Pray for U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia—may God give wisdom to our leaders and the leaders in Saudi Arabia and may God’s will be done in both nations.

 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. (Eph. 5:17)

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US president Donald Trump delivered the first speech of his first foreign trip in Riyadh on Sunday, in which he called on Middle Eastern leaders to combat a “crisis of Islamic extremism”. (Excerpted from The Telegraph UK, summary of key points of speech. Click HERE to watch the speech in full.)

Donald Trump made Saudi Arabia the first stop on his first presidential trip abroad for a reason. His speech Sunday in Riyadh was a principal factor in that decision, inviting as it does close comparison to Barack Obama’s June 2009, Cairo speech. Trump’s rhetoric wins hands down.

Unlike Obama, who somehow couldn’t find a way to use words like “terror” or “terrorism” in his speech, Trump made the common terrorist threat facing America and the Muslim world his central point. Recognizing the radical, ideological nature of the threat is manifestly a prerequisite to dealing with it effectively, which Trump emphasized repeatedly during the 2016 campaign. This logic resonates in the Muslim world just as it does in America. . . .

Rhetorically, Trump’s speech brought welcome relief to his Arab audience after eight years of Obama’s blindness to Iranian and terrorist threats. But actions must follow. What he needs to accomplish most urgently is the expedited destruction of the ISIS “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria, followed by concrete steps to eliminate Iran’s nuclear-weapons program, and ultimately the ayatollah’s regime. If such actions follow his words, then his speech will have been a success. (Excerpted from New York Post, reporting by John Bolton.)

A leading American Jewish advocacy organization praised Donald Trump’s speech to Muslim leaders in Saudi Arabia on Sunday, saying the president had demonstrated “refreshing honesty…in describing the Islamist extremist threat that developed in the Middle East years ago.”

“We agree that the fight against Islamist extremism is a battle between the forces of good and decency, on the one hand, and evil and a death cult, on the other, and that victory depends, above all, on what Arab and Muslim nations do to counter and defeat this violent, deadly scourge,” said David Harris, CEO of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), in a statement. (Excerpted from The Algemeiner, reporting by The Algemeiner staff.)