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Trump Under Fire After Claiming Jewish Democratic Party Voters ‘Hate Their Religion, Hate Israel’
Former US President Donald Trump is seen at a campaign event in South Carolina. Photo: Reuters/Sam Wolfe
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump encountered a firestorm of criticism on Tuesday after he claimed that American Jews who vote for the Democratic Party “hate” both their religion and the State of Israel.
Deploying the inflammatory rhetoric that is his trademark, Trump made the comments during an appearance on a show anchored by Sebastian Gorka, who served as a White House aide during the former president’s single term in office between 2016-20, on the far right “America First” network. The timing of the interview coincided with growing tensions between President Joe Biden’s administration and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Israel’s conduct in its current war against Hamas in Gaza, with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer urging Israelis to demand an election to remove Netanyahu in a speech last week.
After Gorka effusively praised Trump as “the most pro-Israel, most philosemitic president since the rebirth of Israel in 1948,” citing the decision to move the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem as evidence for his claim, he asked why the Democrats “so hate” Netanyahu.
“I actually think they hate Israel,” Trump responded, drawing an enthused “yes” from Gorka.
“Any Jewish person that votes for the Democrats hates their religion, they hate everything about Israel and they should be ashamed of themselves, because Israel will be destroyed,” Trump continued. “You have Iran now making a nuclear weapon, none of that would have happened with me, that’s a big thing.”
Trunp then stated that during his term in office, Iran was “stone cold broke” due to US and international sanctions. He added that “there was no terrorism, because they [the Iranian regime] didn’t have money to fund Hamas and Hezbollah.”
The assertion that there was “no terrorism” directed against Israel during Trump’s presidency does not stand up to scrutiny. State Department reports issued during each of his four years in the White House uniformly noted that Israel faced consistent threats from Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, ISIS and other terrorist organizations, and listed numerous terrorist incidents from stabbings of Israeli civilians to missile launches against Israeli population centers.
The report for 2018 included details of the weekly “return marches” staged by Palestinians along Israel’s security fence on its border with Gaza, noting that these “drew tens of thousands of people. Armed terrorists breached the security fence, launched incendiary devices into Israel, and threw stones and other objects at IDF soldiers. Additionally, sniper attacks injured IDF forces and resulted in the death of at least one IDF soldier. Since April, militants sent hundreds of incendiary devices into southern Israel by kite and balloon, resulting in more than 7,000 acres burned, including a forest preserve and numerous farmed fields.”
Trump’s latest remarks drew an angry response from several US Jewish organizations, including the charge of “antisemitism” — one with which the former president is familiar both from his time in office and afterwards. He attracted strong opprobrium for a Nov. 2022 dinner he hosted with antisemitic rapper Kanye West and the American Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, and again in Sept. 2023, when Trump used the occasion of Rosh Hashanah to attack “liberal Jews who voted to destroy America & Israel because you believed false narratives” on social media.
“Accusing Jews of hating their religion because they might vote for a particular party is defamatory and patently false,” Anti-Defamation League (ADL) CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. “Serious leaders who care about the historic US-Israel alliance should focus on strengthening, rather than unraveling, bipartisan support for the State of Israel.”
“Another day, another depraved antisemitic screed from Donald Trump, who has repeatedly vilified the overwhelming majority of American Jews,” Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, separately declared.
The White House also condemned the remarks, referring to the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom in southern Israel in a statement.
“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,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said. “There is no justification for spreading toxic, false stereotypes that threaten fellow citizens.”
US Jews have historically voted overwhelmingly in favor of the Democratic Party. In 2016, Trump won just 24 percent of the Jewish vote, rising to 30 percent in his failed 2020 bid for re-election. However, several past Republican candidates fared equally or better with American Jewish voters, among them Ronald Reagan, who won 39 percent in 1980, George H.W. Bush, who won 35 percent in 1988, and Mitt Romney, who won 30 percent in 2012.
Monday’s comments during the interview with Gorka came at the close of a difficult day for Trump’s presidential campaign after his lawyers conceded defeat in their attempts to raise a bond of almost half a billion dollars in his ongoing civil fraud case in New York. The state’s attorney general, Letitia James, brought Trump to trial last year, accusing him of fraudulently inflating the value of his assets to obtain favorable loan terms. In total, Trump presently faces four separate criminal prosecutions.
The post Trump Under Fire After Claiming Jewish Democratic Party Voters ‘Hate Their Religion, Hate Israel’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War

Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests

A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan

Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.