‘Give Israel the ability to finish what Hamas started’ – Trump, Vance express full-throated support for Israel on Oct 7 anniversary

The U.S. Republican presidential and vice presidential candidates both offered full-throated support for American Jews and Israeli citizens in their appearances on the anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 invasion and massacre in southern Israel last year.

Former President Donald Trump’s comments focused on supporting American Jewry in the face of increasing anti-Israel protests tinged with antisemitism.

On Monday, Trump visited the grave of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson in Queens, N.Y., considered to most visited Jewish holy site in the United States.

According to the Jewish News Syndicate, Trump met with families of Israeli hostages held captive by Hamas and several local rabbis. Footage taken during the visit also showed Ben Shapiro, one of America's leading conservative pundits, and an Orthodox Jew himself, at the site with Trump.

On Monday, Trump also attended an event commemorating Oct. 7 at his golf course in Doral, Florida, calling it the “deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”

“I will defend our American Jewish population. I will protect your communities, your schools, your places of worship, and your values. We will remove the jihadist sympathizers and Jew haters,” the former president vowed.

“We’re going to remove the Jew haters who do nothing to help our country, they only want to destroy our country,” he added.

“The anti-Jewish hatred has returned even here in America, in our streets, our media and our college campuses and within the ranks of the Democrat Party, in particular, not in the Republican Party. I will tell you that it’s not in the Republican Party.”

The Republican Party platform, adopted in July, vowed to “deport pro-Hamas radicals and make our college campuses safe and patriotic again.”

“The bond between the United States and Israel is strong and enduring … if and when I’m president of the United States, it will, once again, be stronger and closer than it ever was before. We have to win this election. If we don’t win this election, there’s tremendous consequence for everything,” Trump said.

U.S. vice presidential candidate, JD Vance, focused his comments on Israel’s war in Gaza and his criticism of the way the Biden administration has handled it.

Vance appeared at a “Remembering Oct. 7” event in Washington, D.C.’s National Mall, organized by the Philos Project and several other Christian and Jewish organizations.

“We want to give Israel the right and the ability to finish what Hamas started. Israel didn't start this. Hamas did. But Israel is going to finish it,” Vance emphasized.

“The best way to end the war, and I believe the only way to end the war, is if Hamas would let the hostages go,” Vance said, while sharply criticizing the Biden administration for not doing enough to secure their release.

“I'm going to get a little political here. It is disgraceful that we have an American president and vice president who haven't done a thing,” said Vance. “Vice President Harris, our message is, ‘Bring them home.’ Use your authority to help bring them home. We can do it. We just need real leadership.”

“America will protect our American Jewish brothers and sisters,” under a Trump-Vance administration, he said.

“We will stop funding anti-American and anti-Jewish radicals. And we are going to bring home American hostages wherever they're held and whoever is holding them,” he added.

Our prayers are with our allies in Israel this morning as we remember the American and Israeli citizens who were slaughtered last October 7th.

President Trump will end Kamala Harris's weak policies that embolden our enemies and undercut Israel's ability to defend itself. pic.twitter.com/2ZWEWD3Af6

— JD Vance (@JDVance) October 7, 2024

Speaking to Fox News on Monday, Vance again slammed Vice President Kamala Harris over her administration’s policies, which he said prolong the war and embolden Iran by hampering Israel’s ability to fight effectively.

“If you actually want peace in the region, if you actually want to preserve civilian lives… and enable Israel to build the kind of long-term security for itself in the region,” Vance said, adding that the U.S. shouldn’t hold back precision-guided weapons that are destroying Hamas while sparing civilian lives.

“Frankly, if the Israelis were able to do what they do best, this war would’ve been over months ago,” said Vance, possibly indicating a more hands-off approach to Israel’s wars if Trump were re-elected president in November.

“We could’ve been on the pathway to rebuilding an Abraham Accords, a Middle Eastern peace process, that unites Israel with some of its Arab neighbors to provide a counterbalance in the region to Iran,” Vance added.