WASHINGTON (JTA) — Top former officials of both parties joined an American Jewish Committee appeal to maintain traditional Western alliances, an implicit rebuke to President Donald Trump’s rejection of the structures.
“We rise in defense of the precious alliance of democracies — and its treaties, institutions and norms — that has sustained peace and generated prosperity from the Cold War to the present day,” the statement posted Wednesday by the AJC said. “As students of history, we know all too well the terrible price that has been paid when these principles were not respected and protected.”
Among those signing on are Democrats like former Vice President Joe Biden and Republicans such as former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, and Stephen Hadley, the national security adviser to President George W. Bush. Also signing was former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Among the alliances worth preserving were NATO, the European Union, and “the integrity of the West’s intelligence, law enforcement and security agencies,” the statement said.
Trump has targeted all three establishments, second-guessing the commitment by members of the NATO alliance to come to one another’s defense, saying the European Union is a rival to the United States and placing tariffs on its imports, and attacking the integrity of U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
Many of these positions are also embraced by far-right groups, and the AJC statement called for “measures to counter appeals to extremism, xenophobia and all forms of bigotry; uphold a free and independent press; thwart and deter cyberattacks; and block attempts at electoral interference.”
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