World Jewish News

Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in Washington. (photo credit:REUTERS)

Donald Trump in foreign policy address: Israel key in alliance to fight radical islam

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said Israel would be key in an alliance to fight the spread of radical Islam.

In a foreign policy speech in Ohio, he declared :’’ As president, I will call for an international conference focused on this goal,” he said. “We will work side by side with our friends in the Middle East, including our greatest ally, Israel.”

"In the 20th century, the United States defeated fascism, Nazism and communism. Now, a different threat challenges our world: radical Islamic terrorism."

Trump said, "We cannot let this evil continue. Nor can we let the hateful ideology of radical Islam -- its oppression of women, gays, children and nonbelievers -- be allowed to reside or spread within our own countries."

"Our new approach, which must be shared by both parties in America, by our allies overseas, and by our friends in the Middle East, must be to halt the spread of Radical Islam. All actions should be oriented around this goal, and any country which shares this goal will be our ally."

He said his administration would “aggressively pursue joint and coalition military operations to crush and destroy ISIS”, and be a “friend to all moderate Muslim reformers in the Middle East.”

Trump also said he would test would-be immigrants for anti-Semitic beliefs.

He said his national security policy would include what he called “extreme vetting” for would-be immigrants, including for those who would reject what he described as American values of tolerance.

“We should only admit into this country those who share our values and respect our people,” Trump said, promising to temporarily suspend immigration from “the most dangerous and volatile regions of the world” that export terrorism.

“In the Cold War, we had an ideological screening test. The time is overdue to develop a new screening test for the threats we face today. I call it extreme vetting.”

He claimed that the perpetrators of a series of attacks in the United States — including the September 11, 2001, hijackings, the 2013 Boston bombings and the recent mass shooting in an Orlando nightclub — involved “immigrants or the children of immigrants.”

Trump also cited the French experience with Islam as an example for why he wanted to implement the policy.

“Beyond terrorism, as we have seen in France, foreign populations have brought their anti-Semitic attitudes with them,” he said.

EJP