Former Deputy Assistant to the President Dr. Sebastian Gorka addressed the the 17th annual International Conference of the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) of the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya today. Dr. Gorka spoke with Arutz Sheva about the Trump Administration's anti-terror policies.
"This is an administration that doesn't misdiagnose the threat. We don't talk about polity or lack of education being the cause of terrorism. We understand the totalitarian religious ideology that is global Jihadism. So number one, the president has jettisoned political correctness," Gorka said.
"Secondly, we understand that words and diplomacy only go so far, whether it's dealing with Iran, whether it;s dealing with North Korea, or whether it's the resolution of the Syrian crisis. This president understands that diplomacy without the use of force is just empty rhetoric.
He said that the administration has seen substantial results in the fight against Islamist terrorism, particularly against ISIS. "You saw the bomb in Afghanistan. You saw the cruise missile strike against the Assad regime. This president is serious. We've only been in office for less than a year, and Mosul has already been liberated, and the physical caliphate of ISIS is being destroyed."
When asked if Israel and the US now see eye to eye in general, Gorka said to "go watch the video of the president and First Lady Melania getting off the plane when they arrived in Israel. Just look at the body language of the Israeli Prime Minister and the Israeli President. It was like long-lost cousins had arrived, finally, back home."
He said that the Trump Administration is "not going to impose a solution upon the Israeli-Palestinian Authority relationship. It has to be something they (Israel and the PA) agree upon."
"I think my former colleagues in the White House are starting to realize that only one side is acting in good faith.
Gorka said that the failure to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Israel was one of his disappointments. "Of all the massive things we have achieved in the last seven months...the two hardest things, that met with the greatest obstacles in the US government, was our desire to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization - the other thing...getting us out of the Paris Climate Accord was easy in comparison to trying to move our embassy to Jerusalem."
He said that the resistance to moving the US embassy to Jerusalem came from the government bureaucracy, not from inside the administration. "The resistance by the bureaucrats, who were there before the election, to moving the embassy is still very large."