Former White House Communications director Anthony Scaramucci spoke on Thursday night at the Yeshivat Hesder Sderot Anniversary Gala Dinner in Manhattan.
“My first time in Israel was actually in 1985. I was 21 years old and I crossed into Israel” from Egypt, he recalled.
“When we crossed over into what is now Gaza, you went from one culture, where the water wasn’t clean, into a totally different culture, where you could drink right from the water fountain right then and there. You could see in 1985 the wonderful transformation of what was taking place in Israel.”
“When you think about the Western canon of individual liberty, when you think about our rights which have been endowed to us by God, it really does start with the Jewish faith and the Jewish people right at the foundation stone. And without the declaration of monotheism and the belief in one God, none of these great things in history could have taken place: The technological innovation, the innovation in medicine – all of these things are tied directly back to Judaism.”
“As an outsider,” said Scaramucci, “I can see your culture so much differently than you can see it yourself. You have so much to be proud of and so much to be grateful for.”
He concluded his remarks with a comment on one political issue and said, “I’m a believer in a one-state solution, not a two-state solution. The only reason why I’m for a one-state solution has to do with the security. At the end of the day, you’re never going to be able to have a two-state solution if one state is a sponsor of terrorism and a sponsor of murder. It’s just not going to happen, no matter how idealistic you are…in order to protect the Jewish state and the Jewish people, I’m a firm believer of that.”
Speaking to Arutz Sheva later, Scaramucci said, “One of the greatest things about President Trump, and certainly Prime Minister Netanyahu, is that they know there can be no equivocation in the face of evil. There can be no appeasement. We’ve learned throughout history that when we try to negotiate with evil, or we back up when good men and women back up into the face of evil, more evil occurs.”
He linked the upcoming summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un with the Iran nuclear deal, predicting that “you will see peace and the denuclearization of North Korea, and the eventual deradicalization with Iran.”
Finally, he called for the relations between the United States and Israel to continue to be bipartisan.
“Whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, that relationship is sacrosanct for so many different reasons, but the main one has to do with individual liberty and the spirit of protecting the Western canon of individual liberty which starts with the protection of Israel and Israel is a sanctuary for the Jewish people.”
“I really hope, on a going forward basis, that there’s more bipartisanship injected into the relationship so that we can go back to that time when there was that bipartisan harmony as it related to Israel,” said Scaramucci.