The former president of the United States and the main candidate of the Republican Party for the White House in 2024 has entered the war between Israel and Hamas with some explosive statements, by calling the Iranian-led Shiite militia Hezbollah “very intelligent” on three occasions, something that, he said, “the press doesn’t like me to say it.” It was at a rally in Florida, in which Trump also called Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, “jerk” for having warned Hezbollah that it does not take advantage of the current war in Gaza, in the south of Israel, to attack the north of that country.
Trump’s words have provoked more than considerable controversy in a country where the entire political class and the vast majority of the population unwaveringly support Israel. The president’s campaign Joe Biden has qualified the statements of “sick rhetoric”, while the White House has considered them “dangerous and deranged.” Trump’s rivals for the Republican nomination have not been far behind. The governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, has recalled that “terrorists have murdered 1,200 Israelis and 22 Americans and have kidnapped more, so it is absurd that anyone, and even less so who wants to be president, attacks our friend and ally.” , Israel, and even less praise the Hezbollah terrorists. Other candidates, such as Mike Pencewho was vice president under Trump, and Chris Christie, have also been very harsh on Trump’s words.
Trump’s attacks are a good example of his personality and, within it, his ability not to forget past insults. All his animosity towards Netanyahu is due, as he himself said on Thursday, to the operation in which the US assassinated the leader of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Qasim Soleimani, on January 3, 2020, was to be carried out jointly with Israel. “I will never forget that Bibi Netanyahu [el primer ministro de Israel entonces y ahora] He left us stranded (…). “We had everything ready, and the night before the attack, they call me and tell me that Israel is not going to participate in the attack,” Trump said. In Gallant’s case, the reason is that Israel’s defense minister has warned Hezbollah not to attack the country. According to Trump, Gallant’s statements have only been a provocation to Hezbollah that “may not be going to do it.” [atacar a Israel] But when you listen to this asshole, he’s going to attack from the north.” Trump also described Chinese President Xi Jinping, with whom the United States maintains a virtual Cold War, as “very intelligent.”
It is not the first time that the former president praises rivals or enemies of the United States. In 2022, just before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he described as “brilliant” the creation, led by Moscow, of the independent republics of Luhansks and Donets, on Ukrainian territory but occupied by pro-Russian separatists.