President Trump stole the show – and for good reason!  Unlike his weak and unprincipled predecessor, whose tour of Mideast lands sent a message of personal support and national lameness to enemies of the U.S., President Trump focused on new alliances against terror, demonstrated unprecedented support for our allies, and left a trail of palpable inspiration everywhere he went.  Respect for America as a superpower force for justice was the flashing image left in the minds of the president's host countries.

One of the major detractors of the President's Mideast tour de force is freshly re-elected Iranian president Hassan Rouhani.  Attacking President Trump's firm pledge that Iran must never develop a nuclear weapon, and his condemnation of Iran's sponsorship of terrorism, Rouhani shockingly remarked:

Who can say regional stability can be restored without Iran? Who can say the region will experience total stability without Iran? ... Who fought against the terrorists? It was Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Russia. But who funded the terrorists? Those who fund terrorists cannot claim they are fighting against them[.] ...

The Iranian nation has decided to be powerful. Our missiles are for peace and for defense[.] ... American officials should know that whenever we need to technically test a missile, we will do so and will not wait for their permission. America's dream on ending Iran's missile program will never come true.

Rouhani's assertion that the organs of terror are really the ones stopping terrorism, and that the U.S. and its allies are actually the ones funding terrorism, reveals quite a bit about Rouhani as a "moderate" and a reliable leader, to put it mildly.

Liberal news media are fawning all over the Rouhani election victory as a win for freedom and reform.  I am all for freedom and reform, and it would be great if Rouhani accomplishes this in the Islamic Republic of Iran, but it is this same Hassan Rouhani under whose rule the Iranian nuclear program stepped into high gear, Iranian-backed terrorists launched attacks throughout the globe, and Iranian-supported Houthi proxy militias overtook Yemen and toppled its government in 2015 (while President Obama did nothing to stop it – as usual).  It was under Rouhani that Iran smuggled al-Qaeda terrorists into Syria and weapons to Hezb'allah and Hamas.  It was under Rouhani that Iranian hackers, backed by the Iranian government, launched attacks on Western energy companies in the Persian Gulf in October of 2012.  So too for the terror attacks in Bahrain, Bulgaria, India, and Kenya during the past five years, all sponsored by Iran under Rouhani's presidency.

Iran's foreign ministry spokesman accused President Trump of spreading "Iranophobia" during the president's recent Mideast visit.  Truth be told, there is more than ample reason for the entire world to have "Iranophobia," and the responsibility for this well established fear sits directly in the lap of "moderate" Hassan Rouhani.

Avrohom Gordimer is a senior rabbinic fellow at the Coalition for Jewish Values, a public policy institute reflecting traditional Jewish thought.  He serves on the editorial board of Jewish Action magazine, is a staff writer for the Cross-Currents website, and is a frequent contributor to Israel National News and a host of other publications.  He is a member of the Rabbinical Council of America and the New York Bar, and he works as an account executive at a large Jewish organization based in Manhattan.  The views expressed in the above article are solely those of the writer.