The Democratic and Republican presidential front-runners offered very different messages Monday in speeches before the annual gathering of America’s most influential pro-Israel group, and both used the opportunity to lash out at each other.
While she did not name Donald Trump, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton used her speech to take swipes at the New York billionaire with an insinuation that he lacks the “steady hand” required to protect Israel’s security in a volatile Middle East.
Mr. Trump deflected the criticism in his own speech Monday night to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference by focusing on how he plans to reverse the Obama administration’s nuclear accord with Israel’s nemesis Iran.
“I didn’t come here to pander to you about Israel, that’s what politicians do — all talk no action, believe me,” Mr. Trump told the capacity crowd at the Verizon Center in downtown Washington. “My No. 1 priority,” he said, “is to dismantle the disastrous deal with Iran.”
“I have been in business a long time,” he added. “I know deal-making, and let me tell you, this deal is catastrophic for America, for Israel and for the whole of the Middle East.
“The problem here is fundamental: We’ve rewarded the world’s leading state sponsor of terror with $150 billion, and we received absolutely nothing in return,” Mr. Trump said. “I’ve studied this issue in great detail. I would say actually greater by far than anybody else. Believe me.”
PHOTOS: Israel support strong among presidential candidates
While that line drew some skepticism, the GOP front-runner won standing ovations from the crowd at AIPAC — support from which is viewed as essential by presidential candidates.
While pro-Israel lobby groups spent some $4.2 million lobbying lawmakers from both parties in 2015, roughly $3.4 million of it was spent by AIPAC alone, according to the government transparency website OpenSecrets.org. And the stakes couldn’t be higher than they are for the 2016 election, since the roughly $3.1 billion that Washington presently guarantees to Israel in annual military aid is slated to expire in 2018.
On a separate front Monday, Mr. Trump made headlines by naming members of his foreign policy advisory team for the first time in a meeting with The Washington Post editorial board.
The newspaper reported that the team includes Walid Phares, whom Mr. Trump called a counterterrorism expert; George Papadopoulos, an oil and energy consultant; and Joe Schmitz, a former inspector general at the Department of Defense.
His remarks at AIPAC, meanwhile, came hours after Mrs. Clinton had broadly lambasted him in her own speech at the conference on Monday morning.
“In a democracy, we’re going to have differences,” Mrs. Clinton said. “But what Americans are hearing on the campaign trail this year is something else entirely.
“Encouraging violence. Playing coy with white supremacists. Calling for 12 million immigrants to be rounded up and deported. Demanding we turn away refugees because of their religion, and proposing a ban on all Muslims entering the United States,” she said. “America should be better than this, and I believe it’s our responsibility as citizens to say so. If you see bigotry, oppose it. If you see violence, condemn it. If you see a bully, stand up to him.”
But it was something else Mrs. Clinton said that drew the most attention.
“We need steady hands, not a president who says he’s neutral on Monday, pro-Israel on Tuesday and who knows what on Wednesday, because everything’s negotiable,” she said in an open dig at Mr. Trump, who has drawn fire from critics for suggesting in past remarks that his position on Middle East peace negotiations is one of neutrality.
Asked last month in an MSNBC town hall where the fault lies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Mr. Trump had appeared to dodge the issue. “If I do win, there has to be a certain amount of surprise, unpredictability,” he said at the time. “If I win let me be sort of a neutral guy.”
Mr. Trump seemed eager to put any speculation on the matter to rest on Monday night. “The Palestinians must come to the table knowing that the bond between the U.S. and Israel is absolutely and totally unbreakable,” Mr. Trump said.
“When the United States stands with Israel, the chances for peace really rise and rise dramatically,” he said. “That’s what will happen when Donald Trump is president of the United States.”
While the crowd roared, Mr. Trump’s main rival on the GOP ticket seemed unconvinced.
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who took the stage after Mr. Trump, told the audience that the front-runner “has promised that he, as president, would be neutral between Israel and the Palestinians.”
“Well, let me be very, very clear,” said Mr. Cruz. “As president, I will not be neutral. America will stand unapologetically with the nation of Israel.”
Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who had addressed the conference earlier, said he too remains “unwavering in my support for the Jewish state and the unique partnership between the United States and Israel.”
Mr. Kasich also hammered Iran, although he stopped short of saying he’d repeal outright the nuclear accord that the Obama administration and five other world powers reached with the Islamic republic last summer.
Instead, Mr. Kasich said sanctions relief under accord should be suspended as a punishment for Tehran’s recent testing of ballistic missiles — tests he called “a violation of the spirit of the nuclear deal and violations that can no longer be ignored.”
The only remaining presidential candidate who did not speak at AIPAC, meanwhile, was Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont, who happens to be the only Jewish hopeful in the race.
Mr. Sanders sent a letter to AIPAC on Friday saying he would have enjoyed speaking but that he was campaigning out west, while saying that “issues impacting Israel and the Middle East are of the utmost importance to me, to our country and to the world.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
• Guy Taylor can be reached at gtaylor@washingtontimes.com.
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