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Last night, President Trump delivered the first address of his second term in office to a joint session of Congress. This is akin to the State of the Union, but as the President's term has only just begun, it's simply billed a little differently. The President's comments touched on a very wide range of topics, and as a single-issue organization, we were only focused on one: Standing with the Children of Israel.

**Words Matter**

This morning, some in the peanut gallery that is our modern American media landscape, are emphasizing that during a relatively lengthy speech, President Trump's references to the issues upon which CUFI only received a few brief remarks.

This is a fundamentally wrongheaded approach. The Gettysburg address was no lengthy treatise, and yet in 272 words President Lincoln managed to pay great homage to those who "gave the last full
measure of devotion," capture the essence of the American ethos, and enunciate the perils, potentials and consequences of that moment in history.

So, let us look at what President Trump actually said during his remarks, "We're bringing back our hostages from Gaza. In my first term, we achieved one of the most groundbreaking peace agreements in generations: the Abraham accords."

Yup, that's just one sentence. But, why should that bother us? Hostages and peace; it's that simple, and we've no qualms with President Trump laying out clearly that those are the goals.

**??**

**Actions Speak Louder**

Directly prior to the President's speech, the American and Israeli Air Forces conducted a massive joint military exercise over the Mediterranean Sea which included "fighter jets, strategic B-52 bombers and refueling aircraft." The message is clear, the Israelis and the Americans are training together in preparation for a joint strike on Iran's nuclear program, should the Islamic
Republic maintain its obstinacy.??

Military drills have long been a key element of sending a message to one's adversaries, and this joint exercise could not have come at a more important time.

Also prior to the President's remarks, Eldridge Colby, a former Pentagon official and senior advisor with the Obama-Biden associated West Exec Partners who has been nominated to serve as nominee for Under Secretary of Policy at the Defense Department went before the Senate Armed Services Committee where several pro-Israel Senators "grill[ed]" the nominee on his past comments concerning Iran.

According to the

**Wall Street Journal**, "Mr. Colby has consciously made himself the intellectual front man for a wing of the political right that argues the U.S. should retreat from commitments in Europe and the Middle East."

During his hearing, the nominee assured longtime CUFI friend and ally Sen. Tom Cotton that he would provide the President with varying options for addressing Iran's
nuclear program. This is important as Colby previously was quite clear in his belief that the United States could live in the same world as a nuclear armed Iran (spoiler alert: we can't).

His past comments do not seem to align with President Trump's robust approach to foreign policy, but he addressed many questions of import during his hearing.

**Agreements and Accords**

The ceasefire is on the precipice of collapse as Hamas continues to make absurd demands - they still have not realized that they are done (which is almost impressive in its foolish arrogance considering what's left of their territory and infrastructure).????And this brings us back to President Trump's simple yet direct comments.

First, "We're bringing back our hostages from Gaza." It is believed that there are 59 hostages left in Gaza, of which 24 are believed to be alive, per the Israeli government. What else needs to be said? The hostages

**will** be returned.

Second, the President rightly pivoted
immediately to peace in the region. The Abraham Accords did more than normalize relations between several Arab countries and Israel; the Accords made another giant leap forward in an end to the constant bloodshed in the region as, like Egypt and Jordan before them, the UAE and Bahrain showed their Arabian brethren that the sons of Ishmael and Isaac can make peace.

Seeing the Abraham Accords spread across the region would be most welcome, and reports indicate that efforts continue to bring Saudi Arabia into the agreement. While we would love it if this were rooted in morality and altruism, the truth is that for many in the Arab world, the threat of Iran looms large. Couple that with undeniable effectiveness of Israel's military and intelligence community when unleashed upon the enemy, and Israel looks like a pretty good ally to have.

And this is where the rubber meets the road. The key to America's divine blessing and our leadership of the free world lies in how we treat
our allies and adversaries. We cannot cede our seat at the head of the international table to Moscow or Beijing. And we cannot follow the Obama-Biden path of negotiating with tyrants bent on our destruction, for the sake of a meaningless piece of paper.

The Abraham Accords work because there was buy-in from everyone and they are backed up with a robust American approach to the Middle East. To contend with Iran, which just this week formed a new terror group in Syria, we need to double-down on that robust approach.

Returning the hostages plus delivering stability equals peace. The first part is a simple concept, yet the path to achieving it is difficult because it runs through Hamas. Conversely, stability and peace are similar, though not identical, and highly nuanced. Nonetheless, the strategy for success is rather simple: one achieves peace through strength.

Sincerely,

The CUFI Action Fund Team

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CUFI Action Fund, 2000 Duke Street, Suite 300, Alexandria, VA 22314, United States