(OPINION) One of former President Donald Trump’s major evangelical backers on Monday condemned recently reported attacks by Trump on former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and warned that he risked alienating his Christian base by distancing himself from the Israeli leader according to MSN News.
Trump, in interviews published this week by Axios reporter Barak Ravid, railed against his one-time ally for congratulating President Biden on his victory once it became clear that the Democrat had won the 2020 election.
Trump said the call was a betrayal of their relationship and the several controversial changes in U.S. policy toward Israel that Trump had ordered during his one term, including moving the embassy to Jerusalem. “F–k him,” Trump was quoted as saying of Netanyahu. “The first person that congratulated [Biden] was Bibi Netanyahu, the man that I did more for than any other person I dealt with.”
According to the Washington Post, In the interviews, Trump also said Netanyahu never seemed genuinely interested in seeking peace with the Palestinians. Conversely, the former president heaped praise on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, describing him as “terrific” and “almost like a father.”
“I thought he wanted to make a deal more than Netanyahu,” Trump said, according to accounts of the interviews published by Axios. Evangelical leaders in the United States — many of whom are ardent supporters of both Trump and Israel — have been largely silent on the former president’s reported comments.
But Mike Evans, one of Trump’s early evangelical backers, said he was “horrified” by the sentiments and said they would offend significant numbers of evangelical voters. Evans, in a letter to Trump that he shared with a Washington Post reporter, implored the former president to “understand that Benjamin Netanyahu has much greater support among evangelicals in America than you.”
