Israeli Americans: We’re Sticking With Trump ‘Despite His Shortcomings’
In the media storm that followed the release of Donald Trump’s 11-year-old conversation with an entertainment reporter, a number of conservative and evangelical leaders have expressed they were rethinking their support for the businessman’s presidential campaign.
The Israelis rounding up votes for him among the 200,000 Americans living there are not, in spite of his “shortcomings.”
“I have five daughters and they will all, all, vote for Trump,” Republicans Overseas Israel Chairman Marc Zell told Army Radio in an interview over the weekend. “I’m saying he doesn’t need to [resign]. He did what he did. His comments are disgusting and absolutely unacceptable, we are against it…he said he’s not perfect, he apologized.”
Zell said as reprehensible as Trump’s comments were, they “pale in comparison” to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s offenses, particularly her leaked emails and her cozy relationship with Wall Street globalists. He said the public wants Trump, despite his shortcomings, over Clinton’s “failures, corruption and lies.”
He further called on Republicans to continue to support the party’s nominee.
“I call upon all the Republican leadership, who understand like we do that we need a change to the White House immediately and undo eight years of damage caused by Obama and Clinton to the United States around the world—to unite and to support the ticket, from the top to the bottom,” he said.
Those comments are significant. Until just a few months ago, Zell was among the establishment Republicans who refused to support Trump. In December of last year, ahead of a planned Trump visit with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he said:
“The voters understand that to lead the United States, you need a person who knows more than how to sell products, with all due respect to Donald Trump, and everything he has achieved in his career. In my opinion, he cannot be president of the United States.”
ROI’s Board of Directors quickly put out their own statement saying Zell didn’t speak on their behalf, and that they were not taking sides in the GOP presidential primary. He later told the Times of Israel he came to terms with the outcome of the primary and agreed with his party’s leaders that any Republican was better than any Democrat on matters of importance to Israel.
