Donald Trump has said that US Jews should appreciate what he’s achieved for Israel “before it’s too late”.
Mr Trump claimed that Evangelicals have been more appreciative of his support for Israel and that he could “easily” be prime minister of the country because of his strong support there.
“No President has done more for Israel than I have,” Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday morning. “Somewhat surprisingly, however, our wonderful Evangelicals are far more appreciative of this than the people of the Jewish faith, especially those living in the US.”
“Those living in Israel, though, are a different story – Highest approval rating in the World, could easily be PM! US Jews have to get their act together and appreciate what they have in Israel – Before it is too late!” Mr Trump added.
The former consul-general for Israel in New York, Alon Pinkas, told The New Yorker for a piece outlining Mr Trump’s legacy in the country at the end of his term that “the American policy in Israel is totally symbolic”.
He said a lot of it was “foam on the water”.
Amit Segal, a political analyst at an Israeli TV channel, said the former prime minister and current opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu “got everything he wanted from Trump”.
Leading up to the 2020 election, 63 per cent of Israelis supported Mr Trump, while 17 per cent supported the eventual winner, Democrat Joe Biden, according to the magazine.
Haaretz, a left-leaning paper in the country, said in a comment piece that if Israel was a US state, it would be the “reddest state in the Union”.
“A large part of the Israeli right’s affinity for Trump stems from his willingness to countenance new settlements in the West Bank while ignoring the Palestinians who live there,” Ruth Margalit wrote for The New Yorker.
“Every building plan that had been placed in front of me was approved; under Obama, we didn’t even dare to dream about it,” a settler said during a prayer before the election.
While Israel would be the “reddest” state, the Pew Research Center wrote in May last year that “US Jews are still a largely Democratic and politically liberal group today, as they have been for decades”.
“Overall, about seven-in-ten identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party, including 68 per cent of Jews by religion and 77 per cent of Jews of no religion. Just 26 per cent of US Jews overall identify with the Republican Party or lean toward the GOP,” the centre stated.
