Pastor Mario Bramnick, President of the Hispanic Israel Leadership Coalition, said members of his organization enthusiastically support both President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for ambassador to Israel and efforts in Congress to force the United Nations to rescind Security Council Resolution 2334.
“In light of the Obama Administration’s eight years of anti-Israel policy, [Ambassador-designate David Friedman]’s appointment sends a powerful signal that President Elect Trump will strengthen the bond between America and its greatest ally in the Middle East, Israel,” he said Monday. “[The Resolution 2334] vote will strengthen the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel; it will lead to more world court actions based on international law. There is a growing global anti-Semitism, and unfortunately it seems to be led by our [President Barack Obama].”
The Friedman Nomination
Bramnick said the Trump Administration has vowed to work to rescind the United Nation’s resolution condemning Israel, to roll back the Iranian deal, to move the U.S. embassy to the eternal undivided capital of Israel, Jerusalem, and to repair relations with our greatest ally in the Middle East, which have eroded through the Obama administration over the last eight years.
His organization worked directly with Friedman on developing the Trump-Pence campaign’s pro-Israel policy proposals. Friedman said the Trump administration will support Israel in reaching its own conclusion about how to best achieve peace with its neighbors.
“The critical thing is to recognize that there is not going to be any progress on a Palestinian state until the Palestinians renounce violence and accept Israel as a Jewish state,” Friedman said before the election. “Until that happens, there is really nothing to talk about in terms of a political process.”
“We trust Israel. We think it is doing an excellent job of balancing its respect for human rights and its security needs in a very difficult neighborhood. Israel is a partner with the U.S. in the global war against terrorism—the overall premise of the policy is to respect Israel as a partner and not to unduly influence its decisions.”
Although Friedman isn’t a “trained diplomat,” he is among the world’s greatest advocates for the “indivisible Jerusalem” policy, and as ambassador to Israel, he intends to move the U.S. embassy to Israel’s eternal capital. He also said he views pro-Israel Christians as full stakeholders in Israel’s well-being, not just mere supporters.
“As evangelicals, we believe that the land of Israel, with Jerusalem as the undivided and eternal capital, was given by God to the Jewish people,” Bramnick said. “A 2013 Pew Research poll showed 82 percent of evangelicals support Israel based on their faith and biblical understanding that God gave the land of Israel to his chosen people, the Jews.”
UNSC Resolution 2334
Friedman also understands free exercise and access to Christian holy sites is in danger and can only be guaranteed by Israel. Nearly every site of religious importance to Christians lies on the wrong side of the so-called “Green Line” and is inside a would-be Arab-Islamic country, according to Obama and UNSC Resolution 2334.
Resolution 2334 explicitly declares East Jerusalem as a settlement. The U.S. has essentially declared that, as a matter of international law, the Jewish state has no claim on the Western Wall, the Temple Mount and indeed the entire Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem.
According to the U.N.—and, by its acquiescence, the U.S.—they all belong to Palestine.
“The Temple Mount is the most sacred site in all of Judaism,” the NILC declared in a statement about Resolution 2334. “That it should be declared foreign to the Jewish people is as if the Security Council declared Mecca and Medina to be territory to which Islam has no claim.
“This resolution is denying the Jewish people rights to their own homeland as well as threatening the very survival of Christians to our holy sites in the biblical heartland. Regardless of the 4,000 years of documented history of the Jewish people, Obama and the United Nations have denied the Jewish people’s right to live and build freely in their ancient homeland, including east Jerusalem, which would include the Wailing Wall in the Jewish quarter.”
Bramnick said HILC intends to work with its friends in the Trump administration and in Congress to defund the “morally bankrupt” U.N. while calling upon evangelicals and elected officials across the nation to support the president-elect’s efforts to rectify the “reckless actions” of President Obama.
HILC will be bringing its top leadership to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 11 to join Christians United for Israel and 175 other church leaders to show their objection over Resolution 2334, and to encourage their senators to pass a resolution that both condemns 2334 and urges the Obama not to return to the Security Council for another resolution. The U.S. and other nations will be gathering in Paris on Jan. 15 for what is widely expected to be another round of international condemnation for Israel.
“President-elect Donald Trump rejects the false notion that Israel is an occupier, and [he] wholeheartedly helped lead the policy made by the Republican Party platform on Israel,” Bramnick said. {eoa}
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