Rudy Giuliani, a former New York mayor and legal advisor to US President Donald Trump, spoke Wednesday night in Jerusalem at an event hosted by the OneFamily Foundation, which has helped Israeli bereaved families and victims of terrorism since its establishment 17 years ago.
Giuliani, who was mayor of New York City when it was struck by the tragic 9-11 terror attacks, began his speech by addressing the war on terror.
“Why should we look at … Europe that is a failure,” Giuliani said. “They can’t even defend themselves. They are frightened. France is frightened of terrorists. We’re not frightened of anyone, not just because we’re strong but because we’re right, and we’re decent, and we love people. And in order to love people and accomplish it you have to have courage. Cowards can’t protect people.”
His words had a visible effect on the participants, many of whom had lost relatives in terror attacks. Giuliani continued his speech by praising the current US President.
“So Donald Trump seeks his guidance from the soul of America. And I think your prime minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] does ‘cause, he may not like it when I say it, he’s really an American. He loves America. He knows American politics, as well I bet as I do.”
Giuliani continued by attacking the press.
“Every great American president has had a terrible press,” he said. “The press is usually on the wrong side of history. And right now they’re on the wrong side of history. They have become apologists for terrorists in some cases, particularly in the way they deal with it. And what I’m specifically talking about is not terrorism in general but the Palestinian Authority. The one thing the Palestinian Authority has done well,… they’ve made themselves sympathetic. They’re a bunch of sympathetic murderers. And I see in the United States how that happens. You have a man who kills a police officer and everybody becomes sympathetic. And they find all kinds of excuses for why he’s really innocent or why he couldn’t help himself. I don’t know what it is in the human personality but there is this fascination with criminality that allows people to become extremely sympathetic to them and turn the whole thing opposite.”
Marc Belzberg, Founder and Chairman of OneFamily, expressed his appreciation for Giuliani’s uniqe and powerful perspective on the subject of terror.
“As the Mayor of New York at the time of the 9-11 attacks, Mr. Giuliani managed everything that occurred that day from a building across the street from the Twin Towers that itself was half destroyed,” Belzberg said. “Mr. Giuliani, who proved himself that day to be a master of Emergency Crisis Management, is joining hands today with the OneFamily organization of Israel, who have become the masters of Long Term Crisis Management. The first is necessary to save lives during and immediately following the attack. The latter is necessary to ameliorate the long term devastating effects of terror on the surviving victims, by escorting them slowly back into the workforce and into becoming productive, functioning citizens of the country in which they live.”
