He worked to soothe those worries on Monday in a major speech before the annual gathering of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
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“In my first day in office I will rip this catastrophic Iranian nuclear deal to shreds”.
Cruz took the stage at the Washington D.C. arena after Trump, and he used the opportunity to show a command of Judaism and Israeli history – a contrast to Trump’s lack of fluency.
Cruz also picked up on Trump’s referring to Palestine as a country.
“Last evening something occurred which has the potential to drive us apart, to divide us”, Pinkus said.
Hundreds of the 19,000 people attending the conference at the Verizon Center in Washington had either walked out in protest or turned their back on Mr Trump.
In a speech delivered from prepared remarks and a teleprompter – a rarity for Trump, who has panned Democrats for using the device – Trump stressed that he is “a lifelong supporter and true friend of Israel”. The agreement, finalized last July, has faced stiff opposition from the Israeli government and many in the USA, including Republican front-runner Donald Trump.
“Since the collapse of negotiations in 2013, the Palestinian Authority has been clear that Israel must stop settlement construction and free a fourth batch of Palestinian prisoners before talks can resume”, Makboul said. America can’t ever be neutral when it comes to Israel’s security and survival.
But while Trump’s past statements have caused concern among pro-Israel advocates, including his promise to be “neutral” in negotiations between Israel and Palestinians, he offered promises Monday much in line with what the audience had hoped to hear.
Earlier in the day, Trump told the Washington Post editorial board that he supported a non-interventionist foreign policy philosophy, focusing on reducing the United States’ engagement in conflicts overseas in order to focus on rebuilding infrastructure and the economy at home. He told Aipac that his first act of business would be to “dismantle” the Iran nuclear deal and then later argues that he would simply “hold Iran accountable by restructuring the terms of the previous deal”.
However Trump was heavily criticised by fellow Republican candidates Ted Cruz and John Kasich.
“To my mind, as friends – long-term friends with Israel – we are obligated to speak the truth as we see it. That is what real friendship demands, especially in hard times”, Sanders, who is also the only Jewish candidate and one whose views were shaped in part by his time living on an Israeli kibbutz, said.
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“Some things aren’t negotiable”, she said to raucous applause. But some former diplomats have said President Barack Obama’s administration should consider a way to lay out a pathway to a future settlement, possibly through a United Nations resolution. But it was a more subdued and somewhat more scripted Trump in this venue.
