By admin 
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump is filling out his national security team with pro-Israel hawks who favor maximum pressure on Iran to back away from its belligerence in the region.
On Monday, reports said Trump planned to nominate two Florida allies to top jobs: Sen. Marco Rubio will be named secretary of state, and Rep. Michael Waltz will become his national security adviser.
Both men have said Israel should not be deterred from launching a direct attack on Iran’s nuclear weapons program. That position mirrors Trump’s before the election Israel urged to “Do what you have to do.” Trump had criticized President Joe Biden for limiting Israel to attacking only military sites, and not nuclear sites, in a retaliatory strike.
In appointing Waltz, Trump announced Tuesday: “Mike has been a strong champion of my America First foreign policy agenda, and will be a tremendous champion of our pursuit of peace through strength!”
Trump has yet to formally appoint Rubio, but his upcoming appointments have been widely reported and the Republican Jewish Coalition, which has a long relationship with Rubio, congratulated him.
“President Trump’s selection of Senator Rubio for this critical role sends a message loud and clear: the days of weakness and appeasement are over,” the RJC said in a statement Monday evening. “We know that with Senator Rubio leading the State Department, America will stand shoulder to shoulder with our allies and confront our enemies.”
The nominations indicate that, despite isolationist tendencies among some in Trump’s inner circle, the party’s traditional stance toward Israel prevails in Trump’s coalescing White House. So did the president-elect this week called New York Rep. Elise Stefanika prominent pro-Israel hawk in Congress, as ambassador to the United Nations.
Rubio departed from his otherwise aggressive voting record on Israel earlier this year when he opposed a combined Israel-Ukraine relief package that passed. But he said he voted no because the package did not include sufficiently strict immigration measures. The House voted separately on each part of the Senate bill: Waltz and Stefanik both voted for the Israeli component and against the Ukrainian component.
Both Waltz and Rubio, when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, supported a robust alliance with the beleaguered country. More recently, they have shifted to advocating reduced U.S. involvement in the war, which is more in line with Trump’s accommodative attitude toward Russia and his aversion to U.S. involvement in foreign wars.
Rubio rose to prominence in Florida politics in part thanks to the billionaire car dealer magnate’s support Norman Bramana former president of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation. He is known to have close ties to Miriam Adelson, the pro-Israel casino magnate who funneled $100 million into Trump’s campaign this year.
In the 2016 election, she and her late husband, Sheldon Adelson, were on the verge of deciding whether to endorse Rubio or Texas Sen. Ted Cruz as the Republican candidate. Then Trump pulled ahead and Sheldon Adelson decided to support the reality TV star.
Rubio has said for years that the United States should not stand in the way of an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear program.
“I think Israel has the right to act in self-defense, which it has done in the past when it attacked facilities in Syria and other places,” Rubio said. told The Atlantic in 2015, when he was considered a front-runner in next year’s presidential race. Regarding reports that the United States had stopped Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities, Rubio added: “It is not clear exactly what would have happened as a result of that attack. I think such an attack would have been successful.”
In October, after Iran targeted Israel with missiles and Israel’s conflict with the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah escalated, tweeted“Israel should respond to Iran the way the US would respond if a country launched 180 missiles at us. And they should do in Lebanon what we would demand of our leaders if terrorists launched anti-tank missiles at us from a neighboring country, forcing 60,000 Americans to evacuate their homes and farms for nearly a year.”
Waltz is one of Israel’s most robust backers in the US House of Representatives and has also said Israel should not hesitate to hit Iran’s nuclear sites and oil fields. Biden had discouraged such actions, fearing that such attacks would spark a full-scale regional war that would attract the United States.
“So far… it is important to note what has not been affected in Iran,” Walz said in an Oct. 25 tweetlisting an Iranian oil facility and a nuclear facility. “This could be Israel’s last best chance to reduce Iran’s nuclear program and cut off their money. Have Biden/Harris once again pressured Israel to do less than it should?”
Trump’s decision to side with the pair may have less to do with their pro-Israel bonafides than with their loyalty: Rubio opted not to run for president this year and fully supported Trump. That sets him apart from other Iran hawks who might have hoped for a return to a Trump administration, including former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who ran an unsuccessful primary campaign, or former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who flirted with a run. Trump says neither will join his administration.
Rubio appears poised for smooth sailing through a Senate confirmation, with Republicans set to retain the majority and at least one Democrat, Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, poised to support him.
“It is not surprising that the other team’s choice will have political differences than mine,” Fetterman said on X. “That said, my colleague @SenMarcoRubio is a strong choice and I look forward to voting for his confirmation.”
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