On September 26, 2010, the Jewish Policy Center brought together Freedom Center president David Horowitz, Foundation for Defense of Democracies president Cliff May, and columnist and author Mona Charen for a roundtable discussion. The event, titled “Securing America’s Future”, was moderated by radio talk show host Michael Medved and located at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills, California. Click HERE to view the video in its entirety.
The panelists kicked-off the event by discussing the greatest threat facing America today; Horowitz offered that it was “from Islamists determined to destroy Western civilization…[a movement] supported by the international Left and the American Left”. The other two panelists agreed with Horowitz’s response. “We are now faced with a party in power who would like to Europeanize the United States and make us like the socialist economies of Europe, [with] a significantly reduced international role. [There are those] fighting against this that still believe in American ideals, in American exceptionalism…that still believe that America has a role in defending Western civilization,” Charen added.
May offered a comparison of anti-democratic ideologies of the past—such as Nazism—and similar ideologies of the present—such as Islamism—saying, “In the 20th century, [democracy] came under attack by regimes, by movements, by ideologies that were anti-democratic, that were virulently anti-Semitic. Today, the democratic experiment is again under attack by regimes, ideologies, and movements that are supremacist, anti-democratic, and virulently anti-Semitic”. May indicated that Iran is leading the charge today by threatening America and Israel and denying the Holocaust. On funding Islamic extremism, May added, “Why is there so much power in Saudi Arabia and Iran? Because of oil…so long as we’re addicted to oil and so long as they have most of it in the world we are in a difficult situation…[We] are waging a war and funding both sides generously.”
On the topic of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Horowitz noted that peace talks would fail “because the Palestinians want to destroy the State of Israel and to push the Jews into the sea. That’s been their goal since the 1920s and it has never wavered…the only way there is going to be peace in the Middle East is if Israel and the United States will stand down the Palestinians”. Horowitz also highlighted that “George Bush said we [went] to war in Afghanistan because we will not tolerate a terrorist government.” According to him, Israel should have kept troops in the Gaza Strip for the same reason.
The panelists also reflected upon domestic policies during the Obama presidency thus far. “We have witnessed over the last 18 months an experiment with unrestrained liberalism, with the Left-wing of the Democratic Party being able to enact its wish list. There had been a pent-up demand for more spending, for more government programs, nationalized health insurance—that had been building for a very long time. The Democrats achieved their majorities and they have enacted,” said Charen. She implied that Americans do not endorse this increased spending, saying, “The debt is the great issue [for the American people].”
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