Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023, at Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Fla.
Most American leaders, including the Republican presidential contenders, have lined up behind Israel after the Hamas invasion that President Joe Biden said was the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. At least 2,500 people have died on the Israeli and Palestinian sides. “We were disappointed by that. Very disappointed,” he said. “But we did the job ourselves, with absolute precision … and then Bibi tried to take credit for it.”
Netanyahu’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But the government’s communications minister, Shlomo Karhi, told Israel’s Channel 13 that it was “shameful that a man like that, a former U.S. president, abets propaganda and disseminates things that wound the spirit of Israel’s fighters and its citizens.”
Trump’s rivals quickly seized on his new comments. DeSantis posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that “it is absurd that anyone, much less someone running for president, would choose now to attack our friend and ally, Israel,” and criticized Trump for calling Hezbollah “very smart” in his remarks.
Trump and other Republicans have tried to lay blame on the Biden administration for the Hamas invasion, particularly citing the release of nearly $6 billion in frozen assets to Iran, a supporter of Hamas. Biden administration officials insist that money has not been spent.