Address on Antisemitism, Israel and the Abraham Accords

I want to begin by thanking Foreign Minister Saar for this kind invitation, and I regret that I cannot be with you all in person.

Golda Meir once said, "It took Moses forty years to find the only place in the Middle East with no oil."

But Israel's wealth lay not under the ground, but in its people, the Jewish people, exiles, pilgrims, and dreamers from around the world who made the desert bloom into a high-tech superpower.

Israel accomplished this miracle not by abandoning its history and identity, but by embracing them.

Sadly, some of Israel's neighbors have failed to appreciate how following Israel's example could have brought prosperity to the region.

Instead, they chose war. They decided to impoverish their people in a futile effort to destroy Israel.

They succeeded in the former while failing in the latter.

Antisemitism is the world's oldest bigotry, and given that we are all here today, it is also the world's most futile.

Egyptian pharaohs, Roman emperors, Persian sh-shahs, and Middle Eastern despots have sought to destroy the nation of Israel.

Adolf Hitler dreamed of a world without Jews, an idea he shares with Hamas.

Today, these regimes and empires have crumbled into dust, but Israel stands and the Jewish people prosper.

I pray for the day when the entire world will recognize the futility of antisemitism, when leaders will abandon self-destructive hatred and forge a new future in partnership with Israel by building on the Abraham Accords.

Under President Trump's leadership, there are signs that the future may be closer than we dared dream, but only if we can overcome the futile, persistent evil of antisemitism can we reach that future.

Earlier this year, I stood beside Foreign Minister Saar at the Yad Vashem Memorial.

I remembered the millions of Jews who were slaughtered and reflected on the meaning of the words, "Never again."

The importance of those words were brought home to every American last week when Yaron Lifshitz and Sarah Milgram were murdered in cold blood outside of the Capital Jewish Museum here in Washington, D.C.

Yaron was a Christian born in Germany who came to love the Jewish state.

Sarah was from Kansas and loved Yaron. They dreamed of marrying in Jerusalem, and instead they were cut down in cold blood by a monster who did not care about Yaron's faith or Sarah's background.

We should never forget that as he was being arrested after killing two innocents who he believed were Jews, the murderer proudly screamed, "Free, free Palestine," words that now serve as a battle cry for the death of Jews, the destruction of Israel,

and the horrors we must never again allow.

There can be no compromise with antisemitism.

There can be no nuanced separation of hatred of Israel and hatred of the Jewish people.

Those who call to boycott Israel are calling for the boycott of their Jewish neighbors and classmates.

Those who call for violence against Israelis are calling for violence against Jews.

Those who call for the destruction of Israel are calling for the destruction of the Jewish people.

That is why, as we extend our prayers to Yaron and Sarah's loved ones, we must stand in solidarity with Israel.

There can be no coexistence with evil. There can be no nuance to hatred.

Under President Trump, the United States will stand with the Jewish people.

We have implemented a vigorous new visa policy that will prevent foreign nationals from coming to the United States to foment hatred against our Jewish community.

We are holding international organizations and nations accountable for rhetoric against Israel that resurfaces in the manifesto of monsters like Yaron and Sarah's killer.

But we do see an eventual light at the end of this long tunnel of suffering.

One can imagine a Middle East in which the Abraham Accords eventually reign.

So thank you for the opportunity to address you.