An Israeli official on Thursday slammed former President Trump’s remarks on Israeli intelligence and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “shameful.”
Shlomo Karhi, member of the Knesset in the Likud party and serving as Israel’s minister of communications, reportedly told Israel’s Channel 13 that it is “shameful that a man like that, a former U.S. president, abets propaganda and disseminates things that wound the spirit of Israel’s fighters and its citizens.”
“We don’t have to bother with him and the nonsense he spouts,” Karhi added.
When asked if Trump’s remarks make it clear that he cannot be relied on, Karhi reportedly replied, according to the Times of Israel, “Obviously.”
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Republican presidential candidate former President Trump gestures after speaking Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023, at Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Both Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, competing against Trump for the 2024 presidential election, and the Biden administration have condemned Trump’s Wednesday speech in Florida on Israel.
Addressing a crowd in West Palm Beach, Trump criticized Israeli intelligence for not detecting Gaza-based Hamas’ brutal, large-scale terror operation over the weekend in advance and blamed the Biden administration purportedly for outwardly signaling to Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon of Israel’s vulnerability along its northern border.
Seemingly referring to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Trump said, “They have a national defense minister or somebody saying, ‘I hope Hezbollah doesn’t attack us from the north.’ So the following morning, they attacked … If you listen to this jerk, you would attack from the north because he said, ‘That’s our weak spot.’”
Trump remarked that Hezbollah was “very smart” for following every word put out by American and Israeli officials. When reached by Fox News Digital, a Trump campaign spokesperson clarified that “President Trump was clearly pointing out how incompetent Biden and his administration were by telegraphing to the terrorists an area that is susceptible to an attack.”
Israeli parliament member Itamar Ben-Gvir, right, speaks with the Likud party’s Shlomo Karhi, left, during a session in Jerusalem on Dec. 13, 2022. (GIL COHEN-MAGEN/AFP via Getty Images)
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“Smart does not equal good. It just proves Biden is stupid,” the campaign spokesperson said.
Also in his speech, Trump criticized Netanyahu, claiming the Israeli leader backed out at the last minute in the Trump administration’s plan to kill Iran’s top security and intelligence commander, Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, who was taken out by an American drone strike in 2020. “I’ll never forget that Bibi Netanyahu let us down. That was a very terrible thing,” Trump said.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu make statements with the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken inside The Kirya, which houses the Israeli Ministry of Defense, after their meeting in Tel Aviv, Thursday Oct. 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, pool)
The former president and current 2024 GOP front-runner added in the speech that if he regains office, “the United States will fully support Israel, defeating, dismantling, and permanently destroying the terrorist group, Hamas.”
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White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates categorized Trump’s statements as “dangerous and unhinged,” while Biden has condemned Hamas’ “sickening atrocities” as “pure evil.”
Fox News Brooke Singman contributed to this report.