Vernuccio’s View: U.S. Media Ignores Trump Middle East Accomplishment

President Trump has radically changed the paradigm in the Islamic world, gaining extensive cooperation in the fight against terrorism, refocusing Arab hostility away from Israel and towards Iran, uniting regional nations against extremism, restoring America’s influence, and bringing home about $380 billion in investments as well.

You certainly would not know it from the press accounts of the event. In essence, these extraordinary accomplishments have been ignored as the media essentially complains that Trump has failed to cure cancer, reunite the Beatles, or bring the Dodo back from extinction during his first foreign trip.

Comments made by Saudi King Salman in his introduction of President Trump on Sunday were noteworthy. He called for his fellow Islamic nations to “Refute the frail claims of terrorists,” and join in an effort to block the financing of “this scourge that poses a danger to all of humanity… We say to our Muslim brothers and sisters, sons and daughters everywhere, one of the most important goals of Islamic Sharia is protecting life, and there is no honor in protecting murder. Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance and urges its followers to develop the Earth, and forbids them to corrupt it. It considers killing an innocent soul, tantamount of killing all humanity. These odious acts are attempts to exploit Islam as a cover for political purposes to flame hatred, extremism, hatred, terrorism, and conflicts… such as Hezbollah, the Houthis, Da’esh, al-Qaeda, and many others.” The King said he was committed to eliminating ISIS.

In anticipation of Sunday’s historic event attended by the leaders of 50 Islamic nations, as well as by Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian National Authority, Saudi Foreign Minister al-Jubeir met with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Al-Jubeir stated  that “today was a truly historic day in the relationship between…Saudi Arabia and the United States and…the beginning of a turning point in the relationship between the United States and the Arab and Islamic world…… the President will go to Israel and will go the Vatican, where he will essentially address the Jewish world and the Christian world and try to bring together the three major monotheistic religions in the world into a partnership so that we move from any discussion of a conflict of civilizations and move towards a discussion of a partnership of civilizations.”

The reaction of many press sources and politicians, both Democrat and Republican, indicates that their hostility towards Trump supersedes their moral duty to place the good of the nation over political animosity.

The Washington Post called Trump’s speech “cringe-worthy” and  “un-American,” claiming “Trump implicitly rejected the aspirational goals and call for democracy and human rights of former president Barack Obama, [because the current President, in attempting to bring together the 50 Islamic nations in the fight against terror,] said that “We are not here to lecture [or tell others] how to worship. Instead, we are here to offer partnership, based on shared interests and values.”  The Washington Post apparently forgot that under Obama, terror increased, and human rights, especially those of women, reached an historic low point as ISIS grew to an unprecedented size in the Middle East and the Taliban rebounded in Afghanistan. Forgotten, also, was the spread of human rights abuses by Islamic terrorists in Africa.

Buzzfeed  proclaimed “American Muslims also noted a glaring omission in the half-hour speech: themselves. There was no acknowledgment of the contributions of the athletes, doctors, actors and tech entrepreneurs who are among more than 3.3 million Muslims living in the United States.”

Those directly involved in the Middle East, even those not particularly friendly towards the U.S., disagreed. The Associated Press reported that “Jibril Rajoub, a senior Palestinian official close to Abbas, said Trump was a ‘serious president’ who ‘seeks to have a real deal, not just managing the conflict.”

Frank V. Vernuccio, Jr., J.D.

Frank V. Vernuccio, Jr., J.D.

Frank V. Vernuccio, Jr., J.D. is the editor-in-chief of the New York Analysis of Policy & Government and the co-host of the popular WVOX weekly radio show, “And Nothing But The Truth.”

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