Israel Eyes US Presidential Frontrunners

Wednesday, August 26, 2015 |  Israel Today Staff

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Topics:

America

It’s still early to say who will be the Republican candidate to become American’s next president come next year’s election, but already the topic of Israel is getting major play in the nomination process, and Israelis are taking notice.

Frontrunner Donald Trump and crowd favorite Dr. Ben Carson have been particularly vocal in their support of Israel, and in their harsh criticism of current President Barack Obama over his handling of relations with the Jewish state.

Carson in an interview with Fox News charged that Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran was evidence of his disdain for the Jews and the survival of their national homeland.

“All you have to do,” said Carson, “is, like I have, go to Israel, and talk to average people, on all ends of that spectrum. And I couldn’t find a single person there who didn’t feel that this administration had turned their back on Israel.”

When challenged over whether or not that made Obama anti-Semitic, as Carson suggested, he replied: “I think anything is anti-Semitic that is against the survival of a state that is surrounded by enemies, and by people who want to destroy them. And to sort of ignore that, and to act like everything is normal there, and that these people are paranoid, I think that’s anti-Semitic.”

Carson spoke out strongly against the Iran nuclear deal in July, warning that it puts the “whole country in jeopardy” and represents “a complete lack of common sense.”

In a separate interview with NBC’s Meet the Press, Trump warned that “Israel is in big trouble. Obama has really let Israel down.”

Implementation of the Obama-brokered nuclear deal, according to Trump, means that Iran is “going to be such a wealthy, such a powerful nation. They are going to have nuclear weapons. They are going to take over parts of the world that you wouldn’t believe. And I think it’s going to lead to nuclear holocaust.”

Unfortunately, Trump explained, it will be almost impossible for the next president to just “rip up” the nuclear deal signed by Obama.

Still, if elected, the real estate mogul vowed he would “police that contract so tough that they [the Iranians] don’t have a chance. As bad as the contract is, I will be so tough on that contract.”

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