NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump delivered a tough message to Israel on Thursday over its war against Hamas, urging the country: “End it.”
In an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Trump said Israel is “absolutely losing the PR war” and called for a quick resolution to the bloodshed.
“End it and let’s return to peace and stop killing people. And that’s a very simple explanation,” Trump said. “They have to get it done. Put an end to it and make sure it’s over quickly because we have to – you have to get back to normality and peace.”
The presumptive Republican Party nominee, who has criticized President Joe Biden for not being sufficiently supportive of Israel, also appeared to question the Israeli military’s tactics as civilian casualties in Gaza continue to rise. Since Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, the Israeli army has stormed the area, killing more than 30,000 Palestinians and creating a humanitarian catastrophe, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
“I’m not sure I like the way they’re doing it because you have to get the win. You have to win, and that will take a long time,” Trump said.
He specifically criticized Israel’s decision to release footage of its offensive actions. Throughout the war, the Israeli military has released videos of airstrikes and other attacks on what it describes as “terrorist infrastructure.”
“They shouldn’t be releasing tapes like that,” he said. “That’s why they’re losing the PR war. Israel is definitely losing the PR war.”
‘They release the most gruesome and horrific footage of buildings collapsing. And people imagine that there are a lot of people in those buildings, or people in those buildings, and they don’t like that,” he added. ‘They are losing the PR war. They lose it big time. But they have to finish what they started, and they have to finish it quickly, and we have to get on with life.”
The comments provided a vivid example of the attention Trump pays to images and optics in measuring the costs of war. But they also show the similarities between Trump and Biden’s positions, even as Trump has criticized Biden’s handling of the conflict, going so far as to claim that Jews who vote for Democrats “hate Israel” and ” hate religion”.
Until Thursday, Biden’s administration had broadly supported Israeli efforts to remove Hamas’s grip on Gaza, even as he called for a short-lived ceasefire to free hostages and increase humanitarian aid. He had also expressed concern that Israel’s operation was isolating the country on the world stage.
Those concerns have grown since an Israeli airstrike this week killed seven World Central Kitchen humanitarian workers trying to deliver food to Palestinians, adding a new layer of complication to the increasingly tense relationship between Biden and Netanyahu.
In a phone call Thursday, Biden issued a sharp new warning to Israel, telling Netanyahu that future U.S. support for the war depends on new steps to protect civilians and aid workers.
Biden “made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering and the safety of aid workers,” the White House said in a statement. He also told Netanyahu that an “immediate ceasefire is essential” and urged Israel to reach an agreement “without delay.”
The tougher stance comes as the government continues to try to stop Israel from launching a major offensive against the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, where more than a million civilians are sheltering.
Biden had issued an unusually sharp statement after the aid workers’ deaths, criticizing Israel for not doing more to protect humanitarians and civilians and for refusing to allow more food into the Gaza Strip.
Trump has long labeled himself the most pro-Israel president in the country’s history and often notes his decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem.
But Trump has also had a tense relationship with Netanyahu since leaving the White House. Although the two were close allies for years, the former president reacted angrily after the Israeli leader congratulated then-President-elect Biden on winning the 2020 election, while Trump was still trying to overturn the results.
In interviews for a book about his Middle East peace efforts, Trump, according to the author, used an expletive to describe Netanyahu, accused him of disloyalty and said he believed the Israeli leader never really wanted to make peace.
In the immediate aftermath of the October 7 Hamas attack, Trump drew a rare condemnation from his Republican rivals when he lashed out at Netanyahu, saying Israeli leaders needed to “step up their game” and that Netanyahu was “unprepared” for the deadly attacks . raid that killed about 1,200 people. More than 250 people were also taken hostage.
Trump said at the time that he supported the country’s efforts to “crush” Hamas.
Trump also drew criticism from some in Israel for comments he made last month in the Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom calling for a quick end to the war.
“I will say that Israel has to be very careful because you are losing a big part of the world. You will lose a lot of support,” he had warned.
___ Associated Press writers Josef Federman in Jerusalem and Zeke Millers in Washington contributed to this report.
