David Friedman, former U.S. ambassador to Israel, told Newsmax Wednesday that he and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo map out the territory of the West Bank in the upcoming film "Route 60: The Biblical Highway," and that the land of the Bible helped inspire the founders of the United States.
"When Mike and I were still in office, he was the only secretary of state in history and I was the only ambassador to Israel in history that ever visited this land," Friedman said during an appearance on "The Chris Salcedo Show."
"This is not Israel proper. This is what Mike and I refer to as Judea and Samaria, what the world refers to as the West Bank — what most of the world thinks is a place where Jewish people have no business even being there."
"We crossed that Rubicon when we were in office," he said, "and what we saw was this is extraordinarily important land, important territory — both for the obvious things like Israel's security and because 500,000 Israelis live there; but, most important, perhaps, is that this is the land of the Bible."
"This is the land where, from north to south, you have the journeys of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob," he continued. "The journeys of Jesus. This is where King Solomon ruled or King David ruled. And most importantly, where the great wisdom, the values that animated the founders of our country to create the United States — the notion that people are endowed by God with unalienable rights — all that wisdom came from this sacred land."
Friedman said that when most people think of the West Bank, they think of "some real estate dispute between Israelis and Palestinians," overlooking "just how holy and sacred and critical, both to the American and to the Israeli history, this territory is."
"We wanted to get that out, and we wanted people to look at it," he said. "It's not a political film. It doesn't advocate a resolution to any conflict. But we want people to care about Judea and Samaria and not just think of it as some strip of real estate that's 6,000 miles away that people are fighting over for the last 100 years."
The former ambassador to Israel also commented on Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's recent assertion that only former President Donald Trump "can save the Western world."
"I think President Trump was uniquely successful, compared to almost every other president, before or after, in keeping the world safe," Friedman said. "That is one of his great legacies. There were no new wars."
"Whether it was with North Korea or with Russia or with Iran, I think the positions that he took and the strength that he showed in his general vision of peace through strength — that hasn't been depicted since the days of Ronald Reagan. I think he did make the world a safer place and reduce the threats that are confronting us today," he added.
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Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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