“The Iranians are going to have a bomb unless someone stops them,” President Trump’s ambassador in Jerusalem said, and “to make things more depressing, America is not going to stop them,” leaving Israel as the only “credible deterrent.”

The former ambassador, David Friedman, was the envoy who oversaw the move of the American embassy in Israel to its capital, Jerusalem, from Tel Aviv. He spoke at a Thursday evening event hosted by the Algemeiner Journal and moderated by the publisher of the Sun, Dovid Efune, at New York.

Mr. Trump’s decision to move the embassy to Jerusalem, Mr. Friedman said, “sent a signal to the entire world that we’re going to stand with Israel.” The move, he argued, resonated in Iraq, North Korea, and Russia, and helped establish that “Palestinians really don’t have a veto on us.” He believes the embassy’s current location is permanent.  

In respect of Iran, Mr. Friedman spoke in the context of what is being called the Jerusalem Declaration. It’s a “joint declaration of principles” that President Biden signed Thursday in Jerusalem with Prime Minister Lapid. America and Israel pledged to take a “united stand” on Iran and prevent it from building a nuclear weapon. 

Mr. Friedman described the declaration as a “word salad.” He noted that Mr. Biden’s willingness to use force against Iran as only a “last resort” contributed to America’s lack of credibility as a deterrent against Iran. That was further undercut, he suggested, by Mr. Biden’s failure to define circumstances in which military actions would take place.

Mr. Friedman did not hesitate to contrast Mr. Trump’s stance on Iran with that of Mr. Biden. “I think they know we meant business,” he stated of the Trump years. He cited the U.S. assassination of an Iranian general, Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the revolution-exporting arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as sending a message to Iran and the world. 

Under the Trump administration, America pulled out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, an agreement intended to limit Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for reduced sanctions. Yet the deal itself, as described by Mr. Friedman, proved a failure, because America’s inability to inspect military sites left us without “any protections that we need.” 

Mr. Friedman then cited remarks made Thursday by Israel’s acting prime minister, Yair Lapid, whom Mr. Friedman describes as “center-left.” He continually emphasized that the need is for “a credible military threat” against Iran. He avers that diplomacy, words, or any other intangible attempts would not help prevent Iran from going nuclear.