS). President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is much more concerned with hitting Assad and the Kurds.
How long do we keep waiting on these “Muslim allies” to do the right thing, and weakly and pusillanimously calling upon them to do so?
And Trump “will call for Muslim leaders to promote a peaceful vision of Islam”? Well, there’s something we’ve never seen tried before!
Where has McMaster been for the last decade-and-a-half? Buried deep in the foreign policy establishment swamp that has been serving up this nonsense all these years. And now he has apparently sold President “Drain The Swamp” on it.
Both Bush and Obama called for Muslim leaders to promote a peaceful vision of Islam; they also both claimed that the jihadis’ version of Islam “uses a perverted interpretation of religion.” Where did it get them? The same place comforting falsehoods always take you: into a maze of blind alleys and failed policies based on incorrect analysis.
Even worse, McMaster said:
[W]ith President Abbas, Trump will express his desire for dignity and self-determination for the Palestinians.
Does no one around Trump understand that a Palestinian state would immediately become a strengthened base for new and more virulent jihad attacks against a weakened Israel? When they met in Washington recently, Abbas lied brazenly to President Trump: he claimed that his government “educates for peace,” and that the Palestinian Authority is “raising our youth, our children, our grandchildren on a culture of peace.” Meanwhile, on the same day, Abbas’ government honored 12 jihad mass murderers who are responsible for the deaths of 95 people.
The foreign policy establishment’s house organ, Foreign Policy, is worried that “in the White House ‘Game of Thrones for morons,’ Steve Bannon is trying to turn the president against his national security advisor.” We can only hope that Bannon succeeds. It’s ironic that Foreign Policy would dub the Trump team “morons” when it is the foremost exponent of the analyses and policies that have failed multiple times, and that McMaster is once again pushing.
Once again, because he has done this before. In February, according to CNN:
[A]t an all-hands meeting of the National Security Council, [McMaster] said jihadist terrorists aren’t true to their professed religion and that the use of the phrase “radical Islamic terrorism” doesn’t help the US in working with allies to defeat terrorist groups.
A source who has asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals has informed me that he was present in August 2014 when McMaster was the featured speaker for the President’s Lecture Series at National Defense University in Washington. In his address, McMaster said flatly:
The Islamic State is not Islamic.
Now, this was during the Obama regime, when that was the official policy of the U.S. government, but President Trump has repeatedly criticized his predecessor (and his 2016 election opponent) for not being willing to call the problem of jihad terror by its right name. When he first became president, Trump repeatedly stated his determination to eradicate “radical Islamic terrorism.”
But what McMaster has announced represents a giant step backward in the effort to do that.
This represents a huge victory for the McCain/Graham Republican establishment, which subscribes no less than McMaster does to the “Islam is a religion of peace” line, and is also trying to neutralize Trump and keep the swamp from being drained.
Don’t break this promise, Mr. President.
Sebastien Zorn Said:
Not so far:
Trump hasn’t topped Johnson or Nixon.
He hasn’t even topped George H.W. Bush!
Bush tried to freeze loan guarantees for Israel over settlements but:
“Bush’s relations with the Jewish community, however, were far more nuanced than the issue of loan guarantees. As vice president, he personally spearheaded Operation Joshua, the 1985 rescue of Ethiopian Jewry, and was involved in every step of the U.S. military’s manning and execution of that mission. In 1991, America was a key to the success of Operation Solomon, which brought 14,000 more Ethiopian Jews to Israel. In 1991, the Bush administration succeeded in reversing the infamous U.N. resolution that equated Zionism with racism.”
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/george-h-w-bush
“President George H.W. Bush Tells the U.N.: Zionism Is Not Racism (September 23, 1991) President George H.W. Bush called on the United Nations to repeal the infamous 1975 resolution that equated Zionism with racism.”
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4471118/president-george-hw-bush-tells-un-zionism-racism
In Bush Sr.’s opening words, he calls the resolution a mockery of the UN Charter’s mandate to promote tolerance.
tolerance.
Hmmmm. Where have I heard that word before? Recently. Tip of my tongue.
If Trump thinks he can rest on his laurels now, he is sadly mistaken.
@ Abolish_public_education:
Correction. I will vote for Huckabee. I will do a “write-in” ballot if need be. I switched to Republican in 2015 so I could vote for Huckabee in the 2016 primary only to be disappointed to learn that it was between Trump and Cruz in NY, which was among the last to vote. I wonder if you can do a write-in in the primary? Didn’t occur to me to ask last time. I just voted for Cruz on Caroline Glick’s recommendation. Trump was talking about neutrality. Later retracted it. I guess he meant it. Pretty upset right now.
Did I mention that all of my Jewish relatives (some are Christians by birth) who live outside the U.S., not only live in Israel but in Shomron? I’m not religious. I’m worried about my family and my people. This is personal.
Waddya know. The liberals turned out to be right about somethin’
“The personal is political.”
“Watch: Huckabee prays at Joseph’s Tomb
Former Arkansas governor joins group of 5,000 worshipers at Joseph’s Tomb, says Jews shouldn’t be forced to pray in the dead of night.”
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/229966
”
MainAll NewsInside IsraelWatch: Huckabee prays at Joseph’s Tomb
Watch: Huckabee prays at Joseph’s Tomb
Former Arkansas governor joins group of 5,000 worshipers at Joseph’s Tomb, says Jews shouldn’t be forced to pray in the dead of night.
Contact Editor Eliran Aharon, 22/05/17 04:34
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Hours before U.S. President Donald Trump arrives in Israel, his close associate, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, visited Joseph’s Tomb in Shechem on Sunday night.
Huckabee was part of a group of 5,000 worshipers who came to pray at the site, led by the Shomron Regional Council together with the director of Joseph’s Tomb and the holy sites.
Among those in attendance were Yossi Dagan, head of the Shomron Regional Council, his deputy Davidi Ben Zion, MK Bezalel Smotrich (Jewish Home), Major-General Roni Numa who heads the IDF’s Central Command, IDF Shomron Division Commander Gilad Amit, and thousands of worshipers from Israel and around the world.
“I wish to recognize, even on this week in which the President will come to Israel, that it’s still very difficult for many people to come to the holy sites, and it’s my prayer, as I come here with you, that the holy sites that you and that I embrace will be accessible, and that we will not have to come in the dead of night in order to pray and seek the Lord’s face,” said Huckabee.
“It should not be that way, and I hope the day comes when the freedom for God’s people to come and to pray is uninhibited and unhindered by any violence by those who seek to prevent you from being able to say this prayer. That you could do it in the daylight, in the sunshine, and not in the darkness of night,” he added.
Dagan, who met earlier on Sunday evening with U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, said, “We had the fortune of entering Joseph’s Tomb tonight with a Zionist who is a true friend of Israel, Mike Huckabee, who can teach many of us about the love for this country. People from all over the country and the world came here to realize their natural right to worship.”
“We regret the fact that we are forced to enter this compound at night. I hope that the State of Israel will succeed in acting in such a way that respects the Jewish people and the State of Israel and will exercise sovereignty. Hours before the arrival of the most sympathetic American President that the State of Israel has ever had, it is important that we remember that no one will defend our interests for us. Our future depends on us,” added Dagan, who thanked the IDF’s Samaria Brigade for their assistance in entering the compound and for their continuing activities for the security of the residents of Samaria and the entire State of Israel.”
and photos
@ Abolish_public_education:
If Trump continues to behave like an anti-Israel Democrat, I may very well just do that in four years. Actually, no maybe about it.
what’s next, the wall?
Are we going to witness a debacle with Israel?
Denying the exclusive Jewishness of Jerusalem is Antisemitism 1.0.1!
:
Don’t vote.