From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, November 6, 2024
Trump could impose arms embargo on Israel if war continues, Arab surrogate says
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
DEARBORN, Michigan — The national chairman of Arab Americans for Trump tells The Times of Israel that the Republican nominee could well impose an arms embargo against Israel if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ignores his call to quickly end the war in Gaza.
“If he says to Netanyahu, ‘End the war by the time I enter office,’ and Netanyahu fails to do so, there’s nothing stopping Trump from stopping the flow of arms to Israel,” Bahbah says in an interview on the sidelines of an election watch party in Dearborn, Michigan.
Asked how Trump plans to implement his pledge to end the multi-front Mideast war, Bahbah acknowledges that the Republican has been light on the details but points to his significant influence over Netanyahu. He notes that the former president got over the Israeli premier congratulating Joe Biden on winning the 2020 election.
Judging solely based on Trump’s record as president, though, there is little to suggest that he would abandon Israel.
But Bahbah retorts that “the Trump of 2016 and 2020 is a very different person than the Trump of 2024.”
“He’s been exposed to the Arab Muslim American communities. He has had at least 15 meetings with Arab and Muslim leaders,” the Trump surrogate argues.
Indeed, entering Trump’s inner circle over the past year has been Lebanese-born businessman Massad Boulos, whose son Michael married Tiffany Trump in 2022.
The elder Boulos is spending election night with Trump at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Bahbah says.
“Trump has committed himself publicly multiple times that he will end the wars and bring peace to the Middle East, and he is someone who keeps his word,” Bahbah says.
But the former president has also urged Israel to “finish the job” in Gaza and used the term “Palestinian” as an insult in comments over the past year that have alarmed members of the Arab American community.
Bahbah says Trump simply meant that he wants to end the war with the former phrase, whereas he has not used the latter after doing so for the first time during a presidential debate in June.
“That was early on. After that he stopped,” Bahbah notes, adding that “During the Republican National Convention, he did not mention the word Palestinian or Palestine at all, and he did not use the word Muslim or Islamic either.”
The Arab Americans for Trump national chairman says he has “to compare another four years of Harris to four years of Trump,” downplaying the former president’s decision to move the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
“Moving a plaque from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem does not equal killing 43,000 people,” he says, referencing the Hamas-run health ministry’s death toll from the Gaza war.
“I have zero confidence that Harris would be able to compel the Israelis to do anything,” Bahbah adds.
