Israel’s staunch evangelical allies shocked by Trump’s outburst on Netanyahu

“F--k him,” Trump was quoted as saying of Netanyahu. “The first person that congratulated [Biden] was Bibi Netanyahu, the man that I did more for than any other person I dealt with.”

In the interviews, Trump also said Netanyahu never seemed genuinely interested in seeking peace with the Palestinians. Conversely, the former president heaped praise on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, describing him as “terrific” and “almost like a father.”

“I thought he wanted to make a deal more than Netanyahu,” Trump said, according to accounts of the interviews published by Axios.

Evangelical leaders in the United State — many of whom are ardent supporters of both Trump and Israel — have been largely silent on the former president’s reported comments. But Mike Evans, one of Trump’s early evangelical backers, said he was “horrified” by the sentiments and said they would offend significant numbers of evangelical voters.

Evans, in a letter to Trump that he shared with a Post reporter, implored the former president to “understand that Benjamin Netanyahu has much greater support among evangelicals in America than you.”

“Please, I beg of you, don‘t put us in the position to choose between you and Bible land,” the letter said. “There is no possibility you can win again if Bible-believing evangelicals see you as the ‘F--k Netanyahu’ president who considers Abbas a father-like figure and blames the State of Israel, and not the Palestinians, for not making peace.”

Evans has been one of Trump’s most visible, and controversial, supporters in Israel, where he travels frequently. He founded the Friends of Zion Museum in downtown Jerusalem, which was festooned with a 40-foot “God Bless Trump” after the embassy move was announced. That was one of several times Evans paid to have posters hung around the city, all celebrating Trump’s support for policies favored by Netanyahu and his right-wing allies.

In 2017, he presented Trump with a “Friend of Zion” award at a White House ceremony, proclaiming that “no American president in history has done more to defend the Jewish people.”

Evan is also a longtime backer of Netanyahu. When the former prime minister was ousted from office last summer after failing to win a parliamentary majority in four straight elections, Evans created a stir in Israel by accusing the opposition of trying to “crucify” Netanyahu and rushing to Jerusalem in an unsuccessful attempt to address the Knesset.

Other U.S. Christian leaders condemned Evans for meddling in Israeli domestic politics.

Evans, who called Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett “a pathetic bitter little man” when he took office, has since made a measure of peace with the new government and was invited to speak at media event organized by the prime minister’s office in November.

Trump’s denunciation of Netanyahu came as a surprise in Israel, where the former prime minister had touted his relationship with Trump as one of his key political and diplomatic assets.

Netanyahu largely took credit for Trump’s decision to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, to recognize Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights and to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal.

Trump, in his summary of the policy shifts, acknowledged the political bounce some of those moves were expected to give Netanyahu as he campaigned to keep his job. The Golan announcement, for example, was made just before the April 2019 election when Netanyahu was trailing in the polls.

“He would have lost the election if it wasn‘t for me,” Trump said in the interviews, which form part of Ravid’s new Hebrew-language book, “Trump’s Peace: The Abraham Accords and the Reshaping of the Middle East.”

Trump describes a geopolitical-buddy relationship that began to sour over Netanyahu’s reluctance to engage with possible peace negotiations. The rift widened over Netanyahu’s push to annex West Bank settlements. 

But the former president reserved his greatest fury for Netanyahu’s decision to join other world leaders in congratulating Biden when news organizations declared him the election winner. Despite Trump’s assertion, Netanyahu was not the first to call the president-elect and was criticized by some for waiting half a day before offering his good wishes in a statement and video.

“I haven’t spoken to him since,” Trump is quoted as saying.

When asked for comment, Netanyahu’s office referred to an earlier statement saying the longstanding alliance between the two countries made it “important to congratulate the incoming U.S. president.”

Without addressing Trump’s specific expletives, Netanyahu thanked the former president for “his great contribution to the state of Israel and its security.”

 Michelle Boorstein contributed to this report.