Pro-Israel candidate Larry Elder withdraws from U.S. presidential race, endorses Trump

Conservative U.S. presidential candidate Larry Elder of California has announced his withdrawal from the 2024 race for the Republican presidential nomination.

Elder – a former Salem Radio Network talk show host whose strong pro-Israel views helped keep support for the State of Israel in the forefront of political dialogue in recent months – also announced his endorsement of former president Donald J. Trump and he called on other GOP candidates to unite behind Trump.

Citing Trump’s historic decision to move the United States embassy to Jerusalem, as well as his leadership in the 2020 Abraham Accords, Elder called Trump “second to none” among world leaders supporting Israel.

Speaking about the current conflict, Elder asked, “When will the pro-Hamas Israel haters learn to distinguish the arsonists from the firefighters? To paraphrase former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir: 'If the Palestinians laid down their arms, there would be peace. If Israelis laid down their arms, there would be slaughter.'"

Trump and his remaining GOP challengers have gathered in Las Vegas this weekend to address the annual summit of the Republican Jewish Coalition. Contenders, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, South Carolina U.S. Senator Tim Scott and entrepreneur businessman, Vivek Ramaswamy, will each make their case to the annual summit.

One attendee at the conference is GOP Congressman David Kustoff of Tennessee. Following the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks, Kustoff told reporters that after the recent bloody actions by Hamas, “Many American Jews went to bed as progressives and woke up as conservatives.”

Traditionally, Jewish Americans have been a reliable voting block for the Democratic Party…but tensions on American college campuses (at least 54 of which have been plagued by anti-Israel demonstrations in recent days…some violent) may be causing voters to reexamine that political loyalty).

The high-profile of such pro-Palestinian Democratic members of Congress as Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Talib of Michigan will potentially have an impact on many voters in 2024.

One political observer – Jake Novak, the former media director of the Israeli consulate in New York City – says he has not seen this kind of political shift since 1980, when Ronald Reagan was elected president of the United States.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid added that voices around the world fomenting demonstrations against Israel are ignoring the ugly truth about Hamas.

“They’re using 9-month old babies and women and the elderly as human shields,” he told FOX News in America.

“If Hamas wants to stay alive, they need to release every hostage immediately as a first step," Lapid added.

Hopefully Lapid's wise words will resonate with misguided college demonstrators in the U.S. and elsewhere, who are being used as propaganda tools by Hamas and its sympathizers.