Former U.S. president Donald Trump said in an interview with Fox News on Sunday that Israel needs to 'finish it up' in Gaza. Trump also claimed in the interview that current U.S. President Joe Biden "dumped Israel.”
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He added he wanted to convey a message to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying: "You have to finish it up and do it quickly, and get back to a world of peace." Trump added, "We need peace in the world. We were close to it. We made the Abraham Accords, I bet you I would’ve had Iran in the Abraham Accords."
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Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, Joe Biden
(Photo: Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP, Jacquelyn Martin/Pool via REUTERS, REUTERS/Brian Snyder)
Trump, who has mocked Netanyahu and Israel on various occasions throughout the war in Gaza, criticized Biden and Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer for the harsh criticism they directed at Netanyahu in recent weeks after Schumer called for elections in Israel in an unusual speech.
"All of a sudden Biden dumped Israel," Trump said. "He just said essentially that Bibi Netanyahu should take a walk." Trump said Schumer "maybe has forgotten that Israel lost a lot of people on October 7th too. People need to remember that. He doesn’t forget it, he looks at where do I get more votes. He’s seeing the Palestinians and he sees the marches, and he was shocked to see it, and all of a sudden, he dumped Israel. I don’t know how Israel stays with these people.”
According to him, the U.S. shouldn’t tell its ally how to run its government. "There's no question about it," he said. "The Democrats are very bad for Israel, Israel sticks with them. Israel is loyal. Biden is so bad for Israel. They should have never have been attacked. If Biden was good to Israel, the Iran nuclear deal would never have been signed, and Israel would have never been attacked."
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U.S. President Joe Biden 'was so bad for Israel,' Trump says
(Photo: REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz)
He also reiterated his assertion that Israel wouldn’t have been attacked if he were president, because, under his administration, Iran was “broke and wouldn’t have given money to Hezbollah.”
In interviews he gave to U.S. news outlets on Sunday, Netanyahu addressed Schumer’s remarks calling for elections in Israel after the war. "It’s not something that will be forced upon us," he argued. “My personal considerations aren’t for my own survival but for the survival of the Jewish state." He added, "I don't know why Senator Schumer made those statements."
During the interview, Netanyahu was shown a segment in which former U.S. President Donald Trump, who’s also running in the upcoming elections in November, claimed Biden wants to see Netanyahu ousted. "I hope I won't have to leave," Netanyahu said and also praised Trump for his support of Israel during his tenure.
Following Trump’s words, he added: "The only thing that gets Hamas to release the hostages is continued military pressure. The same time [sic], there has to be pressure from Qatar that wields enormous influence on Hamas, and they should be pressed to press them. There are still four Hamas battalions left in Rafah."
"When people tell us ‘don’t go into Rafah,’ that’s like telling the Allies 'don't near Berlin.' If we leave a quarter of Hamas’ terrorist battalions in place, they will repeat the October 7 massacre over and over again,” he said.