Israel has at least one person on its side who believes that the country has completely responded in the appropriate way to the October 7 terror attack by Hamas — former President Donald Trump.
This week, he said that if he were in charge of Israel, the response would’ve been the same as the country has done. At the same time, he urged Israel to “finish up” the offensive it’s carrying out in Gaza and “get this over with” as soon as possible, so that international support doesn’t fade any more than it already has.
Trump gave an interview to Israel Hayom, a newspaper in Israel, during which he said:
“You have to finish up your war. You have to finish it up. You’ve got to get it done. We’ve got to get to peace. You can’t have this going on, and I will say Israel has to be very careful because you are losing a lot of the world. You are losing a lot of support.”
Trump has been highly critical of the way his opponent in the upcoming election, President Joe Biden, has handled the Israeli conflict. That being said, his criticism of the way Israel has handled parts of the war do fall in line with what Biden has said.
For instance, the newspaper provided a transcript of the interview with Trump, which showed that he said “Israel made a very big mistake” when it released videos and photos of its war effort in Gaza. He said that the recent actions it’s taken has put the public image of Israel “in ruin.”
As the former president said:
“That’s a terrible portrait. It’s a very bad picture for the world. I think Israel wanted to show that it’s tough, but sometimes you shouldn’t be doing that.”
Israel Hayom is seen by many people in the world as being a mouthpiece for the administration of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who’s received a lot of criticism lately from Biden and other lawmakers in the U.S.
In addition to Biden’s criticism, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said recently that the time has come for elections in Israel to be held that would bring in a new regime to lead the country.
Even Trump criticized Netanyahu not long after the October 7 attack by Hamas, saying that the prime minister let him down when he was president. He added that the prime minister “was not prepared” for the incursion that came from Gaza.
More than 1,200 Israelis were killed during the attacks on October 7, and about 250 hostages were taken as well.
The Health Ministry in Gaza, which is run by the terrorist organization Hamas, has claimed that more than 30,000 Palestinians have died in the nearly six months of fighting in Gaza.
In the interview, Trump also suggested that Jews in America are wrong to support Democrats, comments that came only a few days after Jewish advocates criticized him for saying that Jewish Democrats were disloyal to their religion.
