Israel will cease to exist if Harris becomes president, Trump claims

Republican presidential nominee tells Jewish donors that his Democratic rival would ‘totally abandon’ Israel.

Israel will cease to exist if United States Vice President Kamala is elected to the White House in November, former President Donald Trump has claimed.

Addressing Jewish donors in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Thursday, the Republican nominee claimed that Harris would “totally abandon” Israel as president and that “terrorist armies” would wage war to “drive Jews out of the Holy Land”.

“You are going to be abandoned if she becomes president, and I think you have to explain that to your people. Because they don’t know it. They have no idea what they are getting into,” Trump said in a remote address to the Republican Jewish Coalition.

“You are not going to have an Israel … if she becomes president. Israel will no longer exist.”

Trump said he would ban refugees from “terror-infested areas” including Gaza, arrest “pro-Hamas thugs” who vandalise government property, and cancel funding and accreditation for universities that spread “anti-Semitic propaganda” if elected to a second term.

US university campuses earlier this year were rocked by protests over Israel’s war in Gaza, triggering claims of anti-Semitism along with counterclaims that accusations of bigotry were being used to silence legitimate criticism of Israeli policy.

Trump, who claimed Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel would not have happened if he was president, also took aim at Jewish people who vote for Democratic candidates, claiming he had done more for Israel than any other US president.

“Who are the 50 percent of Jewish people that are voting for these people that hate Israel and don’t like the Jewish people?” he said. “Why are they, why are they voting? How do they exist?”

In response to Trump’s remarks, Harris campaign spokesperson Morgan Finkelstein said the vice president “stands steadfastly against anti-Semitism” and has been a “lifelong supporter of the State of Israel as a secure, democratic homeland for the Jewish people”.

Finkelstein also said Trump had a history of demeaning Jewish people and associating with far-right figures, including holding a private dinner with white supremacist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes.

“He has said the only people he wants counting his money are ‘short guys wearing yarmulkes’, and praised neo-Nazis who chanted ‘Jews will not replace us’ as ‘very fine people’,” Finkelstein said.

Harris has largely echoed President Joe Biden’s staunch support of Israel, resisting pressure from the progressive wing of her party to halt shipments of weapons being used by Israeli forces in Gaza.

The Democratic nominee has, however, placed greater emphasis on the plight of Palestinians in public statements, saying she will not be “silent” about the suffering in Gaza and that “far too many” innocent civilians have been killed in the war.