On Tuesday, interviews with former President Donald Trump saw him agree with criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, arguing that the PM could have prevented the October 7th massacre at the hands of Hamas. who was a close ally to him during his first presidency.
TIME published an exclusive article about their numerous interviews with the former president, which took place over the span of weeks and covered wide-ranging topics, including what the president’s second term could look like.
However, during one of those interviews, Trump was critical of Netanyahu, who had been a close ally to him during his first presidency, arguing that he has been “rightfully criticized” for the massacre which killed nearly 1200 Israeli citizens, and argued there are “some very good people,” who could take his place.
“Bibi Netanyahu rightfully has been criticized for what took place on Oct. 7,” Trump told TIME on April 12.
“Oct. 7 should have never happened,” Trump said. “Everything was there to stop that. And a lot of people knew about it, you know, thousands and thousands of people knew about it, but Israel didn’t know about it, and I think he’s being blamed for that very strongly.”
Netanyahu is also facing criticism from the international community over his nation’s continued offensive into Gaza, which has killed thousands of civilians and aid workers, with TIME reporting that as many as 30,000 have been killed.
President Joe Biden has defended Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas, which has garnered him frustration from some members of his party. However, he has also called on Israel to do more to protect noncombatants.
Netanyahu is currently struggling in polls against one of his major political rivals, retired army general Benny Gantz, as voters question how Israeli intelligence failed to pick up the coming attack and take preventative measures.
When asked if Netanyahu should leave power, and if he would work better with Gantz, Trump said, “I think Benny Gantz is good, but I’m not prepared to say that…I haven’t spoken to him about it. But you have some very good people that I’ve gotten to know in Israel that could do a good job.”
Trump also suggested that a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians was unlikely when the conflict comes to a close.
“There was a time when I thought two states could work. Now I think two states is going to be very, very tough,” Trump said. “I think it’s going to be much tougher to get. I also think you have fewer people that liked the idea. You had a lot of people that liked the idea four years ago. Today, you have far fewer people that like that idea.”
Trump has previously called on Israel to finish the war, remarking that with images of buildings falling in Gaza, Israel’s international reputation is being tarnished, and the are losing the public relations battle, The Hill reported.
“You’ve got to get it over with, and you have to get back to normalcy,” Trump said in early April. “And I’m not sure that I’m loving the way they’re doing it, because you’ve got to have victory.”
“You have to have a victory, and it’s taking a long time,” he continued. “And the other thing is I hate, they put out tapes all the time. Every night, they’re releasing tapes of a building falling down. They shouldn’t be releasing tapes like that. They’re doing — that’s why they’re losing the PR war. They — Israel is absolutely losing the PR war.”
The post Trump States That Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu Has Been ‘Rightfully’ Criticized Since Oct. 7 Massacre appeared first on Resist the Mainstream.
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: John Symank
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, https://resistthemainstream.org and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.