Former Sen. Joe Lieberman joined host Alex Marlow on Sirius XM’s Breitbart News Daily on Friday, stressing to listeners the “critically important” move President Donald Trump made in calling for the U.S. to recognize the Golan Heights as Israeli territory.
Lieberman praised the declaration the president made Thursday that it was “time for the United States to fully recognize Israel’s Sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and Regional Stability!”
“The fact that [the president is] unconventional enables him to do something that presidents before him, of both parties, probably thought was the right thing to do but never did it because it seemed unconventional, and that’s the way it is with the Golan Heights,” said Lieberman.
“I’m sure this was on the president’s mind when he did this, is that Iran is establishing, really, a permanent foothold with troops of its own, let alone, the Hezbollah terrorist army that it supports there,” he emphasized, calling it “critically important.”
“It was a very significant thing to do for regional stability, let alone for Israel’s security,” said Lieberman, who thanked President Trump for the action.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called President Trump to thank him, acknowledging, “You made history.”
He added in a tweet, “At a time when Iran seeks to use Syria as a platform to destroy Israel, President Trump boldly recognizes Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. Thank you President Trump!”
While President Trump’s tweet does not officially change U.S. policy, it does signal a greater possibility of seeing the policy changed either through Congress or an official presidential declaration. Haaretz pointed to President Trump’s decision to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem when indicating he could use the same method to officially change the U.S. position on the Golan Heights.
The remark comes the week after the State Department removed “occupied” from 2018 Human Rights report references to Israeli portions of the region. Breitbart News reported the changed references to those portions of the Golan Heights to say “Israeli-controlled territory.”
Michelle Moons is a White House Correspondent for Breitbart News — follow on Twitter @MichelleDiana and Facebook.
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