David M. Friedman, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel, details how recognizing Jerusalem as the capital in 2017 created a "tailwind" for peace via the Abraham Accords, countering Iranian influence. He argues the Temple Mount remains Judaism's holiest site despite current access restrictions and criticizes the Biden administration for alienating Saudi Arabia, risking Gulf alignment with adversaries like China and Russia. Ultimately, Friedman posits that exporting Israel's Judeo-Christian values offers a vital antidote to modern societal detachment. [Automatically generated summary]
So you live half the time right here in Israel and half the time in Florida.
So I don't know that there's ever been a guest that I'm supposed to sit down with in Jerusalem in this exact spot more than you, but I want to actually start somewhere else for just a minute or so because you also grew up in Long Island, like basically 10 minutes from where I grew up from.
And I thought for people that don't know your bio, could you give just sort of a one minute bio that'll then get us to everything else that you've done?
So let's start just with exactly where we are at the moment and the incredible history and geography of where we're at before we get into some of the politics of the region that you've really helped shape, which has clearly led to an incredibly flourishing Israel.
In my five days here, I can't believe what's going on here.
A 10-minute walk from my home, and we are right here where that gold dome is the holiest place for the Jewish people.
It's now called the Dome of the Rock.
It was built maybe 1,500 years ago, but 3,000 years ago is where the Jewish temple stood.
And that temple stood in two different forms, but it stood for 1,000 years.
And it was destroyed the second time in the year 70.
And ever since then, until 1967, the Jewish people have been praying in every country, whether it's, you know, North Africa, Eastern Europe, the United States.
For 2,000 years, Jews have prayed.
To return to this land, to return exactly to that spot, and in 1967, right after the Six Day War, where Jerusalem was reunified, it came to be.
So, you know, even though this dome and this mosque look very old, and they are, relatively speaking, they're pretty recent when you think of Jewish history that goes back 3,500 years.
Right, so it's hard for people to imagine, because everyone thinks that the Western Wall is actually the holiest site in Judaism, but it's the Temple Mount that the Mosque, which is right there, and then the Dome of the Rock are built on here, and the Western Wall is actually just a retaining wall.
If you go underground, you can see it goes further, but it's a retaining wall.
The holiest site in Judaism is the Temple Mount.
It is under that.
It's called the Dome of the Rock.
Because it's the rock.
The rock is the rock on which Abraham was called to sacrifice his son Isaac, and he passed the test that was given to him by God, and God promised he'd become the father of many nations.
It all began there, under that rock, and then, of course, that's where Solomon built the first temple.
It's enormously important to Jews, and the proof of it is that, you know, for thousands of years when we didn't have it, We prayed for it.
Look, the other thing is if you see the mosque to the right, the Aqsa mosque is the silver mosque, right?
So, if you go into the mosque and pray, and you, I couldn't do that, but if you went into the mosque and prayed, you would bow down and you would face south, you would face Mecca.
Your back would be to the temple, okay?
So, the temple is not, even the holiness of Jerusalem is very secondary to the Muslim world relative to the holiness of Mecca.
Because, you know, you see here, straight ahead is the Western Wall, up on top is the mosque, and to the left It's the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is one of the holiest sites in Christianity.
Now, if you're a Jew, if you're a Muslim, if you're a Christian, if you're an atheist, you can go to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, you can go to the Western Wall.
If you want to go up on the Temple Mount, alright, and you're not a Muslim, you have one access point, which is this rickety gate here called the Mograbi Gate, where you go through security.
There's ten other access for believers, you know, what they refer to as believers, which are just Muslims.
And if you happen to be a Jew or a Christian and you go up through this gate onto the Temple Mount and you begin to pray, you're escorted off the mosque.
So it's not equal access, it's actually better access.
The State of Israel affords better access to Muslims, far better access to Muslims than it does to Christians and Jews and it's odd because you know it's
referred to generally as the status quo
but if you look at the treaty between Jordan and Israel the treaty says that both nations regardless of sovereignty
will afford complete and equal and unfettered access to every
Abrahamic faith as to every holy site. And that's not done here.
So it's sort of ironic, and then we'll move on to some other stuff, that Israel is actually affording more courtesies than was happening before, you know, Israeli control.
And Aqsa has been the theme since 1929 when there was a massacre in Hebron where hundreds of Jews were killed.
The false claim that the Jews are storming the mosque, taking over the mosque, it's always been kind of the rallying point whenever Arab terrorists have sought to create violence against the Jewish people.
Alright, so let's... I know we could do the history clearly all day long.
For many days.
So let's, let's get to the broader Middle East though, because you were integral in what has happened here over these last now, you know, seven years or so.
So talk to me about when, when you became ambassador, I mean, were you, was that the immediate plan?
Like we're going to do this stuff?
Did it sort of fall in your lap and did you ever think it was even possible?
When the whole administration was packing their bags and then there's incoming people, did you have any communication with the incoming people saying, hey guys, and I asked Jared Kushner this as well, hey, we're on the path here.
Was there anything that you could have done that would have continued everything?
And look, hopefully it'll continue maybe in two years.
But what I'm realizing now, just in five days in Jerusalem, is that there is an incredible strength here, despite the divisions, despite the security stuff.
And you live in the promised land, and what I would say is the other promised land of Florida.
So what is that connection?
The freedom that's happening in Florida, The freedom and strength that's happening here, to me, that's what has to be exported to save America.
Which, you know, here in Jerusalem, this is what every one of our major cities, and they're not going to look like geographically, but the spirit of this place is incredible.
And it's so different than what I'm seeing in New York and San Francisco and all of those places.
What can Israel export to the United States that might help in our current crisis?
You know what, I think the most important thing is meaning.
A sense of purpose in life, that there's a reason to be on this earth, and we only get, you know, 70, 80, 90 years on this earth.
You want to make it count?
There's a real sense of purpose here, that people are here for a reason.
They're building something.
They're building something that matters, that counts.
They're bringing back to life biblical prophecies.
They're fulfilling Judeo-Christian values.
We've grown untethered from that in the United States.
We don't have interpersonal relationships like we used to.
People go on dates by texting, by WhatsAppping.
Everybody's looking at their phone all day long.
They invented the iPhone here, so it's not like they don't do it here too.
But there is a sense that there's something bigger than ourselves that's driving us forward.
And I've got to tell you, when you lose that, It's a quick trip to the bottom.
It really is.
I mean, you need to have that sense of meaning and purpose.
And America had that.
America was, you know, it was the, for many people, it was the New Jerusalem.
That's what our founders thought about it.
They were Christians who viewed this as the New Jerusalem, as the new, you know, as the shining city on a hill, as a place of purpose that would be a light to the nations.
And we don't teach that anymore.
People don't really understand why America was created, why it's great.
And that is, I think, a very valuable message that could come out of Jerusalem and the whole state of Israel.