NEW YORK – On the debate stage earlier this week, former president Donald Trump claimed Israel would not exist within two years if Vice President Kamala Harris wins the presidency.
“I hope I’m wrong about that one, she hates Israel,” he added. “At the same time, in her own way, she hates the Arab population, because the whole place is going to get blown up. Arabs, Jewish people, Israel. Israel will be gone.”
Michael Makovsky, who has served as president and CEO of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America for more than a decade, was surprised to hear Trump say this.
So was Morton Klein, the President of the Zionist Organization of America.
Both Makovsky and Klein are deeply concerned with Harris’s vision for a post-war Gaza, a two-state solution, and statements made in support of pro-Palestinian protestors. They’re clear in their support for Trump’s Israel and Middle East policy, but not in how he presented it on the debate stage.
“Even though I recognize that he’s very pro-Israel, I know his record as president was that way, and so I think he meant well when he said it. It was not a good thing to say, and it was not an accurate thing,” Makovsky told The Jerusalem Post.
According to Makovsky, Trump could’ve credibly criticized Harris without “saying the more bombastic, extreme statements.”
“I don’t see the value of that, there’s no basis for that,” Makovsky said. “I don’t think she hates Israel. I think there are other things to criticize her on, about Iran and Israel.”
Makovsky said it’s disappointing for Trump as he could have had a strong argument to make against Harris because as vice president, she hasn’t really distanced herself from Biden and his Middle East policy.
“If I were Trump, I would have raised and said, ‘Look, you want a ceasefire, but you’ve been trying to get a ceasefire for 11 months, and it hasn’t worked. Maybe you should be trying something else, which, in my opinion, would be to stop putting the onus on Israel.’”
A bad message?
If saying Israel won’t exist under Harris and Harris hates Israel becomes mainstream messaging among Republicans, Makovsky would say it’s a bad message and for Republicans to stop doing it.
“They shouldn’t be talking about that kind of thing. It’s not helpful to keep saying that, and it’s inaccurate,” Makovsky said. “And they should just focus on what they need to do to strengthen Israel and advance US interests in the region against Iran and all the other forces that are anti-American and anti-Israel.”
Klein agreed.
“I think [Trump’s] right to point out that her policies are a serious danger to Israel. It’s true,” Klein said to the Post. “But his prediction of the two years, or even Israel’s ending whenever, will not occur, because Israel will not allow these policies to be put into place that are an existential danger.”
According to Klein, Trump should simply say Harris’s policies are a danger to Israel’s existence, which Klein thinks is a legitimate statement.
“He should not be making statements about Kamala Harris hating Israel. He doesn’t know that. Look, there are many people who think [Harris’s] policies are good for Israel, right? It’s just a matter of one’s political perspective,” Klein said. “He’s not determining that she has personal animus toward Israel. There’s no evidence of that.”
The debate stage is not the first place Trump claimed that Israel won’t exist if he doesn’t win the presidency.
Last week, when addressing the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership summit in Las Vegas via satellite, Trump said if Harris wins, “terrorists will wage an unceasing war to drive Jews out of the holy land.”
Harris will “totally abandon Israel,” Trump told the RJC, adding that, “you’re going to be abandoned if she becomes president.”
“And I think you have to explain that to your people because they don’t know it,” Trump said to the enthusiastic RJC crowd. “They have no idea what they’re getting into. You’re not going to have an Israel if she becomes president. Israel will no longer exist.”
However, the ballroom at the Venetian Expo Center is not the first place that RJC CEO Matt Brooks heard Trump claim Israel won’t exist under Harris.
“I’ve heard him say it in private,” Brooks told the Post after the debate. “When I heard it, I thought he was absolutely 1,000% correct.”
According to Brooks, when “fanatics, dictators, and despots tell you what they’re going to do, then you ought to listen to them.”
Brooks said Iran has made it clear “with zero ambiguity” if they have the ability to develop a nuclear weapon, that they will, in their words, eliminate Israel from the face of the map.
“You have to believe them at their word. That means, by definition, Israel will not exist,” Brooks said. “And so the question then becomes, who is better to protect against Iran developing a nuclear weapon?”
In Las Vegas, Brooks said RJC members responded as favorably to Trump’s remarks as he did.
“That’s the only common sense reaction you can have,” Brooks said. “Anybody who thinks otherwise is either ignorant of Iran’s intentions, in denial, or motivated by partisan politics on the other side.”
Dr. Amnon Cavari, head of the research group American Public Opinion toward Israel and head of the Institute for Liberty and Responsibility at the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy at Reichman University in Herzliya, called Trump’s claims about the future of Israel under Harris “irresponsible” and a “ridiculous thing to say by a candidate for US presidency.”
“I don’t think it’s really about the Jewish people,” Cavari said. “He needs to project a strong foreign policy, and he doesn’t have a very strong foreign policy in his hand. It’s less about a specific constituency.”
Cavari said it’s more about, “if Harris is elected, the world is going to collapse,” and Israel is just an example.
Though Cavari does think Trump is frustrated that he’s not able to cater to Jewish voters.
The only thing Trump can hypothetically say is October 7 wouldn’t have happened under his watch, Cavari said.
“But we do know that Trump cannot match the level of coordination among countries in the region that Biden was able to make to protect Israel. Trump never said, by the way, that he will be able to form a coalition. He never talked about that,” Cavari said. “The only thing that he said is that nobody will mess with the United States once he’s elected.”
An argument, Cavari pointed out, different from the one Biden and Harris are making: that the US is one among many committed to the support of Israel, together with the rest of the world.
On the debate stage, Cavari said it was nice to hear Harris start by saying Israel was attacked on October 7 and continue with a strong Israeli position.
“I don’t think [Trump] said something meaningful in what he will do to make sure those things are not happening. That showed,” Cavari said. “Even for some [Trump] supporters in Israel, that did not necessarily go well for him. What Israelis want to hear is not doom.”
Republicans have been trying for a long time to make that argument that they are the party that stands for Israel, whereas Democrats are not, and for a long time, they didn’t succeed, Cavari said. Trump is going full force on that argument and trying to make Israel a polarizing Issue.
“I’ve been saying that for years, the fact that Israel is an issue at a debate is not good for Israel. Israel has wanted for a long time, and should still want, not to be a focus of US elections,” Cavari said. “Israel is supposed to remain bipartisan, to achieve bipartisan support. And Israel is playing to that attempt by the Republican Party, and right now the leader of the Republican party.”--