Donald Trump on Thursday denounced the role Republicans played in the downfall of Harvard’s president following pro-Palestinian protests and attacked his rival, Democrat Kamala Harris, as a candidate who “hates Israel.” “Israel will not exist in two years if Harris is president,” he said at the annual meeting of the American Israel Council (AIC) held Thursday night in Washington. This year’s event focused on denouncing anti-Semitism and honoring the victims and hostages seized by Hamas on October 7.
“If I don’t win this election, in my opinion, the Jewish people will have a lot to do with the defeat,” Trump warned. Jews are considered one of the most liberal and Democratic demographics in the United States, which seems to worry Trump.
Even though the former president has once again called the election a “lie,” he knows the presidential race is still tight with less than 50 days to go, and that’s why he’s seeking the votes of Americans, Israelis, and the Jewish people. A Pew Research Center poll released Sept. 9 shows Harris is more popular than Trump among Jewish voters, with 65 percent saying they prefer Harris, compared to 34 percent who prefer Trump.
“I was there for years, I gave them billions and billions of dollars. I was the best friend Israel ever had. And yet in 2020, after doing all these things… now the Jewish people have no excuse,” Trump chided the audience, adding: “Now in the polls, I’m around 40%, which means 60% of the Jews are going to vote for Kamala or a Democrat, and frankly, they should watch their heads. Those votes may be necessary for us to win.”
Trump has boasted about concluding the Abraham Accords during his presidency or recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving the U.S. embassy there. “I’m the one protecting you,” said the former president, who has railed against Democrats as “the people who are going to destroy you.”
The Republican, who tonight claimed to be “the best friend American Jews have had in the White House,” justified in 2017 the white supremacist demonstration that took place that year in Charlottesville, Virginia. During the march, clearly anti-Semitic proclamations such as “Jews will not replace us” were chanted and swastikas were displayed. Trump, who was then in the White House, downplayed the seriousness of the problem and compared it to anti-racist movements.
There was no comment on the recent escalation of tensions between Hezbollah and Israel, although the already recurring statements at their rallies that the world is “on the brink of a third world war” were also not lacking. Trump called the October 7 attack “the deadliest since the Holocaust,” although shortly afterward he criticized Harris for wanting to end a ceasefire, which also implies the immediate release of the hostages. “Kamala Harris has repeatedly demanded an immediate ceasefire to save Hamas. ‘She wants to save Hamas,’” he said. Among the audience were relatives of the victims and hostages captured by Hamas on October 7. One of them was Andrey Kozlov, freed after eight months in Gaza and whom Trump invited to come on stage.
Trump also assured that the Democrat “would consider imposing a total arms embargo on Israel. And that’s what she wants to do.” An arms embargo is precisely what pro-Palestinian protesters were protesting outside the Democratic Convention. National Security Adviser Phil Gordon had already said in early August that Harris would not support such a move and that she would “always make sure that Israel can defend itself against Iran and Iranian-backed terrorist groups.” A few weeks later, in her first interview on CNN, it was the same Harris who assured that she would not change the policy of sending weapons to Tel Aviv.
As is increasingly common in his arsenal to disqualify his rival, the former president also mocked Kamala’s name. “I call her Kamala because if I say Harris, nobody knows who I’m talking about.” He also did not miss the opportunity to put the issue of borders and immigration on the table, although this time he did not mention Venezuela or Guatemala, countries he frequently mentions. Trump accused Harris of “importing migrants from terrorist hotspots and now we have armies of jihadist sympathizers brazenly marching through our cities.”
He speaker House of Representatives Mike Johnson and Rep. Elise Stefanik also attended the event as Republicans. Their presence is no coincidence: Johnson has been vocal in combating pro-Palestinian protests that have spread to college campuses, calling them “anti-Semitic”; Stefanik is on the education committee led by Virginia Foxx, and was the one who cornered Harvard Chancellor Claudine Gay when she spoke out about pro-Palestinian protests on her campus.
Gay resigned following that questioning, and tonight Trump puffed out his chest – and even seemed to mock it – “[Stefanik] totally destroyed the chancellor of Harvard. You’d see her there with her big glasses, those big glasses… and she’d ask him a simple question, and in the end, she didn’t get a very good answer.”
The tycoon also accused Harris of allowing “anti-Semitism to spread across America” and said he would pull federal funding from universities that fail to stop pro-Palestinian protests. “And to address the crisis of anti-Semitism in our universities, I will tell university presidents that they must stop anti-Semitic propaganda or they will lose their accreditation and all federal support,” he said.
In recent weeks, North American universities have resumed classes with the start of the new curriculum. After the pro-Palestinian protests and encampments in the spring, some centers have changed their policies on the right to protest. At Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, students need the administration to approve protests before they can move forward. Protests or “expressive activities” cannot take place at Indiana University between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.
