Wary world casts concerned eye on debate sparring match

In addition to the American voters who tuned in to see Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton face off in their first presidential debate, millions of viewers from around the world braved time differences to watch closely as the two candidates attempted to prove they have the credentials to lead the US in the global challenges it faces.

In Israel, the debate was broadcast live starting at 4 a.m. on Channel 2, one of the country’s main news channels, with simultaneous translation into Hebrew, a first for the country and a sign of national interest in the American race for the White House.

In the hours after the showdown, as the rest of the country woke up, the debate dominated the Hebrew news agenda, as it did in other places around the world where campaign-watchers stayed up late or got up early to watch the candidates go head to head for the first time.

“He just really didn’t come up with the goods today. He hasn’t done his homework as much as she had,” said Paul Smith, who watched the debate from a pub in Canberra in the morning. “She was just so confident, so knowledgeable, looking so healthy, relaxed and delivered. And he didn’t have the comeback, didn’t have the punches.”

While both candidates came to the debate fresh from having met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a day earlier, Israel drew nary a mention during the 90-minute exchange, though Trump did describe Netanyahu as “not a happy camper” over the Iran nuclear deal.

A spokesman for the prime minister declined to comment Tuesday morning on Trump’s mention of Netanyahu. But Netanyahu himself at his weekly cabinet meeting Sunday said both candidates would support Israel.

“They both spoke about their support for Israel and the importance of bilateral ties,” he said. “It doesn’t matter which of them will be picked, American support for Israel will remain strong.”

Nonetheless, Israeli pundits and social media users were quick to weigh in on the debate discussing who won and how what was said could affect Israel and the Middle East.

Of particular concern in Israel and elsewhere was Trump’s comment that the US “cannot be the policeman of the world. We cannot protect countries all over the world.”

“Trump may have enlisted the prime minister to his side… but to the Israeli ear, one also needs to listen to what seemed Trump’s especially isolationist message, as he said: We won’t be the world’s policeman,” Oren Nahari, an analyst for Israeli news site Walla, noted. “If not us, so whom? The statement was expected to bolster the claims that Trump plans to leave the management of the world’s affairs to his Russian friend.”

On the other side, Clinton sought to address the worries some global leaders have about the populist businessman making a run for the White House.

“We have to work more closely with our allies. That’s something that Donald has been very dismissive of,” she said.

Hannes Reinhardt, a 34-year-old who works for a small German publication called zwd, said he didn’t watch the debate live because it started at 3 a.m. in Germany, but he woke up to several push alerts on his phone.

“My first impression based on those alerts was that Clinton was leading in the debate,” he said, taking a puff on his cigarette before heading into his office in Berlin’s Mitte neighborhood. Reinhardt said that he hoped Clinton would also win the US elections.

“As a German, one can only hope that she will win. She is more moderate and more European, while Trump is very isolationist and a populist,” Reinhardt said.

Victor Andres Manhit, president of the think tank Albert del Rosario Institute for Strategic and International Studies in the Philippines, welcomed Clinton’s assurances that the US would honor its treaty obligations if she becomes president.

“I’m really hoping that that kind of statement reminds our own government that we have an ally in the United States vis-a-vis our fight for territorial integrity and our maritime rights in the South China Sea,” he said.

Trump also counterpunched against Clinton’s experience claim, noting that it was the quality of work, not the stamps in a diplomat’s passport, that mattered.

“Let me tell you, Hillary has experience. But it’s bad, bad experience,” he said.

“You look at the Middle East, it’s a total mess — under your direction, to a large extent.”

Clinton and Trump have battled for more than a year over what led to the rise of the Islamic State group and how to defeat the jihadist insurgency, with the Republican asserting that Clinton and President Barack Obama “created a vacuum the way they got out of Iraq.”

“You’re talking about taking out ISIS. But you were there, and you were secretary of state when it was a little infant,” Trump said, in one of his more powerful criticisms of the night.

“Now, it’s in over 30 countries, and you’re going to stop them? I don’t think so.”

Clinton argued that airstrikes against jihadists have intensified, and said Washington was hoping to push IS out of Iraq “within the year.”

“We’re making progress,” she said.

In a snap CNN poll of 521 voters, 62 percent judged that Clinton had won the debate, against 27 percent for Trump.

“It’s like Israel’s national soccer team against Germany,” communications expert Gil Peretz told the Ynet news website. “It was a win of her method, from the fact that she’s experienced to the fact that she prepared as she needed to.”

Financial markets around the world cheered the former secretary of state’s performance, with stocks and high-risk currencies staging a “relief rally” as investors hailed her as the victor over Trump.

Key Asian stock exchanges got a bounce as a confident Clinton was seen to best her rival in the 90-minute showdown, some reversing earlier declines.

Tokyo closed 0.8 percent up, a dramatic volte-face from its 0.9 percent drop at the open, while Sydney also trimmed early losses. Hong Kong opened up 0.5 percent but was more than 1 percent higher in the afternoon, while Seoul, Bangkok and Singapore were also up.

“US futures have moved ahead as the debate unraveled, and I think that is one of the factors” for Asian markets erasing losses, Michael McCarthy, a chief market strategist at CMC Markets told Bloomberg News.

“In policy terms, no doubt to Clinton; in emotional and tone terms, Clinton is also ahead at this stage. She is winning on both counts would be my current assessment.”

The Mexican peso also rebounded off a record low, rocketing nearly two percent to 19.5047 against the US dollar.

The unit had slumped ahead of the debate as the prospect of a Trump presidency fanned concerns about the Republican candidate’s pledge to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement if he wins.

“Trump is largely regarded as a market negative and certainly him doing quite poorly in the debate would reassure a lot of investors. But it’s early days,” he told Bloomberg.