Former President Donald Trump said Israel needs to “get smart” about supporting him, maintaining that he has done more for the Jewish state than it has for him.
Mr. Trump phoned into the Monday show of conservative host Hugh Hewitt on the first anniversary of the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, and he was asked whether Israel would fully recover from the year of war.
“I think Israel will recover, and maybe recover much stronger than the past,” the former president said, adding that he thinks “they’ve shown a level of warfare that’s been pretty amazing.”
He said Israel just has to do one thing: Support him.
“It’s been amazing. Israel would be good, I think that Israel has to do one thing. They have to get smart about Trump, because they don’t back me,” he said. “I did more for Israel than anybody. I did more for the Jewish people than anybody. And it’s not reciprocal, as they say, not reciprocal.”
The former president did not elaborate on what a foreign state should be doing to back him, but he has said on several occasions that he is one of Israel’s biggest supporters and that U.S. Jews ought to support him.
At an event last month on fighting antisemitism he said with the support of Jewish American voters he would be “your defender, your protector, and I will be the best friend Jewish Americans have ever had in the White House.”
But at that same event he said that if he were to lose the November election, Jewish people “would have a lot to do with” it.
For decades, U.S. Jews have overwhelmingly voted for Democrats, though the margins have slipped a bit in recent elections. In those years, progressive intellectuals have increasingly turned against Israel and the American electorate has acquired larger numbers of recent Arab and Muslim immigrants.
In Monday’s call, Mr. Trump told Mr. Hewitt that he would support Israel striking back at Iran.
“Well, you want to do what they want to do. Now they may be making a deal with Iran right now,” he said. “You know, to be honest with you, because Iran’s not looking so good.”
He said they “could be making a deal. They could be doing some very smart things right now.”
“But the nice thing is they’re entitled to an attack, and nobody will be upset if they attack, because they’re entitled,” he said.
Mr. Trump said if he were elected he would want to get a protective shield for the United States similar to Israel’s Iron Dome, noting that the technology that created Israel’s came from the U.S.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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