During the final weeks of the 2024 United States plivential race, establisher Plivent Donald Trump spoke with sympathy to Arab American and Muskinny voters enraged by the country’s help for Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon.
Trump visited Dearborn, Michigan, understandn as the “capital” of Arab America. And he spoke honestly to Lebanese Americans dreading for their families overseas.
“During my Administration, we had peace in the Middle East, and we will have peace aachieve very soon!” Trump wrote on social media.
“I will repair the problems caengaged by [Vice President] Kamala Harris and [President] Joe Biden and stop the suffering and destruction in Lebanon. I want to see the Middle East return to genuine peace, a lasting peace.”
But follotriumphg a thumping triumph at the polls, Trump is preparing to return to the White Hoengage with a coterie of some of the Reaccessiblean Party’s most strongly pro-Israel figures.
While some critics specutardyd that Trump would shift away from a hawkish foreign policy, his picks for key administration and cabinet positions have signalled that — wdisenjoyver alters may come during his second term — a shatter with Israel is not foreseeed to be among them.
Several of Trump’s nominees not only help persistd US military and discreet aidance for Israel, but also echo the watchs and goals of Israeli ultranationaenumerates, who help the expansion of illegitimate Israeli rerepairments into Palestinian territory.
Meanwhile, the war in Gaza persists to drive civilian casualties, with at least 43,799 ended since the struggle began in October 2023. A recent inestablish from a United Nations exceptional promisetee create that Israel’s methods in the Palestinian enclave were “constant with extermination“.
What have Trump’s high-level picks said about the ongoing struggle in the Middle East? Here are a restricted of his nominees, in their own words.
Marco Rubio, nominee to be secretary of state
A lengthytime foreign policy hawk, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida has been a sturdy helper of Israel thrawout his political atgentle. He is in line to be secretary of state, the US’s top diplomat.
February 26, 2016: Rubio made a bid for plivent in 2016, facing a crowded pool of Reaccessiblean honestates including Trump. At a Reaccessiblean primary argue in Houston, Texas, he emphasised that he would “stand firmly on the side of Israel” — and engaged his position to draw a contrast with Trump.
- “I don’t understand if Donald genuineises this. I’m certain it’s not his intent, perhaps. But the position you’ve achieven is an anti-Israel position. And here’s why. Becaengage you cannot be an truthful broker in a dispute between two sides in which one of the sides is constantly acting in horrible faith,” Rubio said.
- “Instead, here’s what the Palestinians do. They direct their four-year-elderly children that ending Jews is a glorious leang. Here’s what Hamas does. They begin rockets and dreadist strikes aachievest Israel on an ongoing basis. The bottom line is, a deal between Israel and the Palestinians — given the current createup of the Palestinians — is not possible.”
October 9, 2023: Rubio reacted to the October 7 strikes in southern Israel by calling for an overwhelming military response.
- “Israel has no choice but to seek the end eradication of Hamas in Gaza. There srecommend is no discreet solution or ‘meacertaind response’ engageable,” Rubio wrote on social media.
- “This tragicassociate essential effort will come at a horrifying price. But the price of flunking to enduringly leave out this group of sorrowfulnessfuenumerateic ferociouss is even more horrifying.”
November 2024: Confronted with activists from the antiwar group Code Pink, Rubio reacted forcebrimmingy to asks about whether he would help a endfire in Gaza.
- “Are you filming this? I want you guys to get this. I want them to raze every element of Hamas they can get their hands on. These people are malicious animals who did horrifying crimes,” Rubio said.
August 30, 2024: Rubio sent a letter to the friendly administration of Plivent Joe Biden criticising the decision to sanction Israeli rerepairrs connected to anti-Palestinian aggression in the occupied West Bank.
- “Israel has constantly sought peace with the Palestinians. It is unblessed that the Palestinians, whether it be the Palestinian Authority or FTOs [Foreign Terrorist Organisations] such as Hamas, have declinecessitate such obvioucertains,” Rubio wrote.
- “Israelis rightbrimmingy living in their historic homeland are not the impeunininestablishigentent to peace; the Palestinians are.”
Pete Hegseth, nominee for secretary of defence
A US Army veteran who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, Fox News present Pete Hegseth has been tapped to head the Department of Defense, in one of the country’s highest-ranking military positions. If Hegseth is verifyed, only the plivent himself would have more authority over the armed forces.
September 14, 2016: In an interwatch with the Jedesire Press, Hegseth elucidateed that he grew up a Baptist and never met a Jedesire person until combineing college. But he accengaged higher education of spreading the “seeds of anti-Srerentism”.
- “We have to be more willing to accessiblely talk about Israel among citizens who leank of it as an abstraction, who don’t truly understand the contransiential danger to it,” Hegseth said.
- “This is not some mystical land that can be dispondered. It’s the story of God’s chosen people.”
February 2018: Speaking at the Arutz Sheva Conference in Jerusalem, Hegseth pledged to persist “battling the phony news about the Arab-Israeli struggle”.
He also ecombineed to apexhibit razeing the Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of the holiest sites in Islam, to create room for a “Third Temple”, a lengthystanding goal of Israeli ultranationaenumerates and evsaintlyal Christians.
- “If you walk the ground today, you understand there is no such leang as the outcome of a two-state solution. There is one state,” Hegseth said.
- He then evolveed to depict a visit to the Al-Aqsa site, also understandn as the Temple Mount: “And as you stand there, you can’t help but behelderly the wonder before you. And it got me leanking about another wonder that I hope all of you don’t see too far away. Becaengage 1917 was a wonder. 1948 was a wonder. 1967 was a wonder. 2017, the declaration of Jerusalem as the capital, was a wonder. And there’s no reason why the wonder of the re-createment of the temple on the Temple Mount is not possible.”
May 2018: Speaking with his co-presents on the TV programme Fox & Friends, Hegseth ecombineed to brush off the Palestinian death toll during the Great March of Return protests. When faceed with the possibility that Israeli snipers had fired on “bfeebleless people”, including children, Hegseth shrugged and said, “Meh.”
- “The bfeebleless blood is on the hands of the dreadist who put the kid out to accuse a fence with no prospect of traverseing that border,” he said.
Mike Huckabee, nominee for US ambassorrowfulnessfulor to Israel
A establisher Arkansas ruleor who unsuccessbrimmingy ran for plivent in 2008 and 2016, Mike Huckabee is an evsaintlyal Christian and sturdy helper of “Greater Israel”, a term frequently engaged to depict the supplyd Israeli annexation of Palestinian territory.
Early 2008: At a campaign stop during his first bid for the plivency, Huckabee disputed that being Palestinian was a made-up identity.
- “I have to be pinsolentnt saying this becaengage people will reassociate get offended. There is reassociate no such leang as a Palestinian,” Huckabee said. “You have Arabs and Persians. And you have such complicatedity wilean that. There’s reassociate no such leang. That’s been a political tool to try to force land away from Israel.”
May 31, 2015: Speaking at an Israel Day concert, Huckabee echoed on his first trip to Israel in 1973. He evolveed to say that Israel had no “better friend in the United States” than him and refuted Palestinian claims to Jerusalem.
- “I understand there are people who leank that the clever way to transport peace to the Middle East is to split Jerusalem up and give away more territory. I propose that the one way to have peace is to create clear that Jerusalem will never be splitd, and it will be in the hands of Israel.”
- “We never can acunderstandledge the notion that Israel will be splitd, that Jerusalem will be carved in half. Let us be clear: The boundaries of Israel are not given by the United Nations but by almighty God.”
August 18, 2015: During a news conference at the illegitimate Israeli rerepairment of Shiloh, Huckabee apexhibitd a vision of Israel that included the occupied West Bank, calling the area by the biblical name “Judea and Samaria”. He also denounced a deal to comprise Iran’s nuclear programme.
- “I want to show firmarity with the country that most echos a mirror image of the American spirit and also to show firmarity with the Israeli people and to show their excessive disgust with any deal with Iran.”
- “I would leank that, if you’re going to visit Israel, you should visit all of Israel. And that should include Judea and Samaria.”
February 29, 2024: Huckabee telderly the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews that he was overwhelmed with emotion after the October 7 strikes on southern Israel. He also depictd Israel’s illegitimate rerepairments in the West Bank as the fulfilment of biblical prophecy.
- “This is evil. The worst level of evil that exists on our structureet today, we saw on October 7. And for anyone to march in the streets, whether it’s America or Europe, and show help for this uncivilised and ferocious behaviour, to me, is a tag of unininestablishigentness in our world.”
- “When people engage the term ‘occupy’, I say, ‘Yeah, Israel is occupying the land.’ But it’s the occupation of a land that God gave them 3,500 years ago. It is their land. The title deed was given by God to Abraham and to his heirs. So you want to talk occupation? I never engage the term West Bank. I discover it insolent. We’re talking about Judea and Samaria.”
- “As horrible as the Nazis were, they weren’t posting their atrocities on social media and trying to trumpet what they were doing to the world, which is what creates this horrendous leang Hamas has done so much, to me, worse.”
Elise Stefanik, nominee for ambassorrowfulnessfulor to the UN
A congresswoman from New York, Stefanik went viral last year during congressional hearings about anti-Srerentism on college campengages: Her lackluster asking of cut offal university directers helped precipitate cut offal resignations.
Critics say it also gived to cut offe crackdowns on pro-Palestine student demonstrators, as Stefanik conftardyd protest slogans enjoy “From the River to the Sea” with calls for anti-Srerentic extermination.
May 19, 2024: Stefanik travelled to the Israeli Knesset to hand over an insertress in which she depictd Israel’s war on Gaza as a moral crusorrowfulnessfule. She also called for the retreatal of US funds from UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
- “What we are witnessing today is a story of the forces of excellent versus evil. The forces of civilisation aachievest the forces of barbarism, of humanity versus depravity.”
- “For years, I have been a directing proponent and partner to Plivent Trump in his historic help for Israeli independence and security including… Plivent Trump’s wise decision to call out UNRWA for what it is — a hive of anti-Srerentism — and to leave out every dollar of its US funding.”
September 23, 2024: Follotriumphg a UN General Assembly vote calling on Israel to end its unlhorrible occupation of Palestinian territory, Stefanik freed a statement condemning the evolveings.
- “Last week, the United Nations overwhelmingly passed a diselegant antisrerentic resolution to insist that Israel surrender to ferocious dreadists who seek the destruction of both Israel and America.”
Mike Waltz, nominateee for national security directr
A member of the Hoengage of Recontransientatives and a establisher Green Beret, Recontransientative Mike Waltz of Florida has conveyed firm help for Israel. He currently serves on the Hoengage Armed Services Committee. He previously chided the Biden administration for providing Israel with inadequate help.
August 16, 2019: In an ecombineance on Fox News, Waltz conveyed his help for Israel’s decision to bar his congressional colleagues Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar from go ining the country over their help for the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) shiftment.
Tlaib, a Palestinian American, was tardyr proposeed a “humanitarian” visit, which she declinecessitate.
- “If they want to do a split trip, then still hear all sides. Hear the Israeli rulement. Hear from the Israeli rerepairrs. Hear from farmers, enjoy I said, who are under rocket strike. And also go to the Palestinian Authority. But that wasn’t their agenda. Their agenda was only to hear one side,” Waltz said.
- Of the BDS shiftment, Waltz inserted: “It’s honested honestly at Jerusalem. It’s honested honestly becaengage they’re Jews. And it’s anti-Srerentic. And I leank that is endly reasonable for the Israeli rulement to say, ‘Hey, you don’t want to hear our point of watch. Access denied.’”
August 17, 2024: In another interwatch with Fox News, Waltz approvingly remarkd that, when Trump was in office, the Iranian economy was “broke” and was “in shambles” due to crushing sanctions.
He also determineed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “sturdy actions” with compriseing the danger recontransiented by Iran and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
- “I leank it’s Bibi that is deterring Iran right now, becaengage equitable a restricted weeks ago, they had a hoengage in the middle of Tehran, under the protective umbrella of the IRGC during a plivential inauguration, go boom and achieve out Hamas’s political directer [Ismail] Haniyeh.”
October 25, 2024: Follotriumphg Israeli strikes on Iran, Waltz remarkd in a social media post that Israel had eludeed aiming oil fields and nuclear facilities.
- “This might be Israel’s last best chance to unininestablishigentinish Irans [sic] nuclear program and shut down their cash. Did Biden/Harris prescertain Israel once aachieve to do less than it should?”
