EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Trump counters criticism of ‘neutral’ stance on Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Everything has already been said about Donald Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination: that the GOP establishment is wary of him, that he intentionally makes provocative declarations, that he is nothing more than a passing fad, and that he will ultimately fail. Yet in the meantime, the billionaire businessman from New York has won three consecutive primaries/caucuses in New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada. 

How did this happen?

“First of all, I think that it happened because we had too many Republican candidates—17—and now there are fewer,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), one of Trump’s opponents in the GOP race, told me in Las Vegas. “The fact that there are fewer candidates makes victory possible for us. In a one-on-one race with Trump, I would win by 16 percent—I would get 56% of the vote versus 40 percent that would go to him. Donald has a broad floor with a low ceiling. He won’t get past 35-40 percent support and that means that 60-70 percent of the Republican voters don’t want him as the candidate to go up against Hillary Clinton in November. That is why one of the objectives of the primaries, besides selecting a nominee and eliminating the other candidates, is to have one-on-one debates, and I hope to face Trump in a one-on-one debate, which I will have to win.”

But the latest debate, held Feb. 25 in Houston, featured five candidates. Both Cruz and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) targeted Trump’s stated belief that he should not take sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“I’ve received...many of the greatest awards given by Israel. As president, however, there’s nothing that I would rather do [than] bring peace to Israel and its neighbors. I may not be successful in doing it. It’s probably the toughest negotiation of anywhere in the world, of any kind, OK? But, it doesn’t help if I start saying I’m very pro-Israel, very pro-Israel, more than anybody on this stage. It doesn’t do any good to start demeaning the neighbors [of Israel],” Trump said during the debate,”Trump said during the debate.