JERUSALEM, Israel – Michele Bachmann, dean of Regent University’s Robertson School of Government, has been coming to Israel since she arrived here as a teenager to work on a kibbutz. Today, the former Minnesota congressman and presidential candidate came as a major participant in the Jerusalem Prayer Breakfast, which is marking its tenth anniversary this year.
She visited our Jerusalem studio this past week to share her thoughts on the dramatic political, military, and spiritual changes happening in Israel and the Middle East.
You can watch our interview by clicking on the video above. The text of our conversation is below.
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JULIE STAHL: Welcome back to Jerusalem, Dateline. I’m here with the honorable Michele Bachmann. Welcome, Michele.
MICHELE BACHMANN: Thank you. Julie.
JS: So tell me, what is your take on the Iran U.S. deal? Is it going to happen? Is it for real? What do you think’s going to happen?
MB: It’s been the biggest question mark of the last few weeks, and really kind of a shocking situation. This has been the number one foreign policy issue for the United States in probably the last 47, 48 years, because Iran considers the United States its number one enemy. And they have made it very clear for every single day for nearly 48 years: ‘Death to America, death to Israel.’
Those aren’t just propaganda slogans. That’s actually their policy statement. That’s their strategy. That’s their policy. And what I appreciate about President Trump is that he takes that threat seriously. He understands it. We saw him take that seriously a year ago in June, when he was taking out the nuclear facilities, declared and undeclared; and also he then, earlier this year, together (with) Benjamin Netanyahu, saw a miraculous effort, probably one of the greatest military operations I’ve ever seen in my life, where the United States and Israel came together, and it looked like the whole goal was to wipe out the regime and deal once and for all with Iran and put to the end their nuclear ambitions to destroy Israel and destroy the United States, because that’s what we’re talking about. That’s the goal.
And so this really is odd to me. It’s very odd the way, these last few weeks, we’ve seen the administration deal with Iran. It’s been six weeks of start-stop pauses. We get, we get one view coming out of the white House and then another view. One thing I, in looking at President Trump and what he’s saying, he’s an interesting man in that I think that his negotiating strategy is to say one thing one day and another thing another day (which) keeps everyone off-balance.
But the one thing about President Trump that’s brilliant is that all of his actions have been right regarding the United States and Israel. So we have a very good history with the president. So we could, I think,, have high trust. The thing that concerns me more than anything because both for Israel and the United States, we are on a knife-edge right now. This conflict is going to go one way or another. And I’ve been around. I was a young bride when I when the Ayatollah came into Iran. This has been a part of my whole life watching this effort, both as a member of Congress and as an academic, all through my life. And I want to see this ended.
I think the whole world wants to see this ended, because the current regime in Iran is an evil regime, a destructive regime. We see that all the time. They need to and they need to collapse. They need to fall. I pray to that end that they collapse and that they fall. And so my goal would be to see, let’s rid the world of this terrorism that is the current regime. And I think it’s very possible to see it happen.
JS: What do you think it will take to see that happen?
MB: That’s $1 million question.
JS: Would a deal do it, do you think?
MB: No, a deal won’t do it because you can’t trust the Iranians, the regime. The people are wonderful. My next-door neighbors, Iranian. I love the Iranian people. But the regime is something else. It’s a demonic ideology that they believe, and it’s a death cult. So they need to fall. And I believe that they can collapse. They will collapse. I think we’re closer than we’ve ever been. And so that’s why my goal is, I just don’t want to see the president pull his punch. He’s ready to punch. And it’s, look, the last weeks, like he’s pulling a punch, but he’s a very shrewd cat. Donald Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu is a very shrewd cat. And these guys work together very well. And I think for the sake of the world, for the sake of the United States and Israel, I think they will see this through to the end, at least I hope they do.
One concern I have, really, is the advisors, various advisors, both for Prime Minister Netanyahu and for President Trump. I’m hoping that advisors don’t have other competing interests, that they’re worried about the interests of Saudi Arabia or the interests of Qatar. That shouldn’t be our worry right now, what their interests are. Remember, Qatar’s a chief funder of terrorism in the world. So we shouldn’t be worried to make sure that they land on their feet. This is really about making sure that the United States and Israel land on our feet.
JS: Yeah, that would be the that would be the goal. Thank you so much for your insight.
