Members of the Israel Heritage Foundation (IHF) convened with Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida last week to thank the former President for his unwavering support of Israel and fight against antisemitism, reported Breitbart. The delegation consisted of the group's leader, Rabbi David Katz, Executive Vice President Dr. Joseph Frager, and Executive President Dr. Steven Soloway, among others.
A silver menorah was presented to Trump in appreciation of, "doing what no other man has ever done and that is to make peace between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan in the extraordinary Abraham Accords.”
During his tenure, Trump moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, recognized the Golan Heights, which were liberated from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War as Israeli territory, cut off cooperation with the Palestinian Authority, and threatened to withdraw aid to the UN due to its anti-Israel bias. Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was his top advisor on the Middle East, and helped pave the way for the Abraham Accords, which sidestepped the Palestinian issue, ushering in normalization with much of the Arab world.
At the event, Trump reiterated calls for a strong US-Israel relationship and stressed that Israel has the right to defend itself against existential threats such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran. According to polls, the former president has earned the support of more than 85% of orthodox Jews in the US - as opposed to liberal, non-affiliated Jews who continue to back the Democrats.
In a separate development from earlier in the day, the Biden administration is considering several ways of preventing Israel from using American weapons if it attacks the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where top Hamas terrorists have holed up and Israeli hostages are reported to being held captive.
According to the report, the White House is debating whether to implement this condition. The comments come in lieu of concerns in the US about the crisis in Gaza and the lack of agreement regarding the planned attack.
The US ambassador to Israel, Martin Indyk, claimed that Israel needs to understand that the level of frustration of the Biden administration with the "incorrect handling of the humanitarian situation in Gaza has reached its limit." According to him: "If Israel launches an attack in Rafah without properly protecting the civilian population, it could precipitate an unprecedented crisis in US relations with Israel, even on the issue of arms supply."
