John Bolton's Connection to Israel and to Trump's Viewpoints

Nadene Goldfoot
                                                                     

John Robert Bolton, born November 20, 1948 in Baltimore Maryland,  is a 72 year old American attorney, political commentator, Republican consultant, former diplomat and national security advisor under Trump from April 2018-September 2019. Bolton was the United States Ambassador to the United Nations from August 2005 to December 2006 as a recess appointee by President George W. Bush.

Right now the USA is waiting to see how the Republicans will handle John Bolton's soon to be published book which is said to tell all about Trump and the Ukraine. In a tweet, Trump is  said to have written, "I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book. "

In reviewing Bolton's credentials, I see that "Bolton is a former senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and Fox News Channel commentator. He was a foreign policy adviser to 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney "who ran against Obama's 2nd term in office.

 "Bolton has been involved with numerous conservative organizations, including the  Gatestone Institute, where he was the organization Chairman until March 2018, and as a Director of the Project for the New American Century, which favored going to war with Iraq.

Bolton is a foreign policy hawk and is an advocate for regime change in Iran, Syria, Libya, Venezuela, Cuba, Yemen and North Korea. He has also repeatedly called for the termination of the Iran nuclear deal. He was an advocate of the Iraq War and continues to support the decision to invade Iraq. He has continuously supported military action and regime change in Syria, Libya, and Iran. A Republican, his political views have been described as American nationalist, conservative, and neoconservative. Bolton rejects the last term." I'd say that he is a man on the right.  

Bolton attended Yale University, earning a B.A. and graduating summa cum laude in 1970. He was a member of the Yale Political Union. He attended Yale Law School from 1971 to 1974, where he shared classes with his friend Clarence Thomas, earning a J.D. in 1974." "The Juris Doctor degree (J.D. or JD), also known as the Doctor of Jurisprudence degree (J.D., JD, D.Jur. or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees.  Therefore, he is a lawyer. "                          

                                           

Bolton and Netanyahu of Israel

Bolton with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin in August 2018

President Trump, joined by Bolton and Netanyahu behind, signs the proclamation recognizing Israel's 1981 annexation of the Golan Heights, March 25, 2019

Bolton is known for his strong support for Israel.   Bolton opposes the two-state solution of creating an independent Palestinian state alongside the existing state of Israel. Bolton supported moving the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem in accordance with the Jerusalem Embassy Act, and he testified in front of Congress in 2017 on the matter. In 2010, Bolton co-founded the Friends of Israel Initiative with 12 other international figures.

I agree with Bolton in opposing the two-state

solution. He sees the futility in this

attempt after 70 years of trying. 

Several presidents promised to move

the USA embassy to Jerusalem and failed to keep that promise.  Trump did it against all the Democratic advice.  

Trump dropped a bombshell on Twitter with his announcement that he had requested the resignation of one of Israel’s closest allies in the White House and a leading proponent within the administration of a hard line against Iran: National Security Adviser John Bolton.  Worse, Trump said he was dumping Bolton because the two had “strong disagreements” on policy. Worse still, Trump’s secretary of state confirmed that the president was ready to meet with the president of Iran without preconditions.

Those close to Trump tell us that Bolton's leaving does not change the USA's feelings

about Israel.  Trump is seen as an overall improvement over his predecessors, taking steps like moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing Israel’s claim to the Golan Heights and encouraging Sunni Arab states to ally with Israel even absent progress toward a peace agreement with the Palestinians.

Bolton's another tough-minded man.  "Bolton has advocated for pre-emptive strikes against North Korea and Iran. In March 2018, he suggested that South Korea take North Korea and terminate the North Korean regime as the only "diplomatic option", and said that the war between the two countries is their problem and not the US problem."  

On Iran, Bolton said in 2008: "The idea here is not to have much larger hostilities, but to stop the Iranians from engaging in the hostilities that they're already doing against us inside Iraq. And they're doing much the same by aiding the Taliban in Afghanistan. So this is not provocative or preemptive, this is entirely responsive on our part." 

In 2018, Bolton stated: "Russia, China, Syria, Iran, North Korea. These are regimes that make agreements and lie about them. A national security policy that is based on the faith that regimes like that will honor their commitments is doomed to failure." He also said, "Our goal should be regime change in Iran." 

The New Yorker, described the people who have worked with Bolton as saying "he is focused less on North Korea than on Iran". H. R. McMaster has reportedly told Dexter Fikins that Bolton has had "[the] anal focus on Iran for twenty years".

Unlike several of President Trump's early national security officials like National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Bolton campaigned to press President Trump for a complete withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran (the JCPOA) and rejected the idea it could be fixed. 

Unable at the time to directly present his position to President Trump, Bolton published his proposal on how to withdraw from the Iran deal in an August 28, 2017 National Review Online article.

 After he was named to succeed McMaster as Nation Security Adviser in April 2018, Bolton pressed the President to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, a decison President Trump announced a month later. Bolton has been one of the biggest anti-Iran hawks in the Trump administration.

                                                        

"Then why was he let go by Trump?  President Trump  pushed out John R. Bolton, his third national security adviser, amid fundamental disputes over how to handle major foreign policy challenges like Iran, North Korea and most recently Afghanistan.

The departure ended a 17-month partnership that had grown so tense that the two men even disagreed over how they parted ways, as Mr. Trump announced on Twitter that he had fired the adviser only to be rebutted by Mr. Bolton, who insisted he had resigned of his own accord."                                                        

Right now President Trump is going through an impeachment

                               trial, and Bolton is  said

 to have key information helpful for the Democrats. The Democrats are saying 

President Trump told his national security adviser in August that he wanted to continue freezing $391 million in security assistance to Ukraine until officials there helped with investigations into Democrats including the Bidens, according to an unpublished manuscript by this former adviser, John R. Bolton.

Reference:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bolton
https://www.timesofisrael.com/what-does-john-boltons-departure-mean-for-israel/
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/10/us/politics/john-bolton-national-security-adviser-trump.html
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/john-boltons-account-upends-trumps-denials-but-will-it-upend-trump/ar-BBZmIcs?ocid=se2