“Do you want to win this election?” Yet his questioning of Israel’s commitment to a lasting Peace with its Palestinian neighbors could still raise eyebrows in some Republican corners. Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, married a Jew and converted, and the billionaire’s grandchildren are Jewish.
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He said Israel had “given a lot” in the name of peace, and was applauded for saying the Jewish state had not always been given a lot of credit for that.
“Donald Trump is well aware of the composition of our board and our audience”, Mark McNulty said, “one that includes many successful business men and women as well as deal-makers like him”.
“You want to control your own politician – that’s fine, good”, Trump said, noting he too was once a donor.
While speaking in one voice at times, the GOP’s class of 2016 hopefuls also clashed over key foreign policy challenges – including whether to support Syrian leader Bashar Assad and Israel’s commitment to Mideast peace.
“You’re not going to support me even though you know I’m the best thing that could happen to Israel”, Trump added.
“You are not going to support me even though you know I am the best thing that could happen for Israel”.
“There is something going on with him that we don’t know about”, he said.
“I think if I get elected, that would be something I’d really like to do,”Donald Trump said during the interview at his golf club in northern Virginia. The Christians are liking me a lot lately”.
For a while I explained this sentiment thusly: Trump may not be personally anti-Semitic, but anti-Semites sure seem to love Trump.
Regardless of his relationship with donors, Trump’s comments mark a sharp contrast from his Republican rivals who pledged unconditional allegiance to Israel.
Appealing to the audience, Trump said: “This room negotiates deals”.
“We live in a very different world than the one I grew up in, the world that you grew up in and the world we had not long ago”, Mr Rubio continued.
“I’m leading in every single poll in every single state, in every single national poll”, he said. “They are dead wrong, and they don’t understand the enduring bond between Israel and America”.
Trump, who also received some applause during his talk, told the audience that he had a record of supporting Israel that the other candidates couldn’t match, including serving as grand marshal of the 2004 Salute to Israel parade in New York City and making a television commercial in support of Netanyahu’s re-election as Israeli prime minister in 2013. Carson said it a few different ways, but often it sounded as if he was talking about “hummus”, the chickpea dip that is popular in Israel and Arab countries.
“It was in jest”, said Andrew Friedman, a Los Angeles attorney who is president of his synagogue. “I want to wait until I meet with Bibi”, said Trump.
The quip, as well as Trump’s description of himself as “a negotiator like you folks”, were deemed “offensive stereotypes” by the Times of Israel news site and “blatant Jewish stereotyping” by a US affairs analyst for Israeli daily Haaretz. Palestinians want East Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 war, for their future state.
In an interview with the Associated Press published earlier Thursday, Mr. Trump said there was a “real question” as to whether or not both sides want to make a deal.
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Each of the candidates is strong on the issues that concern Adelson the most, chief among them protection of Israel, he said.
