GOP spokesperson says Trump wants Israel’s wars to end soon, with decisive victory
Elizabeth Pipko, speaking to Channel 12 news, blames Biden administration’s ‘back and forth’ for length of war, says US political considerations have caused ‘unnecessary bloodshed’
A spokesperson for the Republican Party said Wednesday that US President-elect Donald Trump wants to see Israel wrap up its wars soon, with decisive victories.
Speaking to Israel’s Channel 12 news in the wake of Trump’s win in Tuesday’s election, GOP spokeswoman Elizabeth Pipko was asked about Trump’s comment, near the end of his victory speech, that, “I’m not going to start wars, I’m going to stop wars.”
“Does that mean that he expects Israel to end the war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the war against Hamas in Gaza?” asked Channel 12 anchor Yonit Levi.
“I would say he expects them to end it by winning it, one hundred percent, that’s how he always talks about ending wars,” responded Pipko, adding that she didn’t believe Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack, which started the ongoing war, would have happened had Trump been president at the time.
“I also believe the response on October 8, had it happened, would have been very, very different,” she continued.
“Donald Trump always says he wants less innocent people to die — that is his stance whether we’re talking about the war in Gaza, whether we’re talking about Russia in Ukraine or anywhere else,” Pipko said.
JUST IN:
???????? Trump, in his first post-election speech to supporters, said he intends to "not start wars, but end them":
"NO MORE WARS, I 'm going to stop wars" pic.twitter.com/kcPt9pZXVO
— Megatron (@Megatron_ron) November 6, 2024
“So I do believe he wants the war to end as soon as possible, like all rational people do, but he wants it to end with a decisive victory.”
When Levi queried further, noting that “decisive victory is obviously something that can take some time, it has taken more than a year,” Pipko suggested that the Biden administration was partly responsible for the length of the ongoing war, citing what she called a “back and forth” policy.
“When it comes to ending a war in the Middle East and dealing with enemies like Iran or Hamas you have to be decisive, and I have not seen that from our leadership,” Pipko said.
“I think when you have American hostages — people forget to say that, American hostages — held for nearly a year, and you see your leaders deciding on their moves for foreign policy based on what would help them win an election, you end up with a lot of unnecessary bloodshed on your hands, and that’s what we’ve seen this last year,” she added.
Pipko declined to comment on whether Trump would give Israel a green light to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, saying that it was up to the incoming president to express his views on that subject and that he would do so when he takes office in January.
On Wednesday, Trump spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with the Prime Minister’s Office saying in a statement that “the two agreed to work together for Israel’s security” and had “discussed the Iranian threat.”
