Rubio pushes Abraham Accords, affirms US support in Jerusalem antisemitism summit video message

United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio asserts his country’s support for Israel and the Jewish people by decrying antisemitism and promoting the Abraham Accords in a video message screened at an international conference on fighting antisemitism at the Foreign Ministry.

The top US diplomat hails the founding of the State of Israel by the Jewish people, “who made the desert bloom into a high-tech superpower…not by abandoning its history and identity, but by embracing them.”

“Sadly, some of Israel’s neighbors have failed to appreciate how following Israel’s example could have brought prosperity to the region,” says Rubio.

“Instead, they chose war. They decided to impoverish their people in a futile effort to destroy Israel. They succeeded in the former while failing in the latter,” he continues.

Rubio says he prays for the day “When leaders will abandon self-destructive hatred and forge a new future in partnership with Israel—by building on the Abraham Accords,” the series of normalization agreements between Israel and nearby Arab states initiated by US President Donald Trump during his first term.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, there are signs that that future may be closer than we dare dream,” says Rubio, adding that “only if we can overcome the futile, persistent evil of antisemitism can we reach that future.”

Rubio mentions his February visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, saying that the world was reminded of the importance of “Never Again” after last Wednesday’s DC shooting attack outside an American Jewish Committee event at a Jewish museum, in which a young couple, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, was “murdered in cold blood.”

“We must never forget,” says Rubio, that the murderer of the young couple, who were separately laid to rest this week, “proudly screamed ‘Free, free Palestine!’—words that now serve as a battle cry for the death of Jews, the destruction of Israel, and the horrors we must never again allow.”

“There can be no nuanced separation of hatred of Israel and hatred of the Jewish people,” he continues, saying, “Those who call to boycott Israel are calling for the boycott of their Jewish neighbors and classmates. Those who call for violence against Israelis are calling for violence against Jews. Those who call for the destruction of Israel are calling for the destruction of the Jewish people.”

“Under President Trump, the United States will stand with the Jewish people,” says Rubio, referencing his “vigorous new visa policy,” which the Trump administration says is to crack down on anti-Israel activity. “We are holding international organizations and nations accountable for rhetoric against Israel that resurfaces in the manifesto of monsters like Yaron and Sarah’s killer,” he adds.

“But we do see an eventual light at the end of this long tunnel of suffering. One can imagine a Middle East in which the Abraham Accords eventually reign,” he concludes.