W hat if Jeb Bush had bested Donald Trump and been elected president in 2016? How might the former Florida governor deal with North Korea and Iran? Or what if Hillary Clinton had won the electoral college and were sitting in the Oval Office today? How different would the world look?

Those were some of the questions raised at the United Against a Nuclear Iran (UANI) annual summit at The Roosevelt in New York City last week scheduled to start just moments after President Donald Trump delivered his inaugural address at the United Nations in which he threatened to strike North Korea and withdraw from the Iran nuclear agreement.

Bush once considered the favorite to win the Republican Party’s nomination in 2016 offered a glance of the presidency that could have been. Calling North Korea and Iran rogue nations Bush said Trump’s foreign policy would be more effective if he transitioned from “ad hoc diplomacy” to something that is “clear and coherent. Because at the end of the day too much chaos and being unreliable creates real dangers.”

Bush also cautioned against marketing American foreign policy as “America First.” He called it a “deeply disturbing… approach” that has some people rightfully concerned. “I’m not sure the president is invoking a policy of 70 years ago of deep isolationism and anti-Semitism and other things like that ” he said “but these are code words that we probably need to get beyond.” Bush did however credit Trump’s national security team with “moving in a more traditional way.”

In another panel moderated by Mark Wallace CEO of United Against Nuclear Iran New Jersey Governor Chris Christie analyzed how the results of the 2016 election effected the Iran nuclear agreement in particular. He predicted that President Trump would decertify the deal in October dismantling one of President Obama’s signature foreign policy actions. And how would Hillary Clinton have treated the Iran deal? “Well first off you wouldn’t be talking about Iran at all. All that would be a settled issue ” Christie said. “I think the strongest point in the Trump administration on this issue is the president’s willingness to rethink and revisit [the deal].”

Christine leveled particular criticism against New Jersey Senator Cory Booker who early in his career was sympathetic to Jewish interests but voted with Liberal Democrats to support the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action despite the Jewish community’s opposition.

“It was very frustrating to me ” Christie said of the failure to sway Booker’s vote. “I thought that we put together an extraordinary grassroots effort inside our own state to attempt to influence Senator Booker and it was ineffective. I can tell you that the community inside New Jersey is overwhelmingly anti-nuclear Iran and he was unmoved.”

Echoing former President Obama’s remark Christie said “elections have consequences.” (Excerpted from Mishpacha Issue 679)