After months of silence, Donald Trump declared last week that Israeli forces should “get over the problem” in their military offensive in Gaza.
In a telephone interview on Fox & Friends, he was asked if he “agrees” with the way Israeli forces are carrying out their offensive in Gaza. “You have to fix this,” Trump said. “Besides, you had a horrible invasion that would never have happened if I had been president. »
As always, the narcissistic boaster Trump focused his responses on himself. “They wouldn’t have done it to me, I guarantee you… They did it because they have no respect for Biden” adding that “Russia would never have attacked Ukraine.”
Israel: growing American opposition
Whether Trump or Biden, Netanyahu knows he can act with impunity under the protection of the US veto in the UN Security Council.
While American elected officials from both parties support Israel, with the exception of a few fringe Democrats, the situation is different among voters and the general population where support for Israel is declining in poll after poll. Half of adults think Israel has gone too far in its conduct of the war.
More than 30,000 Palestinians, the majority of them women and children, have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since Hamas launched its attack on Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking some 250 hostages. About half of the hostages have since been released in a prisoner exchange; an estimated 100 of the remaining hostages are still alive.
Hilary Clinton, asked if she was shocked by the high civilian casualties in Gaza, replied: “I’m not shocked, because that’s what happens in war.”
When American soldiers committed similar acts against prisoners in Iraq, they were court-martialed. Airman Aaron Bushnell recently set himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, to denounce the complicity of the American army in these war crimes.
Joe Biden’s unconditional support for Israel and its war in Gaza will cost him votes in this year’s elections. Michigan, which has a large Arab-Muslim population, saw an unprecedented number of Democratic primary voters vote “uncommitted” rather than for Biden. These “uncommitted” believe that Biden is not taking seriously his voters’ apprehensions regarding American involvement in the Gaza war.
Israel: better Trump than Biden
Despite Biden’s strong support for Israel, Trump is the preferred candidate of Israel’s far-right leaders. Last month, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir told the Wall Street Journal that Trump would provide Israel with stronger support than Biden is currently offering.
Netanyahu supported Trump in the 2020 presidential elections. During his presidency, the man in the long red tie supported the expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, moved the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and excluded the Palestinians from negotiations on the Abraham Accords.
But it appears Trump didn’t appreciate Netanyahu calling Biden to congratulate him on his victory in 2020. Trump was champing at the bit until the start of the Gaza war as he hailed Lebanese Hezbollah calling it a “very intelligent,” while denigrating Netanyahu and Israeli military officials. After being called to order by influential members of the American Jewish community, he had remained remarkably silent on the Gaza war until last week.