By Armando Hernandez
May 9, 2024, 10:55 PM EDT
Former President Donald Trump criticized American Jewish voters of the Democratic Party this Thursday, after Joe Biden’s Administration confirmed on Wednesday that it will withhold the shipment of weapons to Israel while it studies how to proceed in the Palestinian enclave of Rafah.
Trump said he “wouldn’t do what Biden did” regarding Israel policy in response to President Joe Biden’s comments Wednesday about suspending arms shipments to Israel if his military invaded Rafah.
“If you are Jewish, don’t vote for Biden. They are doing a lot of damage to their country. (Biden) Now he is totally on the other side. He has abandoned Israel. If you are Jewish and you vote for him, I tell you to be ashamed,” Trump said in an interview with Spectrum News 1.
The former president also invoked a dual loyalty trope and doubled down on recent comments criticizing Jewish Democrats in North Carolina, saying that “if you’re a Jewish person, just don’t vote for Biden” because “you’re really hurting” his country. He’s totally gone the other way now. He is gone, he has abandoned Israel.”
“If you are Jewish and you vote for him, shame on you,” Trump continued.
Trump has made similar comments in recent months, sparking backlash, including last month saying that “Democrat Jews should be talked to.” In 2019, he said Jewish Democrats were “very disloyal to Israel.”
Trump spoke after Biden said in an interview with CNN that the United States would stop sending offensive weapons to Israel if its forces invaded Rafah.
According to CNN, The US arms blockade of Israel would have about 3,500 bombs: 1,800 weighing 2,000 pounds and 1,700 weighing 500 pounds. The United States would be above all concerned about Israel’s use of heavier weapons in densely populated areas of Rafah.
When asked directly if he agreed with the Israeli invasion of Rafah, a city in southern Gaza where more than a million Palestinians are sheltered, Trump responded: “They have to do the job. Look, they were brutally attacked on October 7th. They had scenes that no one has ever seen.”
Trump has maintained similarly aggressive messages about Israel’s military efforts, routinely saying at campaign rallies that Israel has to “finish the job.” He also claimed that the war between Israel and Hamas would never have happened if he was still in the White House because of his relationships with foreign leaders.
“Well, I said you should finish the job quickly, quickly, you’re going to have to create your own solution, but you have to finish this job quickly and do it because the world is exploding around you. So they have to get the job done quickly,” Trump said earlier.
Biden’s campaign responded, with spokesman Charles Lutvak saying Trump “comes out every month with the same condescending anti-Semitic stunt and reminds Jewish supporters that they don’t respect us.”
Keep reading:
– Trump’s defense tries to disqualify Stormy Daniels’ intimate confessions
– The tense interrogation of porn actress Stormy Daniels by Trump’s defense in the trial of the former president in New York
– Trump seems uneasy about Stormy Daniels’ intimate revelations about their meeting