The Republican presidential candidate ridiculously claimed that Biden is "trying to hold" Bibi back, as the Israeli prime minister continued to ruthlessly bomb Lebanon and Gaza.

“He’s doing a good job,” Trump saidabout the Israeli leader. “Biden is trying to hold him back, just so you understand, Biden is more superior to the VP. He’s trying to hold him back, and he probably should be doing the opposite, actually. I’m glad that Netanyahu decided to do what he had to do, but it’s moving along pretty good.”

  • @[email protected]
    54•2 months ago

    From a purely strategic perspective, is this wise of Trump?

    My impression is that even many American Jewish people don’t like Netanyahu. And he doesn’t need to remind anti-Harris protest voters that he’s even more anti Palestine. Many MAGA diehards don’t even like Netanyahu.

    Like… who is he appealing to? Older Republicans, I guess, who remember Israel’s early days?

    • GhostalmediaEnglish
      22•2 months ago

      If he can keep steady poll numbers after an insurrection, my guess is that this won’t impact him at all.

      • @[email protected]
        9•2 months ago

        Polling doesn’t capture turnout changes. This is the kind of thing that’s largest effect, if materialized, would be boosting dem turnout

        • GhostalmediaEnglish
          4•2 months ago

          Depends on the poll. State by state polls absolutely sample likely voters (aka, people who plan to turn out). Moreover, they use past polling and election data to inflate or deflate turnout likelihood if a consistent gaps exists between what a cohort historically says and what a cohort historically does.

          • @[email protected]
            7•2 months ago

            They don’t easily capture changes to turnout between election cycles is my point. They rely on assumptions of what turnout will look like to weight their polling

            The best proxy is voter enthusiasm, but its not perfect

            • GhostalmediaEnglish
              2•2 months ago

              Yeah, but most elections these days generally fall within the margins of polls. The historical trend data is generally doing a decent job of predicting future behavior.

              IMHO, the bigger issue is that some races are so tight that they can’t be reliably predicted. The winner is buried within the margin of error.

    • geekwithsoulOPEnglish
      15•2 months ago

      Oh, I don’t think there’s any political calculation to 99% of what Trump says anymore. This is more about how much he likes “strongmen”. Hell, lots of folks in Israel don’t even like Netanyahu anymore.

        • geekwithsoulOPEnglish
          16•2 months ago

          His polls have recently somewhat improved, but are still down from where they were historically. Earlier this year they were absolutely abysmal so the bar was on the floor for them to be seen as “on the rise”

          According to an earlier poll conducted by Israel’s Channel 12 on July 13, 70% of Israelis supported Netanyahu’s dismissal, while 44% demanded his immediate resignation.

          Another poll conducted on April 12 showed that 35% of Israelis supported Netanyahu.

          https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/israeli-public-opinion-shifts-on-netanyahu-as-prime-minister-regains-support/3353576#

          It’s one of the reasons he has been stalling on ceasefire talks - the war is the only thing keeping him in power.

          • @[email protected]
            9•2 months ago

            It’s one of the reasons he has been stalling on ceasefire talks - the war is the only thing keeping him in power.

            I may be wrong about this, but I think I remember reading something last year about him being in legal trouble but there’s a law that stops him from being prosecuted if the country is involved in “military operations?”

              • @[email protected]
                7•2 months ago

                July 9, 2024.

                Hmmm… I’m no calendarologist but it seems to me that October is after July…

                Thanks for the link! They didn’t mention anything about the law I thought existed so I guess that’s not a thing.

                • geekwithsoulOPEnglish
                  7•2 months ago

                  Yeah, this trial has been going on forever. Looks like he has to testify in early December (his lawyers had wanted to push off until March next year)

                  This is an archive of the best article I could find - basically his lawyers had used the war as an excuse for the delay, but that didn’t fly.

                  https://archive.ph/v1V0j

    • @[email protected]
      7•2 months ago

      His followers will believe whatever Trump says, and whatever Trump says is what they’ve always believed, even if they didn’t.

    • @[email protected]English
      5•2 months ago

      even many American Jewish people don’t like Netanyahu

      The may not like Netanyahu but they’re quite alarmed by what they see on the left side of the Democratic party. If they’re concerned that Harris will be influenced by the left, either due to personal sympathy or political considerations, then Trump does have some appeal since he’s making it quite clear that he’s definitely not like that.

    • John Richard
      5•2 months ago

      You mean the anti-genocide protestors that were never voting for Trump? Like the ones that decided to vote for an actually progressive candidate?

    • @[email protected]
      3•2 months ago

      He’s apppealing to the evil people. The ones that want to watch the world burn, or are too stupid to understand the consequences of radical global actions.