Confusion over Trump’s stance on Israel grows amidst Gaza conflict

During the commencement of the conflict between Israel and Gaza in October, Donald Trump proudly positioned himself as the ultimate champion of the United States’ key ally.

However, after six months and over 33,000 deaths in Gaza, the Republican White House candidate has started to become less clear about the level of support for the situation.

Despite his reputation for speaking candidly on a variety of subjects, the former US president has offered only lukewarm comments on the issue during two recent interviews.

“I’m not sure that I’m loving the way they’re doing it,” he told a conservative radio host Thursday about Israel’s offensive.

And in an exchange with Israeli media, Trump warned that videos “of bombs being dropped into buildings in Gaza” offer “a very bad picture for the world.”

“Israel is absolutely losing the PR war,” the 77-year-old told radio host Hugh Hewitt.

Historic ally 

Despite allusions to his concerns, Trump has not explicitly mentioned the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where experts warn a famine is looming, the Palestinian civilian death toll, or the seven aid workers killed Monday by an Israeli drone strike.

Still, any comment critical of Israel is a major departure for the Republican White House hopeful, and his remarks have garnered notice in Israel and in Washington.

Trump has long boasted of having done more for Israel than any other US president.

In 2018, his administration reversed decades of US policy and snubbed a major tenet of an eventual two-state solution with the Palestinians by unilaterally recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and moving the US embassy there from Tel Aviv, sparking international backlash.

By the end of his term, the United States had brokered the so-called Abraham Accords, which saw Arab countries including the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain normalise ties with Israel.

The move kicked any imperative to address the Palestinian issue even further down the road — at least temporarily.

‘Punditry’ 

But it’s not clear whether the billionaire’s shift in tone since the war in Gaza would correlate to any real change in policy, if he were to be elected president again in November.

“Nobody’s entirely sure what Trump’s views are on this,” Danielle Pletka, a senior fellow at conservative think tank AEI, told AFP, adding that his recent rhetoric sounds more like it’s coming from a “media consultant” than an Oval Office candidate.

“That’s not presidential, that’s not policy — that’s more punditry,” she said.

For some observers, Trump’s non-committal attitude is best explained by the conflict’s high electoral stakes in the United States, as he battles President Joe Biden — who has faced increasing criticism over his handling of the crisis — for votes.

The otherwise outspoken Trump is employing the same strategy of deliberate ambiguity on other flashpoint issues as well, including abortion, aware that staking out an extreme position on either side could cost him dearly at the polls.