Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, US, April 2, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Rebecca Cook

Former US President Donald Trump derided anti-Israel Jews and reiterated his stance that Israel needs to finish its war against Hamas in Gaza as soon as possible in a new interview.

“For whatever reason you have Jewish people out there wearing yarmulkes, and they’re, you know, pro-Palestine. You’ve never seen anything like this,” Trump told Fox News on Thursday, referring to the large protests organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, an anti-Zionist organization, and the presence of some Jews at pro-Hamas rallies.

Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, also emphasized that Israel had to end the war in Hamas-ruled Gaza soon because “they are getting decimated with this publicity,” which is one of the reasons he believes that some Jews are now protesting against Israel.

“Israel has to have to handle its public relations, they are not good. They got to get this done fast, because the world is not taking lightly to it, it’s really incredible,” he said.

Over the past few years, US polls on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have become less favorable toward Israel, particularly among Democrats. Additionally, American public opinion has somewhat soured on Israel over the course of the current war, which began on Oct. 7 when Hamas killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages during its rampage across southern Israel.

A Gallup poll from March found that 55 percent of Americans disapproved of Israel’s military action in Gaza, which represented a 10-point increase from December.

This is not the first time Trump has criticized Israel’s public relations strategy.

In April, on conservative host Hugh Hewitt’s radio show, he said, “The other thing is I hate, they [the Israel Defense Forces] put out tapes all the time. Every night, they’re releasing tapes of a building falling down. They shouldn’t be releasing tapes like that.”

“That’s why they’re losing the PR war. They, Israel is absolutely losing the PR war,” Trump continued. “I guess it makes them look tough. But to me, it doesn’t make them look tough.”

Trump claimed during the Fox News interview that “Oct. 7 would never have happened if I was president,” underscoring his message that US President Joe Biden has been weak on the world stage. He alleged this weakness has led to chaos across the Middle East and Europe.

However, detractors argue that Israel was vulnerable to attack because the country had become so divided amid a debate about judicial reform, and that Hamas felt threatened by the prospects of Israel normalizing relations with Saudi Arabia.

On the more than 100 hostages still in Hamas activity, Trump said: “You’ve got to get the hostage back. I think you’re going to have a lot of them have bad news with the hostages; I think some of those hostages, many of them maybe, are dead. I believe they are dead.”

Among the hostages are eight Americans.

During Trump’s one term as president, he won over many supporters of the Jewish state, especially on the political right, by moving the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, recognizing the Golan Heights as part of Israel, and facilitating the Abraham Accords.