Former President Donald Trump spoke with syndicated talk show host Hugh Hewitt on Thursday. In the course of that interview, Trump reiterated his support for Israel but also expressed concern that Israel, while it conducts its military campaign, may be losing the international public relations war. From the transcript of that interview:
HH: And so are you still 100% with Israel? And what’s your advice to Netanyahu beyond get it over with in a hurry?
DJT: Well, that’s all the advice you can give. I mean, that’s the advice. You’ve got to get it over with, and you have to get back to normalcy. And I’m not sure that I’m loving the way they’re doing it, because you’ve got to have victory. You have to have a victory, and it’s taking a long time. And the other thing is I hate, they put out tapes all the time. Every night, they’re releasing tapes of a building falling down. They shouldn’t be releasing tapes like that. They’re doing, that’s why they’re losing the PR war. They, Israel is absolutely losing the PR war.
This observation is interesting coming from the former President, who himself is something of a master at marketing and public relations.
The Biden administration, on the other hand, perhaps because of polling numbers out of states with large Muslim populations, is increasingly harsh in its statements about Israel and that country's actions.
Previously on RedState: Secretary of State Blinken Backs Up Biden's Message to Netanyahu, Absolves Hamas of Responsibility
Biden Essentially Abandons Israel in Phone Call With Prime Minister Netanyahu
Trump also speculated on the reasons for Israel's release of the "tapes of a building falling down," but also stated that they need to finish the job.
They’re releasing the most heinous, most horrible tapes of buildings falling down. And people are imagining there’s a lot of people in those buildings, or people in those buildings, and they don’t like it. And I don’t know why they released, you know, wartime shots like that. I guess it makes them look tough. But to me, it doesn’t make them look tough. They’re losing the PR war. They’re losing it big. But they’ve got to finish what they started, and they’ve got to finish it fast, and we have to get on with life.
President Trump, while in office, drove the Abraham Accords, which saw the establishment of diplomatic recognition and relations between Israel and three Muslim-majority nations, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco.
Israel is, of course, responding to one of the most heinous attacks in recent history. On Oct. 7th, the world saw the greatest massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust. It is perhaps understandable that they would wish to, one might say, count coup by publicizing their successes against Hamas.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member