President Donald Trump said decades of jihadism and terrorism in the Middle East have “backfired” on its perpetrators and emphasized the countries that have previously “reached across ancient divides” are among the region’s most successful.
Trump rebuked Islamic extremism and terrorism and its failed results while addressing the Knesset after brokering the first phase of a peace agreement between Israel and Hamas last week.
“It should now be clear to everyone throughout the region that decades of fomenting terrorism and extremism, jihadism, and antisemitism have not worked. They haven’t worked. They’ve been a disaster. They’ve just killed. They’ve killed,” he said.
“They backfired completely and totally. They’ve just totally backfired–everything that you thought. Take it worst case, it’s turned out to be worse than that. They have not worked from Gaza to Iran; those bitter hatreds have delivered nothing but misery, suffering, failure, and death,” he added.
Instead of weakening Israel, Trump said acts of terrorism and jihadism have served to bring destruction upon “the very forces that did the most to foment this hatred.”
“Everybody that’s tried it has become irrelevant,” the president continued. “Meanwhile, we’ve seen those nations that set aside their differences, reached across ancient divides, and pursued engagement are now among the most successful in the region.”
Trump also declared that “the forces of chaos, terror, and ruin that have plagued the region for decades” are “totally defeated.”
He thanked God– the God of “Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob,” to open his speech and declared that “After so many years of unceasing war and endless danger … the sun rises on a Holy Land that is finally at peace.”
“It will be the Golden Age of Israel, and the Golden Age of the Middle East,” he added.
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