Benjamin Netanyahu\u2002<\/u><\/a>for not being \u201cprepared\u201d for the terror attack, as well as for his remarks about Hezbollah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cI can tell you at the United Nations when I was there, and I dealt with all of them every day, you don\u2019t go and compliment any of them because what that does is it makes America look weak,\u201d Haley told CNN\u2019s Jake Tapper. \u201cWhat you do is you show strength. You let them know what we expect of them.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t about Trump. It\u2019s not about him. It\u2019s not about what happened in the past. We\u2019ve got to look forward,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
DeSantis and his campaign also criticized the former president\u2019s remarks, but like Haley, he has leaned into his experience in the region. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDeSantis has something that no other candidate has, in that he\u2019s worn the uniform in the Middle East,\u201d said Justin Sayfie, a Republican strategist. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Florida governor was deployed to Iraq in 2007. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt remains to be seen whether the military conflict in the Middle East is contained to Israel and Gaza or if it moves beyond,\u201d he said. \u201cDoes it move into Lebanon? Does it move into other countries? Do other countries get involved? I think that\u2019s the risk the Biden administration through diplomatic means and military means is trying to contain.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump\u2019s campaign said last week the former president was not complimenting Hezbollah, but rather remarking on its strategic capabilities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPresident Trump was clearly pointing out how incompetent Biden and his administration were by telegraphing to the terrorists an area that is susceptible to an attack. Smart does not equal good. It just proves Biden is stupid,\u201d the former president\u2019s campaign said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Monday during a speech in Iowa, Trump touted his administration\u2019s record on supporting Israel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo I fought for Israel like no president ever before recognizing Jerusalem as Israel\u2019s capital, which is a big deal,\u201d Trump said during the address. \u201cAnd [I] even recognized Israel sovereignty over the Golan Heights, something that they never even thought \u2014 we gave them that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd when I left, Iran was weak and desperate, and they wanted to do and Joe Biden came along and he just made them so happy,\u201d the former president said. \u201cI wonder if he gets a deal from them too, like he does from everyone else,\u201d he added, before emphasizing that \u201cwe stand with Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Trump\u2019s critics have continued to lay into him over the Hezbollah comments. On Monday, the Tell It Like It Is PAC, which is affiliated with Christie, rolled out a 60-second ad featuring the clip from Trump\u2019s speech last week in which he said Hezbollah is \u201cvery smart, they\u2019re all very smart.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The spot then shows an interview Christie did with CNN following Trump\u2019s remarks in which he calls Trump \u201ca fool.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOnly a fool would give comments that could give aid and comfort to Israel\u2019s adversary in this situation,\u201d Christie said in the interview. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Heye suggested it was a necessity to attack the former president on this issue as a means to take him down in the primary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf the conversation is how Nikki Haley disagrees with Vivek [Ramaswamy] who disagrees with DeSantis, then the candidates have lost the plot. The nomination does not go around Trump, it goes through him,\u201d Heye said \u201cIt\u2019s up for them to decide if are they running against Donald Trump or not.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But there are divisions forming over other issues besides how to talk about Hezbollah. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
DeSantis said over the weekend the U.S. should not accept Palestinian refugees from Gaza, arguing other Arab nations should take in the region\u2019s refugees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf you look at how they behave, not all of them are Hamas, but they are all antisemitic. None of them believe in Israel\u2019s right to exist,\u201d DeSantis said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump went even further Monday, vowing in a speech to supporters in Iowa he would oppose allowing refugees from Gaza into the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe aren\u2019t bringing in anyone from Gaza, or Syria, or Somalia, or Yemen, or Libya, or anywhere else that threatens our security,\u201d he said, according to prepared remarks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The former president went on to add he would instate \u201cstrong ideological screening\u201d for immigrants coming into the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet other candidates have stopped short of saying the U.S. should not take in refugees from the conflict. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve continued to work with Egypt to provide safe passage for American citizens, and we should continue to work with our folks that we can in order to make sure that there\u2019s a passage,\u201d said Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), speaking at an event in New Hampshire. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Haley has been critical of Arab countries for not taking Palestinian refugees in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhere are the Arab countries? Where are they? Where is Qatar? Where is Lebanon? Where is Jordan? Where is Egypt?\u201d Haley said in her CNN interview. \u201cThe Arab countries aren\u2019t doing anything to help the Palestinians because they don\u2019t trust who is right, who is good, who is evil, and they don\u2019t want it in their country. So they\u2019re gonna come and blame America, they\u2019re gonna come and blame Israel, and don\u2019t fall for it, because they have the ability to fix all of this if they wanted to. They have the ability to go in and tell Hamas right now to stop what they\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Haley was also asked about DeSantis\u2019s comments on anti-Semitism and Palestinians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI dealt with this every day for two years,\u201d Haley said, referring to her time at the U.N. \u201cHalf of them [Palestinians] at the time I was there didn\u2019t want to be under Hamas\u2019 rule. They didn\u2019t want to have terrorists overseeing them. They knew that they were living a terrible life because of Hamas. You have the other half who supported Hamas.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere are so many people who want to be free from this terrorist rule,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it is unclear how much this issue will impact Republican primary voters, given the voting bloc is overwhelmingly supportive of Israel and foreign policy does not tend to be a top priority for voters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A CNN survey released on Sunday found 96 percent of American voters said they sympathize with Israeli people amid the conflict, while 87 percent said the same about Palestinians. Among Republicans, 98 percent said they had sympathy for the Israelis, and 77 percent said the same for Palestinians. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know that GOP presidential primary voters are necessarily attuned to the nuances of policy in the Middle East,\u201d Sayfie said. \u201cThe GOP presidential contenders have expressed views that are 85 [percent] to 90 percent aligned.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhether there are nuance differences on certain aspects of the post-Hamas attack policy, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to matter much to GOP presidential primary voters,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thehill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tensions spurred by the Israel-Hamas war are boiling over in the Republican presidential primary as the contenders issue responses to the escalating conflict. On Saturday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2002said the U.S. should not take Palestinian refugees from Gaza because they \u201care all antisemitic.\u201d Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley\u2002pushed back on DeSantis\u2019s remarks, saying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":19212,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2801,1637,8567,23437,21064],"class_list":["post-19211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-2801","tag-campaign","tag-disagreements","tag-israeli-palestinian-conflict","tag-republican"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19211"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19213,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19211\/revisions\/19213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}