Presumptive Republican nominee President Donald Trump’s former Assistant Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said it best when she told NBC News that Trump “did more for Israel than any American president in history.” On March 3, The New York Times tried to criticize Mr. Trump for his apparent “hands off approach” to the Israel-Hamas war in a front-page story entitled “Trump Offers No Clear View on Gaza War.” The paper could not have been further from the truth.
Having presented an award to Trump for his brokering of the Abraham Accords on Feb. 26, the Times article struck me as odd. Trump is one of the most persecuted individuals in the world today, but despite the heavy toll it has taken on his life, he has managed to do what few thought was possible. He is as much in Israel’s and the Jewish people’s corner as he was when he was president. At the awards presentation, he made sure to discuss the horrific videos of the atrocities committed by Hamas on Oct. 7. He felt tremendous pain for the hostages and the torture they are experiencing every day.
In an interview with Brian Kilmeade of Fox News, Trump said of Hamas, “You’ve gotta finish the problem.” He added, “You had a horrible invasion. It took place. It would have never happened if I was president, by the way.”
I told Trump that Hamas is an existential threat to Israel and he fully agreed. We spoke about Iran and its destabilization of the region, as well as its ambition to destroy the U.S., which the mullahs consider the “Great Satan.” Trump was fully engaged in and supportive of all efforts to thwart Iran. As Leavitt put it, “When President Trump is back in the Oval Office, Israel will once again be protected, Iran will go back to being broke, terrorists will be hunted down and the bloodshed will end.”
Unlike the current administration, which claims that the so called “settlements” in Judea and Samaria are “inconsistent with international law,” Trump’s Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accurately said the exact opposite on Nov. 18, 2019.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken chose a very inopportune time to make this claim about the settlements. Israel is suffering tremendously and does not need a reversal of American policy at a moment when they are in utter agony and pain.
Similarly, Israel does not need to be forced to accept a two-state “solution” as it fights for its very existence. The Biden administration seems hellbent on pushing this notion despite Israel’s objections and Israel’s concern that the creation of a Palestinian Arab state will only lead to more Oct. 7’s. Trying to use this agonizing and distressing time to foist old and unworkable ideas on Israel is not only inappropriate but foolhardy. It is also a treacherous path for Biden in an election year. It will only help Trump, who has always had Israel’s back.
