Trump says Israel would cease to exist if Harris became president

Washington: US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has accused his Democratic rival Kamala Harris of “hating” Israel and said if she became president, the Jewish state would not exist "within two years from now".

Trump's comments came during a bitter televised debate with Harris on Tuesday in Pennsylvania.

He asserted that the Israel-Hamas war would have never started if he had been president.

“She wouldn’t even meet with Netanyahu when he went to Congress to make a very important speech. She refused to be there because she was at a sorority party of hers… She hates Israel," Trump, 78, said.

"If she is president I believe Israel will not exist within two years from now,” he claimed. “I’ve been pretty good at predictions, but I hope I’m wrong on that one," the former president said.

“At the same time, in her own way, she hates the Arab population, because the whole place is going to get blown up: Arabs, Jewish people, Israel. Israel will be gone,” Trump said during the debate hosted by ABC.

This was the first debate between Trump, 78, and Harris, 59, ahead of the November 5 presidential election.

He said Iran under him was broke and had no money for Hamas, Hezbollah or any other terror group.

“Look at what’s happening with the Houthis in Yemen. Look at what’s going on in the Middle East. This would have never happened. I will get that settled and fast.” Asked to respond to Trump’s claim that she hates Israel, Harris said, “That’s absolutely not true,” describing herself as a lifelong supporter of the Jewish state.

The US Vice President asserted that Israel has the right to defend itself after Hamas’s October 7 massacre.

When asked by the moderators how she would secure a hostage-ceasefire deal and about her remarks from months ago that “Israel has a right to defend itself, but it matters how,” Harris started by explaining how the almost year-long war in Gaza was triggered.

“Let’s understand how we got here. On October 7, Hamas, a terrorist organization, slaughtered 1,200 Israelis, many of them young people who were simply attending a concert where women were horribly raped. And so, absolutely… Israel has a right to defend itself; we would,” she said.

“And how it does so matters, because it is also true that far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed, children, mothers. What we know is that this war must end, it must end immediately, and the way it will end is we need a ceasefire deal and we need the hostages out. So we will continue to work around the clock on that," she said.

Harris said they must chart a course which should ensure security for Israelis and “in equal measure” for Palestinians.

“The one thing I will assure you always: I will always give Israel the ability to defend itself, in particular as it relates to Iran and any threat that Iran and its proxies pose to Israel. But we must have a two-state solution, where we can rebuild Gaza, where the Palestinians have security, self-determination and the dignity they so rightly deserve,” she added.