Trump Shreds Clinton, Obama on Israel

The atmosphere outside the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C., on Monday was tense as hundreds of protesters lined the city streets, but inside the massive arena Donald Trump wowed the nation’s largest annual pro-Israel gathering, saying “When I become president, the days of treating Israel like a second-class citizen will end on Day One.”

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Trump, bashed by the mainstream media for lacking foreign policy bona fides, laid out a three-pronged approach to Iran in his speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference. First, the GOP front-runner promised that if elected he would stand up to Iran’s aggressive push to destabilize and dominate the region. Second, he pledged to “totally dismantle Iran’s global terror network.” Third, Trump said Iran must be held accountable and vowed to dismantle the “disastrous deal with Iran” pressed by President Obama.

“I’ve studied this issue in greater detail than almost anybody. The biggest concern with the deal is not necessarily that Iran is going to violate it, although it already has, the bigger problem is that they can keep the terms and still get to the bomb by simply running out the clock, and, of course, they keep the billions,” Trump said to thunderous applause.

The GOP front-runner took a head-on shot at Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, who made Trump the veiled focus of her own remarks at AIPAC earlier in the morning. Trump reiterated to the crowd that Clinton would be a “total disaster” for Israel.

“You see, what President Obama gets wrong about deal-making is that he constantly applies pressure to our friends and rewards our enemies. That pattern, practiced by the president and his administration, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, has repeated itself over and over and has done nothing but embolden those who hate America,” he said to a standing ovation.

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Outside, protesters chanted “Donald Trump preaches hate, Israel is a racist state,” at event goers. One protester held a sign that said “Trump=Nazi.” Another sign showed Trump as Hitler, and yet another showed a drawing of him doing a stiff-arm Nazi salute.

But inside, Trump stayed on issue in his short speech, slamming Obama’s deal with Iran and the impotence of the United Nations in enforcing any sanctions on the rogue nation.

“The deal is silent on test missiles but those tests do violate U.N. Security Council Resolutions. The problem is, no one has done anything about it. Which brings me to my next point – the utter weakness and incompetence of the United Nations. The United Nations is not a friend of democracy. It’s not a friend to freedom. It’s not a friend even to the United States of America, where as all know, it has its home. And it surely isn’t a friend to Israel.

“It’s not up the United Nations to impose a solution. The parties must negotiate a resolution themselves. The United States can be useful as a facilitator of negotiations, but no one should be telling Israel it must abide by some agreement made by others thousands of miles away that don’t even really know what’s happening,” he said.

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Throughout the speech Trump touted his deal-making abilities and reminded the crowd that he is leading in every poll, asserting that he will be elected president of the United States.

“When I’m president, believe me, I will veto any attempt by the U.N. to impose its will on the Jewish state. You see, I know about deal-making – that’s what I do. I wrote The Art of the Deal, one of the all-time best-selling books about deals and deal making. To make a great deal, you need two willing participants.”

Unlike Obama, who just last week snubbed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said he would seek his counsel and treat him with respect. “When I become president, the days of treating Israel like a second-class citizen will end on Day One. I will meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu immediately. I have known him for many years and we will be able to work closely together to help bring stability and peace to Israel and to the entire region.”

Trump received a warm welcome and enthusiastic response from the crowd, which was unexpected based upon earlier reports of a planned walk-out by rabbis attending the event. And as he does, Trump went off script at the end of his speech saying, to loud applause, “I love the people in this room, I love Israel, I love Israel, i’ve been with Israel so long. … My daughter Ivanka is about to have a beautiful Jewish baby.”