Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and John Kasich attacked Donald Trump for saying he refused “to take sides” in the Israel-Palestinian conflict during the GOP debate on Thursday night.
“There is nothing I would rather do than bring peace to Israel and its neighbors generally. But I think it serves no purpose to say that you have a good guy and a bad guy,” Trump said of Israel and Palestine. “Now I may not be successful in doing it, it’s probably the toughest negotiation anywhere in the world of any kind. But it doesn’t help if I say I am very pro-Israel.”
He added, “As a negotiator, I can’t do that as well if I am taking big sides. With that being said I am totally pro-Israel.”
Cruz responded that this one issue where Trump agreed with Hillary Clinton in that they both want to be “neutral” in the conflict. The Texas senator also hit Trump for not helping to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, after which Trump said he’s given a lot of money to the country.
Kasich and Rubio similarly argued that the next president of the United States must stand “unapologetically” with Israel.
Trump went on to explain that “a deal is a deal” and that as a negotiator, he is the best person on the stage to bring peace to the region although it would be “the toughest deal of any kind.”
“The Palestinians are not a real estate deal Donald,” Rubio countered. “He may be able to build condos in the Palestinian territory but he can’t make peace.”
