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LAS VEGAS – Republican presidential candidates had a rare opportunity this weekend to outline how their approach to foreign policy would differ from the previous president Donald Trump appears back-to-back with him on the same stage before an audience made up of some of the party’s most influential Jewish donors and activists.
It was Nikki Haley who seized this opportunity most forcefully in a campaign year in which Trump has refused to appear on the debate stage with his much weaker rivals. At a moment when she is trying to prove to donors and voters that she will be a tough competitor for the former president as the primary field narrows, she argued that Americans are turning their backs at a time when the election is shifting to them , unable to rely on a man preoccupied with his own worries and resentments. The “darkest forces” are against freedom and want to “exterminate the Jewish people by any means necessary.”
“The stakes couldn’t be higher, and given that, we can’t have four years of chaos, vendettas and drama,” Haley said to applause, citing her role as a military wife and mother. “Eight years ago it was good to have a leader who broke things. But right now we need a leader who also knows how to get things under control. America needs a captain who will stabilize the ship and not capsize it.”
Haley praised her work as a champion of Israel as Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations – who repeatedly warned about the threats posed by Hamas long before the militant group’s Oct. 7 attack – and admitted that Trump wanted recognition as a “pro- Israeli President” who withdrew from the Iran deal and recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. But she criticized his controversial claim shortly after the Oct. 7 attack that the Iran-backed militant Hezbollah group was “very smart” and noted that she would never criticize the Israeli prime minister “in the midst of tragedy and war.” as Trump had done. She accused Trump of being “confused” about the United States’ foreign allies versus its opponents and mocked him for previously complimenting Chinese President Xi Jinping and calling North Korean leader Kim Jong Un his friend.
“These are not good or smart people. Together with the Iranian Ayatollah, they are the worst dictators in the world,” she said. “They want us to remain divided, distracted and morally confused. … With all due respect, I will not be confused.”
Haley and Trump were among nine Republican presidential candidates – including former Vice President Mike Pence, who paused his campaign at the event – who attended the annual summit weeks after Hamas militants attacked Israel in which about 1,400 people were killed The Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas spoke more than 200 people hostage. Many speakers emphasized that more Jews were killed on that October day than on any other day since the Holocaust. Many chairs in a large ballroom at the Venetian Convention and Expo Center had signs bearing the Israeli flag and the message: “We are not doing well.”
While Haley sharpened her criticism of Trump at the rally, the enthusiastic reception the former president received from the audience highlighted the difficulty his rivals face in trying to overshadow an ex-president who is on can point to the power he wielded during his presidency – and in this case his claim that he was the most pro-Israel president in history.
In his own comments, Trump declared that his administration would ensure that Hamas was decimated and that “these atrocities will be avenged.” He argued that President Biden’s “weakness and incompetence” caused the attack on Israel and issued his own warning: “If you shed a drop of American blood, we will shed a gallon of yours.”
“Today the world is exploding,” Trump said to applause. “If I were president, the attack on Israel would never have happened.”
TJ Ducklo, a spokesman for the Biden-Harris 2024 campaign, noted Trump’s recent “erratic attacks on Israel” and said they were “par for the course for a man who is undermining our national security and embarrassing our nation on the world stage.”
“The more Trump speaks, the more voters are reminded of how dangerous and unfit to lead he is,” Ducklo said.
Since the Hamas attacks on Israel, all Republican presidential candidates have stepped up their efforts to woo this powerful Republican electorate – and each is trying to prove that he would be Israel’s most ardent supporter. The Republican National Committee also recently announced that the RJC will co-sponsor the third GOP presidential debate on November 8 in Miami, underscoring the coalition’s influential role in the campaign. But while Trump’s rivals have taken different measures, such as cracking down While they have held pro-Palestinian rallies on college campuses or pledged support to foreign students who they say support Hamas, it has been difficult for them to outdo the impact of its policies in the Middle East.
But Trump was quick to remind his audience this weekend that he had authorized the assassination of Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, a top Iranian general; that he recognized Israeli control of the Golan Heights, a disputed strip of land along the Israeli-Syrian border; and that he recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital while undertaking the controversial move of the U.S. embassy there.
A year ago, many of the prospective candidates who argued that it was time to move on from Trump were well received. But Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), a close Trump ally who had just returned from Israel and was a keynote speaker Friday night, said the Oct. 7 attack had refocused attention on Trump The government’s work to support Israel.
“He had a lot of doubters here who thought he was too bombastic; There were others who were good politically and might have been better at winning, but now I think they see the value of Trump,” Graham said. “The next president must strike fear into our enemies. I can’t think of anyone who can scare our enemies better than Donald Trump.”
In addition to Trump, other Republican candidates such as Haley, Senator Tim Scott (SC) and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis also received warm welcomes as they continue to fight for a distant second place behind Trump – underscoring that there is still little consensus among themselves about a candidate are those who want to see an alternative to Trump.
Scott argued that he would “reverse the Biden policy of American weakness, disengagement and rewarding terrorism that has cost the lives of innocent Americans and Israelis.” He touted his legislative proposals to defund universities “that coddle anti-Semitism” and prevent sanctions against Iran from expiring. He spoke passionately about the rise of anti-Semitism in the United States and on college campuses.
“We must banish the rot of anti-Semitism from our society,” Scott said, declaring that any student who advocates murder and terrorism should be expelled from their campus. “Any university that allows itself to be a megaphone for evil should lose every single penny of federal tax money,” he added as spectators stood and cheered.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, one of Trump’s harshest critics, was greeted with a few boos but waved it off, saying it was too serious a day for pettiness.
“There is a difference for everyone between free speech and hate speech,” Christie said. “What is happening on our campuses today is not free speech. It’s hate speech. What is happening on our campus today is stoking violence and stoking fear, and we know the impact that is having on our children.”
Some RJC members had questioned why Vivek Ramaswamy attended the meeting at all after he sparked controversy on the campaign trail by arguing that the United States should phase out aid to Israel because, as president, he was promoting an “Abraham Accords 2.0.” – a position for which Haley has excoriated the tech entrepreneur, saying his approach would make America less safe.
At the start of his speech on Saturday, Ramaswamy said he wanted to ease some of the tension in the audience by “calling out the elephant in the room” – the fact that his political views have been described as “unfriendly to Israel.”
“I think it is at least reasonable to question whether the supposed protective blanket that the US has provided may have contributed even slightly to the intellectual inertia of Israel’s own defense,” Ramaswamy said, referring to Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.
He did not comment in detail on his previous assertions that the United States should end military aid to Israel, but said the United States must “make it absolutely clear to the United Nations and the rest of the world that Israel has freedom.” “To defend itself to the fullest extent.”, by whatever means Israel decides in its national self-interest.”