DeSantis and Haley See Opening in Trump’s Israel Criticism

The battlers over a distant second place. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The last thing the politicians chasing Donald Trump in a Republican primary needed was a global news event that blots out the sky, distracting attention from their frantic efforts to convince GOP voters to disenchant themselves with the 45th president. But Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley —the two candidates competing for second place in the invisible primary of polls, money, and buzz — are doing what they can with what their tormenter gives them.

As war rages in Israel and Gaza, both DeSantis and Haley have leapt on Trump’s peculiar comments last week attacking Bibi Netanyahu for very old personal grievances, calling the Lebanese-based terrorist group Hezbollah “very smart,” and (of course) blaming the whole conflict on Joe Biden winning the “rigged election” of 2020.

DeSantis, whose strategy has long been to depict Trump as an erratic, self-centered politician likely to betray the MAGA movement, was first to pounce, as The Hill reported:

In a Wednesday evening tweet, he contended that it was “absurd that anyone, much less someone running for President, would choose now to attack our friend and ally, Israel, much less praise Hezbollah terrorists as ‘very smart.’”

The Florida governor remained on the attack through Thursday. He told a Fox News reporter that Trump’s comment taking aim at Netanyahu “makes no sense.”

While filing paperwork for the New Hampshire primary, DeSantis told reporters: “We need to all be on the same page. Now’s not the time to air personal grievances about an Israeli prime minister. Now’s the time to support their right to defend themselves to the hilt.”

Haley, who is projecting herself as a hawkish foreign-policy wizard based on her brief experience as Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, wasted no time flailing her former boss as well, as the New York Times noted:

Mr. Trump, Ms. Haley suggested, lacks moral clarity and has not left “the baggage and negativity” of the past behind, an apparent reference to Mr. Trump’s still-simmering animosity toward Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, over events that include his congratulating President Biden on winning the 2020 election …

“To go and criticize the head of a country who just saw massive bloodshed — no, that’s not what we need in a president,” Ms. Haley said of Mr. Trump, the former president and current Republican front-runner, in a news conference in Concord, N.H., after filing to get on the state’s primary ballot.

You can file Trump’s Israel remarks with his many weird comments that probably won’t matter to his fans, but it’s understandable that DeSantis and Haley did what they could with it. It’s more interesting that the two Trump rivals and their allies have also sniped at each other over war-related remarks, as Politico reported:

At a campaign event in Iowa on Saturday, DeSantis said that the U.S. should not accept any refugees from Gaza and that the Palestinians in Gaza “are all antisemitic.”

Haley, a former governor of South Carolina who also served as U.N. ambassador in the Trump administration, said on Sunday that “half of Palestinians” don’t want to be governed by Hamas.

“There are so many of these people who want to be free from this terrorist rule,” she said in an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “They want to be free from all of that. And America has always been sympathetic to the fact that you can separate civilians from terrorists.”

When confronted about the remarks and Haley’s rebuke, DeSantis said he was simply “defending the truth” and pointed to efforts by Hamas to “teach the kids to hate Jews.”

DeSantis subsequently upped the ante, per Fox News:

“Nikki Haley would import people — that’s been her position. I get that,” DeSantis said of the prospect of bringing Palestinian refugees from Gaza to the United States. “I would not import …”

“I’m willing to speak the truth. She’s trying to be politically correct,” DeSantis said of Haley. “She’s trying to please the media and people on the Left. I don’t care about that. I’m going to speak the truth and let the chips fall where they may.”

It was left to Haley’s campaign to clarify that she “opposes the U.S. taking in Gazans. She thinks Hamas-supporting countries like Iran, Qatar, and Turkey should take any refugees.”

You don’t need a deciphering ring to figure out that DeSantis is trying to pin the dreaded moderate/RINO label on Haley, who is now ahead of the Floridian in polls in New Hampshire and South Carolina. Meanwhile, Haley is auditioning to be the kind of “adult in the room” conservative that Republicans preferred until Trump came along.

Such squabbling between his distant rivals is undoubtedly music to the ears of the front-runner, as actual voting grows near. But as the field gets slowly winnowed down (Tim Scott being the most likely to drop out next), you can expect more of this internecine combat. The remaining candidates are struggling to survive against heavy odds, made worse by a very distracting news environment.