Trump says Jews who vote for Democrats ‘hate Israel’ and their religion

Trump says Jews who vote for Democrats ‘hate Israel’ and their religion
Trump has often accused them of disloyalty, perpetuating what critics say is an antisemitic trope. (Reuters)
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Updated 19 March 2024
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Trump says Jews who vote for Democrats ‘hate Israel’ and their religion

Trump says Jews who vote for Democrats ‘hate Israel’ and their religion
  • Trump: “They should be ashamed of themselves because Israel will be destroyed”

NEW YORK: Former President Donald Trump on Monday charged that Jews who vote for Democrats “hate Israel” and hate “their religion,” igniting a firestorm of criticism from the White House and Jewish leaders.
Trump, in an interview, had been asked about Democrats’ growing criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his handling of the war in Gaza as the civilian death toll continues to mount.
“I actually think they hate Israel,” Trump responded to his former aide, Sebastian Gorka. “I think they hate Israel. And the Democrat party hates Israel.”
Trump, who last week became the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee, went on to charge: “Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion. They hate everything about Israel and they should be ashamed of themselves because Israel will be destroyed.”
The comments sparked immediate backlash from the White House, President Joe Biden’s campaign and Jewish leaders. The vast majority of Jewish Americans identify as Democrats, but Trump has often accused them of disloyalty, perpetuating what critics say is an antisemitic trope.
At the White House, spokesperson Andrew Bates cast the comments as “vile and unhinged Antisemitic rhetoric” without mentioning Trump by name.
“As Antisemitic crimes and acts of hate have increased across the world — among them the deadliest attack committed against the Jewish people since the Holocaust — leaders have an obligation to call hate what it is and bring Americans together against it,” he said. “There is no justification for spreading toxic, false stereotypes that threaten fellow citizens. None.”
Biden’s campaign said, “The only person who should be ashamed here is Donald Trump.”
“Trump is going to lose again this November because Americans are sick of his hateful resentment, personal attacks, and extreme agenda,” said spokesman James Singer.
Jonathan Greenblatt, who heads the Anti-Defamation League, said, “Accusing Jews of hating their religion because they might vote for a particular party is defamatory & patently false.”
“Serious leaders who care about the historic US-Israel alliance should focus on strengthening, rather than unraveling, bipartisan support for the State of Israel,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Trump’s comments come as Biden has been facing mounting pressure from the progressive wing of his party over his administration’s support for Israel in its retaliatory offensive in Gaza. More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory.
While Biden continues to back Israel’s right to defend itself, he has increasingly criticized Netanyahu. After his State of the Union speech, he said he needed to have a “come to Jesus” conversation with the Israeli leader. He has also accused Netanyahu of “hurting Israel more than helping Israel,” saying, “he must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken.”
Trump took particular issue with recent comments from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the country’s highest-ranking Jewish official. In a speech last week, Schumer sharply criticized Netanyahu’s handling of the war in Gaza, warning that the civilian toll was damaging Israel’s standing around the world. He also called for Israel to hold new elections.
While the White House formally distanced itself from Schumer’s comments, the Democratic leader and key ally was voicing an opinion increasingly held across Biden’s administration.
Schumer — whom Trump accused of being “very anti-Israel now” — responded by accusing Trump of “making highly partisan and hateful rants.”
“To make Israel a partisan issue only hurts Israel and the US-Israeli relationship,” he wrote on X.
The Pew Research Center reported in 2021 that Jews are “among the most consistently liberal and Democratic groups in the US,” with 7 in 10 Jewish adults identifying with or leaning toward the Democratic Party. In 2020, it found that nearly three-quarters of American Jews disapproved of Trump’s performance as president, with just 27 percent rating him positively.
Americans have also increasingly soured on Israel’s military operation in Gaza, according to surveys from The Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. In January, 50 percent of US adults said the military response from Israel in the Gaza Strip had gone too far, up from 40 percent in November.
That number was higher among Democrats, 6 in 10 of whom said the same thing in both surveys.


Philippines, Japan agree to boost military ties in ‘increasingly severe’ security environment 

Philippines’ Secretary of National Defence Gilberto Teodoro, right, shakes hands with Japan’s Defense Minister Gen Nakatani.
Philippines’ Secretary of National Defence Gilberto Teodoro, right, shakes hands with Japan’s Defense Minister Gen Nakatani.
Updated 9 sec ago
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Philippines, Japan agree to boost military ties in ‘increasingly severe’ security environment 

Philippines’ Secretary of National Defence Gilberto Teodoro, right, shakes hands with Japan’s Defense Minister Gen Nakatani.
  • Manila, Tokyo signed landmark defense pact last July, allowing troop deployment on each other’s soil
  • Both countries to increase operational cooperation, promoting collaboration in defense equipment, tech

MANILA: The Philippines and Japan have agreed to deepen defense cooperation in an “increasingly severe” security environment in the Indo-Pacific region, their defense chiefs said on Monday. 

Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani was on an official visit to Manila, where he held a meeting with his Philippine counterpart, Gilberto Teodoro, to discuss regional security issues, including the maritime situation in the East and South China Seas. 

“We are not only to enhance existing alliances in terms of the scale of mutually cooperative activities, but also to the scope of these arrangements by also inviting like-minded partners potentially to join these alliances,” Teodoro said at a joint press conference. 

“We share also the common cause of resisting any unilateral attempt to reshape the global order without the consent of the participants of this global order and the attempt to reshape international law by force. And this endeavor we will resist.”

The Philippines, China and several other countries have overlapping claims in the disputed South China Sea, a strategic waterway through which billions of dollars of goods pass each year.

Beijing has maintained its expansive claims of the area, despite a 2016 international tribunal ruling that China’s historical assertion to it had no basis.

Security ties between Manila and Tokyo — both US allies — have strengthened in the past two years over shared concerns in the region, with the two countries signing a landmark military pact in 2024, allowing the deployment of their forces on each other's soil for joint military drills. It was Japan’s first such pact in Asia. 

Japan has a long-standing territorial dispute with China over islands in the East China Sea, while Chinese and Philippine coast guard and navy ships have been involved in a series of tense incidents in the South China Sea. 

During their talks on Monday, Nakatani and Teodoro agreed to strengthen operational cooperation by establishing a strategic dialogue mechanism, enhanced people-to-people exchange and by promoting collaboration in defense equipment and technology. 

“In today's Japan-Philippines defense meeting, first of all, Secretary Teodoro and I firmly concurred that the security environment surrounding us is becoming increasingly severe,” Nakatani said through a translator. 

“It is necessary for the two countries as strategic partners to further enhance defense cooperation and collaboration in order to maintain peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific amid such a situation.”

Prof. Renato De Castro, an international studies expert and professor at De La Salle University in Manila, said defense cooperation with Japan is closely linked with the Philippines-US security ties. 

“Now Japan is a very vibrant and reliable security partner … You cannot actually separate it from the security relationship with the United States. It’s also the enhancement of what I call the base of the US-Japan-Philippines security partnership that was formed last year,” De Castro told Arab News, referring to a summit of the three countries’ leaders last April. 

“It’s really very important in terms of enhancing the capabilities of the three parties to conduct maritime cooperative activities primarily in the South China Sea, and also as preparation for possible contingency in Taiwan.”


Saudi, Indonesian officials agree on closer cooperation to improve health workforce

Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin and Saudi Health Minister Fahad Abdulrahman Al-Jalajel are seen after a meeting.
Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin and Saudi Health Minister Fahad Abdulrahman Al-Jalajel are seen after a meeting.
Updated 13 min 21 sec ago
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Saudi, Indonesian officials agree on closer cooperation to improve health workforce

Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin and Saudi Health Minister Fahad Abdulrahman Al-Jalajel are seen after a meeting.
  • Kingdom’s Health Minister Fahad Abdulrahman Al-Jalajel is on 2-day visit to Indonesia 
  • Saudi doctors been training Indonesian colleagues in child heart surgery since last year

JAKARTA: Saudi Arabia and Indonesia signed on Monday a new agreement on the training and exchange of medical workers, as the Southeast Asian nation seeks closer partnership with the Kingdom to improve its healthcare system.

The Kingdom’s Health Minister Fahad Abdulrahman Al-Jalajel is on a two-day visit to Indonesia, leading a high-level delegation of officials.

As a part of the visit, Al-Jalajel and his Indonesian counterpart, Budi Gunadi Sadikin, held talks in Jakarta and witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding on health workforce cooperation between their countries.

“The MoU covered various areas of cooperation, including collaboration for Saudi doctors to practice in Indonesia, and for Indonesian doctors to study in Saudi Arabia,” the Indonesian Ministry of Health said in a statement.

The deal also covers nursing scholarships, a fellowship program and exchange of health workers, it added.

“Through the exchange of health workforce, we hope to increase the standard of education and health services, while also strengthening the capacity of our human resources here in Indonesia,” Sadikin said after the bilateral meeting.

Saudi Arabia-Indonesia ties in the healthcare sector have been growing over the years. 

Last year, Saudi doctors trained their Indonesian health colleagues in child heart surgery and helped expand access to pediatric cardiac care in the country, through programs sponsored by KSrelief, the Kingdom’s aid agency. 

Sadikin hopes more Saudi doctors will come to Indonesia for child heart surgeries, as only half of an estimated 12,000 Indonesian children who are born with cardiac disease get treatment. 

“Around 6,000 among them are uncared for and die as a result. I hope more doctors from KSrelief will come and help increase the number of cardiac surgeries in Indonesia,” he said. 

The Saudi Arabia delegation also signed several agreements with Indonesia universities to train medical workers from the two countries. 

“This cooperation will cover training in both countries, with the hopes that it will create a better and improved health workforce,” Al-Jalajel said.


China’s Xi affirms ‘no limits’ partnership with Putin in call on Ukraine war anniversary

China’s Xi affirms ‘no limits’ partnership with Putin in call on Ukraine war anniversary
Updated 24 February 2025
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China’s Xi affirms ‘no limits’ partnership with Putin in call on Ukraine war anniversary

China’s Xi affirms ‘no limits’ partnership with Putin in call on Ukraine war anniversary
  • ‘China-Russia relations have strong internal driving force and unique strategic value, and are not aimed at, nor are they influenced by, any third party’

BEIJING: China’s President Xi Jinping affirmed his “no limits” partnership in a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, China’s state media reported, on the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The leaders held the talks as US President Donald Trump has pushed for a quick deal to end the Ukraine war, raising the prospect that Washington could draw a wedge between Xi and Putin and focus on competing with the world’s second largest economy.

The call appeared aimed at dispelling any such prospects — the two leaders underscored the durability and the “long-term” nature of their alliance, with its own “internal dynamics” that would not be impacted by any “third party.”

“China-Russia relations have strong internal driving force and unique strategic value, and are not aimed at, nor are they influenced by, any third party,” said Xi, according to the official readout published by Chinese state media.

“The development strategies and foreign policies of China and Russia are long-term,” said Xi, adding that the two countries “are good neighbors that cannot be moved apart.”

Trump has alarmed Washington’s European allies by leaving them and Ukraine out of talks with Russia last week and blaming Ukraine for Russia’s 2022 invasion.

On Ukraine, Xi said that China was “pleased to see the positive efforts made by Russia and all parties concerned to defuse the crisis,” noting China’s initiatives such as the creation of a group of nations called “friends of peace.”

“All in appearance is normal and seems nothing happened to Sino-Russian partnership, but either side must know that many things could be different after Trump-Putin bilateral diplomacy, though itself highly confusing and uncertain,” said Shi Yinhong, professor at the School of International Studies, Renmin University.

This was the second call both leaders have held this year, after they discussed how to build ties with Trump in January.

China and Russia declared a “no limits” strategic partnership, days before Putin sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022. Xi has met Putin over 40 times in the past decade and Putin in recent months described China as an “ally.”

Beijing has refused to condemn Moscow for its role in the war, straining its ties with Europe and the US as a result.

Both sides also discussed preparations for the commemoration of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two. Earlier this month Xi accepted Russia’s invitation to attend the event.


Turkiye says Ukraine-Russia talks should involve ‘both sides’

Turkiye says Ukraine-Russia talks should involve ‘both sides’
Updated 24 February 2025
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Turkiye says Ukraine-Russia talks should involve ‘both sides’

Turkiye says Ukraine-Russia talks should involve ‘both sides’
  • Moscow and Washington have begun a direct dialogue in recent weeks
  • Russian and US officials held talks in Saudi Arabia in a meeting denounced by Volodymyr Zelensky

ANKARA: Turkiye’s foreign minister on Monday said Ankara backed a US initiative to end the Ukraine-Russia conflict but stressed that talks should involve both warring sides.
Moscow and Washington have begun a direct dialogue in recent weeks, against a backdrop of rapprochement between new US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
“We attach great importance to the new US initiative as a result-oriented approach. We believe that a solution can be reached through negotiations in which both sides participate,” Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told a news conference with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Ankara.
Lavrov’s visit comes on the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a week after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky traveled to the Turkish capital.
Lavrov said Russia is ready for negotiations on the Ukraine war but will only stop fighting when a peace settlement “suits” Moscow.
“We will stop hostilities only when these negotiations produce a firm and sustainable result that suits the Russian Federation,” he said.
Russian and US officials held talks in Saudi Arabia in a meeting denounced by Zelensky, who fears an agreement reached without him.
Fidan, whose country hosted talks between Ukraine and Russia during the start of the war, said Turkiye was ready to take any step that would help bring peace.
“Turkiye is always prepared to assume any facilitating or accelerating role... Our goal is to end this devastating war as soon as possible and to heal the wounds in the region,” he said.
NATO member Turkiye has sought to maintain good relations with its warring Black Sea neighbors, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pitching himself as a key go-between and possible peacemaker between the two.
Ankara has provided drones for Ukraine but shied away from Western-led sanctions on Moscow.
Lavrov is due to meet with Erdogan later in the day.


Russia says blasts at Marseille consulate look like terrorism, TASS reports

Russia says blasts at Marseille consulate look like terrorism, TASS reports
Updated 24 February 2025
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Russia says blasts at Marseille consulate look like terrorism, TASS reports

Russia says blasts at Marseille consulate look like terrorism, TASS reports
  • There was no word on any casualties, and no immediate information on the extent of any damage

MOSCOW: Russia on Monday demanded a full French investigation into explosions at its consulate in Marseille which it said looked like an act of terrorism, state news agency TASS said.
There was no word on any casualties, and no immediate information on the extent of any damage.
“The explosions on the territory of the Russian Consulate General in Marseille have all the hallmarks of a terrorist attack,” TASS quoted Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying.
“We demand (from France) exhaustive and prompt measures to investigate, as well as steps to strengthen the security of Russian foreign missions.”
The incident in the southern French city took place on the third anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine war.
French media earlier reported that a blast was heard near the consulate and firemen were at the site.