GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin, member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, joins 'Fox & Friends' to discuss the historic peace agreement involving Israel and Democrats' COVID-19 relief demands.
This is an unofficial transcript meant for reference. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
After forty nine years, United Arab
after forty nine years, United Arab
Emirates will fully normalize
their diplomatic relations,
they will exchange embassies and
ambassadors and begin
cooperation across the board and
on a broad range of areas,
including tourism, education,
healthcare, trade and security.
This is a truly historic moment,
Steve. It is historic, because
yesterday it was announced that
the Trump team helped broker a
deal between Israel and the
United Arab Emirates,
normalizing relations,
its first arab league country,
to recognize Israel in twenty years.
It is a big deal, thats why we
are bringing in Lee Zeldin
member of the House Committee
and Co Chair of the republican
Israel caucus in the House
congressman good morning to
you
Steve. It is a big deal. What is the chances of giving the Nobel
the chances of giving the Nobel
Peace Prize to him as they did
to Barack Obama before earning
it?
The prospects are ahead.
So the president made a decision
withdraw from the iranian
Nuclear deal.
We moved the embassy in Israel
to Jerusalem,
the President recognized
israels solvency on Golan
Heights.
What we saw yesterday was a big
development because Israel,
surrounded by all these
different countries, many of whom dont even recognize Israels
dont, even recognize Israels right to exist- have having one
right to exist, have having one
nation put their neck out there,
tourism and everything that
comes with it.
Hopefully, what it leads to is
other countries in that region.
To do the same thing.
Have you two different elements
driving these dynamics?
Bun is a concern by many
countries in that region by
iranian aggression.
They are realizing that their
real threat, their real
existential threat to the
country, its not Israel,
its IRAN.
It started last administration
where the administration was
kind of treating Israel like
IRAN and IRAN like Israel.
The iranian aggression piece is
a part of it, especially after
the nuclear deal.
The second part is that the
Trump Administration, whether
its President Trump Jared,
Kushner Avy, Berkowitz
Secretary Pompeo, David
Freidman. They have all told all
of these different countries
that huge priority of theirs to
be able to improve relations
with Israel to improve the, U Dot S,
Israel relationship, but also
israels stability in the Middle
EAST.
So I think those two forces are
leading to yesterdays positive
development and others to come,
whether that earns the President,
a Nobel Peace Prize, that,
unfortunately, I think we are
dealing with a different reality
where President Obama earned it
just for showing up and getting
elected
Brian by not being George Bush,
Joe Biden came out and said this
a big deal, but this is the
result of work over many
administrations.
Not just this one. Really, his
administration did any work to
get UAE to recognize a country
they were basically ignoring in
Israel
yeah,
so the Obama Biden
Administration, literally as they
walked out the door, the highest
profile. Foreign policy item- was
really turning their backs
stabbing in the back Israel, with:
U Dot N Security Council resolution,
two thousand three hundred and thirty four,
that was December of twenty. Sixteen,
where the? U DOT N Security Council,
had this resolution that passed,
calling it a via a little of
international law and Israels
activity in this disputed
territory of Judea, Sumaria, West
Bank and Jerusalem and John
Kerry for those? How remember it
was about a hour and a half long
speech. Essentially, lecturing
Israel,
you had dynamics between
President Obama and BB and of
course you had the IRAN Nuclear
deal.
So I dont think that Joe Biden
has anything to brag about as
far as the Obama
administrations trajectory in
the: U Dot S, Israel relationship
and the President Trump came
into office and he has been
scoring win after win.
So instead of it treating Israel
like IRAN and IRAN like Israel,
now we are treating Israel like
Israel and IRAN like IRAN
and understanding adversaries.
Dont expect weakness, respect
strength and positive progress
is one that we should not turn
the clock back on, where we are
reentering into deals where we
are delivering pallets of cash
to IRAN in the middle of the
night and other bad foreign
policies that set us back and
our our allies.
You read the joipghtsd statement
from the you will Supreme
Commander of the eae.
They gave credit to Donald
Trump
in their statement. Think say:
this is a diplomatic break
through at the request of
President Trump
lets talk about stimulus money,
though
the house they are going to have
a month long recess, yall are
and the Senate not back until
September
stimulus talks. Does this mean
its going to drag on? I guess it
means they are going to drag on
for weeks.
Nancy Pelosi is now calling for
two dollars trillion.
Listen to this.
We said two dollars trillion and then
we can sit down at the table.
Perhaps you mistook them for
somebody who gave a damn that
isnt the case
Ainsley your response.
They believe they have a lot
more leverage than they actually
do.
They are putting forth asks
completely unrelated to
Covid 19,
whether its providing by the
way stimulus checks to people
who are illegally in our
country,
mass prison release,
nationwide ballot, harvesting
nationwide ban on voter I dot D.
Then you look at the cost of
what they are looking for.
Their starting point is a little
divorced from reality.
Take the battle over state and
local government funding.
They are actually insisting on a
position to give state and local
governments more than there are
even asking for.
There was a point in time where,
for example, New York was asking
for sixty dollars billion
partly of this five hundred
billion dollar national. Ask
even New York State right now.
They are asked that they
submitted a couple weeks ago was,
for thirty,
all of the non states,
the local governments
they put all rallied of behind a
two hundred and fifty billion dollar ask
well. The house democratic bill
was for three hundred and seventy five billion more than
they were even asking for
they had your own reality track,
because the president, when you
talk about a trillion dollars,
thats real money and they are
willing to help out with state
and local government funding, but
giving more than they are even
asking for, is insane
Steve. Well, there are people
hurting across the country, and a
lot of people are looking to
Washington.
We hope that you guys can get
something straightened out one
these days when everybody comes
together,
Lee Zeldin from the great state.
Transcript generated on 2020-08-14.