For the first time in two decades, the Republican presidential candidate will not be someone who is an unalloyed supporter of hawkish pro-Israel positions.
Donald Trump, who became the party’s presumptive nominee on May 3 after trouncing his opponents in Indiana and driving both Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Gov. John Kasich of Ohio out of the race, has in recent weeks upped his pro-Israel rhetoric. But in December, when he spoke to the Republican Jewish Coalition while the field was still crowded, he said he would be neutral in brokering Israeli-Palestinian peace and would not commit to recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Trump walked back those positions in March when he addressed the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, though his speech notably did not mention defense assistance to Israel. He had, the same day of the AIPAC speech, said he would consider including Israel among the countries he believes should pay for U.S. protection.
In an interview with the Daily Mail published on May 3, Trump said there should be no “pause” in Israeli settlement building, as President Barack Obama has demanded.
“No, I don’t think there should be a pause,” he said. “Look: Missiles were launched into Israel, and Israel, I think, never was properly treated by our country. I mean, do you know what that is, how devastating that is?”
While Cruz, like Trump, had pledged to keep the United States out of foreign wars, when it came to Israel he made it clear his embrace of the Jewish state would be second to none. He said he would rip up the Iran nuclear deal, move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and make his first visit to the region to Israel.
Kasich has been close to the pro-Israel establishment in his state and nationally for decades. He has criticized the Obama administration for making public its disagreements with Israel, and for giving up too much in the Iran nuclear deal.
The withdrawal of Trump’s remaining opponents means the Republican presidential nominee will not hew consistently to a right-wing pro-Israel outlook for the first time since 1996, when then-Sen. Robert Dole of Kansas got the nod.
Trump, a real estate magnate and reality TV star who has attacked his party’s establishment and characterized his opponents as losers and prevaricators, would also be the first Republican nominee never to have served in government or the military since Wendell Willkie, the business executive defeated by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1940.
After it became clear that Trump had swept Indiana, Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, tweeted that the party should unite behind its candidate.
Trump, in a May 3 speech at his headquarters in New York, showered praise on his family, including his Jewish son-in-law, Jared Kushner. “We’re going to start winning again and we’re going to win big league, believe me,” he said.
He called for Republicans to rally behind him and thanked Priebus for his support. “We have to bring unity,” Trump said.
On the Democratic side, Sen. Bernie Sanders, the first Jewish candidate to win major party nomination contests, bested Hillary Clinton 52.5 percent to 47.5 percent in Indiana, his 18th state victory. Sanders said the win kept him in the race, although Clinton’s delegate count makes her the prohibitive favorite. The next Democratic contest is in West Virginia on May 10.