Rabbi Aryeh Lightstone, former Senior Advisor to Ambassador David Friedman, and Special Envoy for Economic Normalization in the Trump Administration, spoke with Rabbi Pesach Wolicki, as part of the Arutz Sheva and Israel365 coverage of the US election.
Rabbi Aryeh Lightstone says that, “Today is an exciting day for the entire Middle East and no place more than in Israel.”
As US power has been eroded during the last four years, based on what happened in Afghanistan and Ukraine, and a weak America has led to chaos all over the world, Rabbi Lightstone believes that, “there's one person on this planet who is uniquely capable of turning a light switch, in terms of going from off to on, and that is President Trump. America never stopped being a one trillion dollar military. We never stopped being the veto at the United Nations. We never stopped being the number one economy in the world.”
On the other hand, he says that, “What we stopped being was a leader and when you put a leader at the helm of this machine that's called the United States of America, you can instantaneously catapult back to the top of the pile. The question is building or rebuilding trust; that doesn't happen at the drop of a hat.”
Rabbi Lightstone emphasizes that “at every election, they say, ‘this is the election of your lifetime.’ This past election was the election of our lifetime, because a lot of the issues that need to be redone or undone or rewound would not have survived another four years of terrible leadership. I would say even reverse leadership. The countries in the Middle East, especially those part of the Abraham Accords and those that will become part of an expanded Abraham Accords, are forward-looking, they are modern and they're at their core would like to be US-facing.”
He says that, “Here's the part that the Obama Administration, the Biden-Harris Administration, did not understand or, if they did that has me even more concerned, when the US retreats, it's not replaced by Costa Rica and Switzerland, it is replaced by evil regimes, attempting to exert their influence where the US retreats. The only deal done in the past four years in the Middle East was led by the Communist Party of China, reunifying the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with Islamic Republic of Iran, after the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle, and the word ‘debacle’ is so shameful, because we lost men and women on that day. There's a got to be a harder word for that. I don't have one, but the weakness is just so incredible. These countries are thirsting for American leadership and it's back.”
“But,” says Rabbi Lightstone, “four years will not be enough. We need to make this not a Republican policy or a Democratic policy. President Trump and Vice President Vance are going to build an American policy and put the good guys in the region back in the American sphere of influence.”
On the Abraham Accords, the possible two-state solution, and other Middle East problems, Rabbi Lightstone thinks that “the world of President Trump and his creative problem solving, and the world of Ambassador Friedman and his ingenious ability to solve previously unsolvable problems, President Trump spoke about this last night; there will be greater peace and prosperity in the region, and with greater peace and prosperity in American leadership. There will be a place for all people in the region who choose to pursue peace and prosperity.”
He added, “Here's the greatest thing about President Trump and Ambassador Friedman knows this. Jared Kusher, Mike Pompeo and so many other great leaders knew this. There's no patience for playing games and that's what the Middle East has been filled with, a lot of game playing. Let's be honest about the sincerity of people who want to pursue peace and how long they've been placated. There will be an opportunity for those people who wish to pursue peace and but let's leave that for tomorrow.”
He is adamant that, “there will be no tolerance for those people who will be an obstacle for peace and certainly we saw no greater example of that than October 7th, subsequently with Hezbollah and certainly the head of the octopus, sitting in Tehran, Iran.
On the day after the US elections, Rabbi Lightstone is “going to meetings. Here's the one thing that I learned working for Ambassador Friedman and President Trump, Jared and the others for four years. If you wait for the alarm clock to wake you up in the morning, you already lost a day. So while we didn't sleep last night, I had an advantage. There was no alarm clock. There are challenges and opportunities in this region like we've never seen before.”
In conclusion Rabbi Lightstone says, “I don't know how many people you've seen around here in Israel but everyone is skipping and hopping and high fiving and God blessing. I believe when President Trump turned to his audience last night and said ‘I will not let you down,’ I believe that was a message to the American people. But I believe it was also a message to American Allies. President Trump will not let you down and here in Israel, ‘man did the sun rise brightly today.”