Former President Donald Trump on Monday framed the Republican Party as a bulwark against rising antisemitism, and vowed to protect the Jewish people from violence a year after Hamas militants carried out a string of attacks in Israel.
Speaking before a crowd in a ballroom at his golf resort in Doral, Trump recounted the deadly Oct. 7, 2023 assault in Israel that left roughly 1,200 people dead, including 46 U.S. citizens. He said that the attack “should have rallied the entire world in support of the Jewish people and the Jewish homeland.”
Instead, he said, “anti-Jewish hatred” has penetrated institutions like schools, the media and “within the ranks of the Democrat Party, in particular.”
“Not in the Republican Party, I will tell you that,” Trump said. “The Republican Party has not been infected by this horrible disease, and hopefully it won’t be. It won’t be as long as I’m in charge, I can tell you that.”
He said that, if he had been president, the “attack never would have happened.”
Earlier in the day, Trump visited the gravesite of a prominent Orthodox Jewish rabbi in New York City. Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband Douglas Emhoff, who is Jewish, planted a pomegranate tree on the grounds of her official residence in remembrance of the Oct. 7 attacks.
While Trump and Harris largely avoided directly going after on one another during their appearances on Monday, the anniversary of the brutal assault in Israel served as a reminder that whoever wins the presidential race next month will face the task of deescalating a widening conflict in the Middle East.
Trump’s remarks on Monday evening capped off an hours-long ceremony to memorialize the victims of the Oct. 7 attacks. It was a somber occasion that saw a long line of politicians, religious leaders and Jewish community members taking turns lighting candles in remembrance of the victims.
Lining the walls of the ballroom at Trump’s Doral golf club were 1,200 candles — one for each person that died.
Trump’s speech reflected the emotional weight of the gathering. He didn’t attack his Democratic rival, Harris, by name. Instead, he vowed to stamp out antisemitism in the U.S. and prevent any further attack on Israel and the Jewish people.
“We will never let the horrors of Oct. 7 be repeated,” he said.
Among those to take the stage during the candle-lighting ceremony was U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez, who said that the Oct. 7 attacks only strengthened his support for Israel, and demanded that the U.S. support Israel in whatever actions it deems necessary to counter its enemies.
“We must support Israel. We must give them what they need in order for them to protect themselves,” Gimenez said. “And they need to protect themselves in any way they see fit. Not a measured response.”
In remarks on Monday evening, U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar railed against critics of Israel, who she said were “weaponizing our institutions” — like schools and universities — by spreading “antisemitic venom.”
State Rep. Daniel Perez, the incoming speaker of the Florida House, cast Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas and other militants in the region as a battle between good and evil.
“The State of Florida and the House will choose the good, will choose the blessed and will choose Israelis,” Perez said.
This story was originally published October 7cartel gaming, 2024, 10:06 PM.
