Joe Biden and Donald Trump continued to clash over the Israel-Hamas war on Thursday as a White House spokesman rebuked the former US president for what he called “dangerous and unhinged” comments about the conflict.
Hamas, an Iran-backed militant group based in Gaza, launched attacks on Israel on Saturday, killing more than 1,000 people and taking more than 100 hostage. Israeli air strikes have subsequently killed more than 1,000 people and significantly worsened the humanitarian situation in Gaza. A ground invasion is thought likely.
Speaking in Florida on Wednesday, Trump, the Republican frontrunner to take on Biden next year, called Hezbollah – a Lebanese group also backed by Iran and supportive of Hamas – “very smart” and the Israeli defense minister, Yoav Gallant, “a jerk”.
Around the world, the question of what the Israeli government knew about the attacks in advance continues to be debated and Trump weighed in on the issue and slammed the Israeli government.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, had been “hurt very badly”, Trump said, adding: “He was not prepared. He was not prepared and Israel was not prepared. And under Trump, they wouldn’t have had to be prepared. You know, Hezbollah is very smart. They’re all very smart.”
Israel’s enemies, he said, were “vicious and they’re smart and boy, are they vicious”.
Those comments prompted a stern reaction from the White House.
“Statements like this are dangerous and unhinged,” said Andrew Bates, the deputy White House press secretary. “It’s completely lost on us why any American would ever praise an Iran-backed terrorist organisation as ‘smart’ or have any objection to the United States warning terrorists not to attack Israel.”
“This is a time for all of us to stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel against unadulterated evil.”
Trump also said Netanyahu “let us down” by choosing not to participate in the US drone killing of Qassem Soleimani, a top Iranian general, in Iraq in January 2020.
“I’ll never forget that Bibi Netanyahu let us down,” Trump said. “That was a very terrible thing.”
Tensions between Trump and Netanyahu have long been reported. In December 2021, for instance, Trump told the Axios reporter Barak Ravid he had not spoken to Netanyahu since leaving office nearly a year before.
“I haven’t spoken to him since,” Trump said.
According to Ravid, “the final straw for Trump was when Netanyahu congratulated President-elect Biden for his election victory while Trump was still disputing the result”.
In Tel Aviv on Friday, Biden’s secretary of state, Antony Blinken, told Netanyahu: “You may be strong enough on your own to defend yourselves, but as long as America exists you will never have to. We will always be there by your side.”
Trump and Republicans claim Biden bears responsibility for the Hamas attack. But the Biden White House was not alone in criticising Trump’s Wednesday remarks.
Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor who is Trump’s closest – if distant – challenger in Republican polling, said: “It is absurd that anyone, much less someone running for president, would choose now to attack our friend and ally, Israel.”
Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for Trump, said he “was clearly pointing out how incompetent Biden and his administration were by telegraphing to the terrorists an area that is susceptible to an attack. Smart does not equal good”.
But the Israeli communications minister, Shlomo Karhi, said Trump’s comments showed he could not be relied on.
It is “shameful that a man like that, a former US president, abets propaganda and disseminates things that wound the spirit of Israel’s fighters and its citizens”, Karhi told Channel 13.
Reuters contributed reporting
