Trump ‘Shocked’ Two Right-Wing Israeli Journalists With Criticisms of Israel During Trip to Mar-a-Lago

AP Photo/Evan Vucci.

Two right-wing Israeli journalists traveled to Palm Beach, Florida to interview former President Donald Trump last week, expecting he would voice support for their country’s war against Hamas, but their conversation at Mar-a-Lago instead left them “shocked,” according to a report by Jonathan Swan at The New York Times.

According to Swan, billionaire GOP donor Miriam Adelson made the arrangements for the interview. One of the reporters involved was Ariel Kahana, whom Swan described as “a right-wing settler who is the senior diplomatic correspondent for Israel Hayom,” a pro-Netanyahu newspaper owned and published by Adelson.

Kahana wrote that what Trump said to him and his colleague Omer Lachmanovitch “shocked us to our core” and left them with the conclusion that both major U.S. presidential candidates, Trump and President Joe Biden, “are turning their rhetorical backs on Israel.” As Swan summarized Trump’s comments — and Kahana’s assessment thereof:

[Trump] told the interviewers that Israel was losing public support for its Gaza assault, that the images of devastation were bad for Israel’s global image and that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should end his war soon — statements that sounded far more like something President Biden might say than the kind of cheerleading Mr. Netanyahu has come to expect from Washington Republicans.

“You have to finish up your war,” Mr. Trump said. “You have to get it done. We have to get to peace. We can’t have this going on.”

That statement apparently troubled Mr. Kahana even more than Mr. Biden’s warnings to Israel. Mr. Biden has called for a six-week cease-fire in exchange for Hamas releasing Israeli hostages. In the interview excerpts released by Israel Hayom, Mr. Trump did not qualify his call for Israel to finish the war by insisting on the release of hostages.

“Trump effectively bypassed Biden from the left, when he expressed willingness to stop this war and get back to being the great country you once were,” Mr. Kahana wrote. “There’s no way to beautify, minimize or cover up that problematic message.”

Swan’s article quoted several current and former Trump aides and appointees who argued that Trump’s comments were being misconstrued, but the interview did highlight what seems to be a growing “division” between Trump and congressional Republicans, “who seem to be competing to see who can more ostentatiously demonstrate support for Mr. Netanyahu’s government,” including “flying to Israel to meet with Mr. Netanyahu, planning to invite him to address Congress and generally urging Israel to do whatever it takes, for as long as it takes, to annihilate Hamas.”

About halfway through the article, Swan — who made a name for himself with a hard-hitting interview of Trump in 2020 — made note of what may be the motivating force behind Trump’s “hedging commentary” about the war and the “long line of public statements he has made to undercut Mr. Netanyahu,” pointing out that Trump “has still not forgiven [Netanyahu] for congratulating Mr. Biden as the winner of the 2020 election.”

Read the full article at The New York Times.

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