David Friedman, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel under President Donald Trump, described how the Biden administration reversed Trump’s efforts to weaken Iran’s authoritarian regime. He also claimed that Vice President Kamala Harris doesn’t “truly believe in the cause or the fundamental justice of a Jewish state.”
“When we left office, Iran was on the verge of bankruptcy,” Friedman told The Media Line’s Felice Friedson. “Qasem Soleimani, who had been their chief architect of terror, had been eliminated by the United States, imposing great fear and concern on the part of the mullahs. And then Biden comes in.”
“Iran began to sell oil in large amounts to China, to Russia, two of America’s greatest adversaries. Large, specific amounts,” he noted. “There was like a $6 billion gift here, a $10 billion gift there. That seemed to make no sense. So what happened to Iran? Iran more than doubled its GDP in a couple of years by about $200 billion.”
He noted that Iran likely used the funds to back terrorist groups, including Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis—all of which are engaged in conflict with Israel. He went on to recall how close the Trump administration had been to achieving normalized relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, saying, “I think we needed about six more months in our administration to get the Saudis on our side.” Friedman added that Indonesia and “some of the secondary Gulf nations” had also been ready to establish ties with the Jewish state.
“What people need to understand about the Abraham Accords is it wasn’t about showing these countries that we could move away from Israel,” he stated. “It was about showing these countries how closely we were aligned with Israel. That’s what made Israel the most attractive partner to the Gulf, that they were rock-solid aligned with the United States.”
“What I thought then, and I think what’s been proven to be the case, is that the US-Israel alliance, at its strongest, is the fulcrum upon which you can then expand peace throughout the Middle East,” he said. “As it weakens, those opportunities not only become less, but the potential for malign activity and mischief becomes greater.”
Discussing the 2024 election, he commented that some Jews who support Kamala Harris “just want to convince themselves that she will be better for Israel or more effective at combating antisemitism than Trump. I don’t think there’s an intellectually honest way to arrive at that conclusion.”
Friedman also referenced Trump’s 2019 executive order, which declared, “My Administration is committed to combating the rise of anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic incidents in the United States and around the world. Anti-Semitic incidents have increased since 2013, and students, in particular, continue to face anti-Semitic harassment in schools and on university and college campuses. … It shall be the policy of the executive branch to enforce Title VI against prohibited forms of discrimination rooted in anti-Semitism as vigorously as against all other forms of discrimination prohibited by Title VI.”
He described the order as an “enormously important” tool that President Joe Biden has not implemented.
“You can’t get tenure at a major American university if you’re pro-Israel,” Friedman asserted. “We’ve seen that over and over again. And this is the breeding ground for the leaders of America for the next 20, 30, 40 years.”
Saying he was “really nervous” about a world where Harris won the election, he continued, “Who’s going to deal with making sure Israel has the weapons it needs to defend itself? The only thing Kamala Harris has ever said that’s in favor of Israel is that they have the right to defend themselves. I’d like her to point to any country in the world that, after it’s been attacked, doesn’t have the right to defend itself. It’s a meaningless platitude. Where she goes with that, I don’t know. I don’t think she really believes in the cause, in the ultimate justice of a Jewish state.”
