In the wake of the devastating terrorist attacks in Israel, there are a lot of things candidates for President of the United States can say.
But criticizing the country is not the right option at this time.
Yet, that is the route former President Donald Trump took.
On Wednesday, Trump spoke about the 2020 strike that killed Iranian General Qasem Soleimani.
“About 15 seconds later it was all over, and we did. But I’ll never forget, I’ll never forget that Bibi Netanyahu let us down. That was a very terrible thing, I will say that,” he continued.
It was not entirely clear what he was talking about.
Trump went on to talk about the apparent intelligence failure that led Israel to miss Hamas’ planned attack and urged officials there to “straighten it out.”
He returned to the Soleimani strike and said he was “disappointed by that, very disappointed” by Israel before accusing Netanyahu of trying to take credit for the strike, which he said, “Didn’t make me feel too good.”
Watch the video below:
Whoa. Trump just attacked Israel and said that he'll "never forget" that they didn't participate in the Soleimani operation. He said Israel "let us down" and needs to "straighten it out" and called them weak, saying they should "strengthen themselves up." pic.twitter.com/pMrWLt8ojz
— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) October 12, 2023
Trump then accused Israel of publicizing its weaknesses.
“They have a national defense minister, or somebody, say, ‘I hope Hezbollah doesn’t attack us from the north.’ So the following morning they attacked, they might not have been doing it, but if you listen to this jerk, you would attack from the north,” he added.
Well, the former president should get out a map. Hezbollah is in Lebanon, which is to the north of Israel. So where else would Hezbollah attack from, the south?
No military wants to fight a war on two fronts. That’s not a secret and it’s not revealing secret information to say they hope they don’t have to do so.
Wtf. Trump mocks an Israeli general for warning of a Hezbollah attack from the north—does Trump think it’s a SURPRISE that Hezbollah would attack from the north? Has he seen a map? pic.twitter.com/fzIgHroAZt
— David Reaboi, Late Republic Nonsense (@davereaboi) October 12, 2023
If you’re wondering why Trump has decided to criticize Netanyahu and Israel in the face of such horror, conservative commentator Jack Posobiec seems to have the answer: it’s a grudge.
“A few months ago Trump told me he would never forget that Netanyahu congratulated Biden even as votes were still being counted,” Posobiec posted on X, formerly known as Twitter on Wednesday night.
He then blatantly lied while fully taking Trump’s position to claim Netanyahu congratulated Biden before the election was called. However, the screen shot he shared of the congratulatory message shows it was posted on Nov. 8, 2020, after The Associated Press and other networks called the election.
So here we have the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination criticizing the leader of a country under siege because he is angry Netanyahu did what plenty of other world leaders did and congratulated the winner of our presidential election.
There are times when you should be able to put your petty grievances aside. And if you can’t let go of your anger at someone — who would be a key partner if you become president — for doing nothing wrong, people should wonder if you have the right temperament and focus for the job.