President Donald Trump signed several pro-Israel executive orders on his first day in office, among a stack of dozens of others.
This author had specifically recommended that Trump take over 200 actions — including executive orders — in his first 100 days in office, in the book The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days.
Trump’s executive orders roughly followed that blueprint, and included the following orders relating to Israel:
- Revoking President Joe Biden’s sanctions on the International Criminal Court, which is prosecuting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant (page 37 of The Agenda)
- Blocking visas to individuals who support foreign terror organizations, ensuring that those admitted to this country “do not bear hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles, and do not advocate for, aid, or support designated foreign terrorists and other threats to our national security” (page 25 of The Agenda)
- Pausing and reviewing foreign aid to ensure that funding does not go to groups that oppose U.S. interests, like the (unnamed) terror-linked United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA (pages 33 and 37 of The Agenda)
- Revoking sanctions that the Biden administration imposed on individuals perceived to support Israeli settlement within Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) or otherwise perceived as having the “wrong” views on peace negotiations with, or aid to, the Palestinians (page 34 of The Agenda).
The orders were handed to Trump by Staff Secretary Will Scharf, a Harvard-trained lawyer and former federal prosecutor who is also one of Trump’s personal attorneys, and is active in both Jewish and conservative causes.
In addition to signing pro-Israel executive orders, Trump brought former Israeli hostages, including Noa Argamani, and the families of Israeli hostages still being held in Gaza onstage with him at a rally following the Inauguration ceremony.
Israeli commandos rescued Argamani last June, together with three other hostages, in a daring mission in the heart of Gaza. Israeli police officer Arnon Zamora fell in battle during the rescue attempt.
Trump and the Republican Party made the issue of the Israeli hostages — several of whom hold U.S. citizenship — a major theme in the 2024 campaign.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.