Trump (left) during his interview with Israeli journalists (Israeli press)

The New York Times said that the recent statements made by former US President Donald Trump, in which he urged an end to the war in Gaza without insisting on the release of Israeli detainees first, were another departure from conservative support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The newspaper reviewed - in a report written by Jonathan Swan - what two Israeli journalists said who traveled to Florida in the hope of obtaining a strong expression from Trump of his support for their country’s war in Gaza, but what they heard, as they say, “shocked us to the core.”

Read also

list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4

Bloomberg: The shadow war between Israel and Iran has entered a new phase

list 2 of 4

A doctor who worked in Gaza: This is a war on children!

list 3 of 4

The Guardian: Are Israel's allies really retreating from their support?

list 4 of 4

Economist: What will happen to humanity if a nuclear war breaks out?

end of list

Ariel Kahane, a right-wing settler and chief diplomatic correspondent for the "Israel Today" newspaper, said, "Both US presidential candidates, current President Joe Biden and Trump, are turning their backs on Israel."

Annoying message

What did Trump say that worried Kahane? The two journalists said that Israel had begun to lose popular support for its attack on Gaza, that images of destruction were damaging to Israel's global image, and that Netanyahu must end his war soon, because such Biden-worthy statements are not the encouragement Netanyahu was expecting from Republicans in Washington.

Trump told reporters, "You have to end your war. You have to get it done. We have to reach peace. We cannot allow this to happen." These are statements that seem to have bothered Kahane more than Biden's warnings to Israel - according to the newspaper - especially since Trump did not prepare for his call. Israel to end the war by insisting on the release of detainees.

Kahane wrote, “Trump overtook Biden to the left when he expressed his willingness to stop this war so that Israel could return to the great country it was before,” stressing that “there is no way to embellish, diminish, or cover up this problematic message.”

Are they wrong interpretations?

Although Trump’s aides insist that the interpretation is wrong, and that what their candidate means is “to fully support Israel’s right to defend itself and eliminate the terrorist threat,” it is not possible - according to the newspaper - to circumvent the apparent division between Trump and congressional Republicans who are competing to show support. To the Netanyahu government.

The newspaper pointed out that what Trump told the newspaper "Israel Today" is only the latest in a long series of statements he made to undermine Netanyahu, who has not yet been forgiven for congratulating Biden as the winner of the 2020 elections.

Trump and Netanyahu

In 2021, Trump told a journalist that he had concluded that Netanyahu “never wants peace” with the Palestinians. He also criticized Netanyahu and the Israeli intelligence services in his first reaction to the October 7 attack, and his advisers even privately implored him to correct his comments.

Right-wing supporters of Israel, and Israelis like Kahane, analyze every word of Trump's statements, fearing that he will not be an unreliable ally, unlike he was in his first term, when he gave Netanyahu almost everything he wanted, including moving the US embassy to Jerusalem and recognizing Israel's sovereignty over the country. Golan Heights.

“Those who support Trump and strongly support Israel's efforts to win the war need to understand that when the administration speaks out on both sides at a critical moment, it creates a sense of instability,” said John Podhoretz, editor-in-chief of Commentary magazine and former Ronald Reagan speechwriter.

Trump does not go beyond words

Podhoretz explained, "The only difference between Trump and Biden is that Biden's actions match his words. All Trump does is talk, and he is not making any policy that would make anyone feel comfortable."

For his part, Trump's former ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, insisted in an interview that people are misreading Trump's statements, pointing out that Kahane, despite his respect for him, exaggerated in interpreting Trump's statements, and said, "I understand the fear of Republican isolationism, because there is There is a movement within the Republican Party moving in this direction, but I heard him (Trump) saying, “Complete the mission, defeat it (Hamas) decisively, defeat it as quickly as possible.” And then move on."

Some of Trump's former advisors filled the policy vacuum with their own ideas for resolving the conflict - as the newspaper says - and his son-in-law Jared Kushner said that "the Gaza waterfront could be of great value" and that the Palestinians should be "removed from it." Friedman also suggested that Israel demand full sovereignty over it. The West Bank, which permanently ends the possibility of a two-state solution, while depriving the Palestinians of citizenship.

However, it is not known whether Trump will support these ideas, even though he has long clung to the possibility of reaching a grand deal between Israel and the Palestinians, and insisted that he alone is capable of brokering the “deal of the century,” even if he acted unbalanced in favor of Israel while in office. To the point that the two-state solution he presented was not realistic at all.

Source: New York Times