A little more than a week ago, two Israeli journalists traveled to Palm Beach, Florida, hoping to elicit a strong show of support for their country’s war in Gaza from President Donald J. Trump.
Rather, one of them wrote that what they heard from Mr. Trump at Mar-a-Lago “deeply shocked us.”
“Both US presidential candidates Biden and Trump are rhetorically turning their backs on Israel,” concluded Ariel Kahana, a right-wing settler and senior diplomatic correspondent for Israel Hayom. The newspaper is owned by billionaire Republican donor Miriam Adelson. Mr. Adelson himself arranged the meeting with Mr. Trump, according to a person with direct knowledge of the plan.
What did Mr. Trump say that made Mr. Kahana so alarmed?
He told interviewers that Israel was losing public support for its attack on Gaza, that images of devastation were bad for Israel’s global image, and that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should end the war immediately. he said. This statement was much more similar to what President Biden is likely to say. Mr. Netanyahu is the kind of cheerleader you’d expect from Republicans in Washington.
“The war has to end,” Trump said. “We have to get it done. We have to reach peace. We can’t keep doing this.”
This comment seemed to trouble Kahana more than Biden’s warnings about Israel. Biden called for a six-week ceasefire in exchange for Hamas releasing Israeli hostages. In excerpts of the interview published by Israel Hayom, Trump said he was not qualified to call on Israel to end the war by advocating for the release of the hostages.
“Mr. Trump has effectively sidestepped Mr. Biden on the left, who has expressed a desire to end this war and return to our once great country,” Kahana wrote in Hebrew. “There is no way to glamorize, minimize or hide that problematic message.”
Trump’s aides insisted this was a misunderstanding. Campaign spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt said Trump “fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself and eliminate the threat of terrorism,” adding that Israel’s interests are “as quickly and decisively protected as possible.” “This mission is best served by carrying out this mission in a humane and humane manner.” The region can regain peace and stability. ”
But the rift between Mr. Trump and Congressional Republicans is inevitable, and they appear to be competing to see who can show more ostentatious support for Netanyahu’s government. They are flying to Israel to meet with Mr. Netanyahu, plan to invite him to address Congress, and generally call on Israel to do whatever it takes to annihilate Hamas.
In contrast, Trump’s hedging remarks about Israel Hayom follow a series of public appearances he has made to disparage Netanyahu, who has yet to forgive Netanyahu for congratulating Biden as the winner of the 2020 election. It’s just the latest in a series of statements.
In 2021, Trump told Axios journalist Barak Rabid that he had concluded that Netanyahu “never wants peace” with the Palestinians.
Trump’s first reaction to the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack was to criticize Netanyahu and Israeli intelligence. Advisors privately implored him to clean up his comments, and he quickly pivoted to the standard line of support for Israel’s right to self-defense.
The ambiguity of Trump’s rhetoric regarding the Israel-Hamas war allowed different audiences to hear what he wanted in his public statements. He has said nothing substantive about whether he would act differently on Israel policy if he were president, and his team again responded to questions from the New York Times in detail. refused to go into it.
Given this void, right-wing supporters of Israel and Israelis like Kahana are parsing everything Trump says, making him a more reliable ally in his second term than he was in his first. I am concerned that this will no longer be the case. Mr. Netanyahu has achieved nearly everything he wanted, including moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.
“Those who support President Trump and deeply support Israel’s efforts to win the war against Hamas, at a critical moment when the administration appears to be speaking from both sides and creating some sense, “You have to accept who you are. Because of the instability in the U.S.-Israel relationship, Mr. Trump has exacerbated that instability by being the other candidate’s nominee,” said Commentary magazine editor and President Ronald Reagan. said former speechwriter John Podhoretz.
“The only difference between Trump and Biden, and I say this as someone who is not a Biden supporter, is that Biden put the money where his mouth is. He’s sending the weapons.” Podhoretz added. “So, operationally, that seems to suggest that Biden’s problem is rhetoric, not policy. And all of Trump. teeth It’s rhetoric, and he’s not proposing policies that will make anyone feel good. ”
David M. Friedman, Trump’s former ambassador to Israel, argued in an interview that people misunderstood Trump’s statements.
Mr. Friedman said he respects Mr. Kahana, but suggested that the reporter may have been stretching Mr. Trump’s remarks. I couldn’t hear what he said. I heard him say, “Finish your work.” That means defeat Hamas, defeat it decisively, defeat it as soon as possible. And let’s move on. ”
Some former Trump advisers have filled gaps in Trump policy with their own ideas to resolve conflicts. His son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who has used relationships built during the Trump administration to promote foreign deals, said at a Harvard University forum in February that “Gaza’s waterfront land could be extremely valuable.” “Yes,” he said, adding that Palestinians should “stand down.” They were then moved to an area in the Negev desert in southern Israel that was bulldozed to house them.
Mr. Friedman is far ahead of Mr. Kushner, who appeared to be just thinking. Mr. Friedman developed a proposal for Israel to assert full sovereignty over the West Bank, definitively ending the possibility of a two-state solution. Friedman acknowledged in an interview that the plan would not grant Israeli citizenship to Palestinians in the West Bank, who have lived under Israeli military occupation since 1967.
It is not at all clear whether Mr. Trump would support this, but he told an Israeli interviewer that he planned to meet with Mr. Friedman to hear his thoughts. Friedman has not yet discussed his own plans with Trump, he said.
Unlike Mr. Friedman, Mr. Trump has long held firm on the possibility of a big deal between Israel and the Palestinians, insisting that he is the only one who can broker the “deal of the century.” Still, Trump acted so biased toward Israel during his tenure that a two-state solution acceptable to the Palestinians was never realistic.
John R. Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser who became a sharp critic, said Trump’s interview with Israel Hayom “illustrated the main points I was trying to explain to people. In other words, Trump’s support for Israel has been proven.” Support in a first term is not guaranteed in a second term because President Trump’s positions are made based on what is good for Donald Trump rather than on any coherent theory of national security. ”
“His statements in recent interviews were somewhat vague, but it seemed to me that he was approaching something negative about Israel’s war effort,” Bolton said in an interview. “And I think there’s more than meets the eye.”
“What matters most to Trump is how he looks in the press. So forget about justice,” he added. “It just doesn’t look good.”
The way Mr. Bolton sees it, when his former boss warned Mr. Netanyahu that his image was in decline, he said, “He’s not worried about Israel’s image. his If he has to keep it. ”
Jonathan Wiseman Contributed to the report.
