The Israeli branch of the United States’ Republican Party began a campaign this week to get American voters living in the Jewish state to cast absentee ballots in favor of nominee Donald Trump. According to the Israeli chapter of the Republican Party, around 300,000 Americans residing in Israel are eligible to vote in the November presidential elections. The pro-Trump drive opened at a shopping mall in the central Israeli town of Modi’in and will focus on areas with high concentration of Israeli-Americans. “First time that the Republican Party is reaching to the Israeli voters in such a massive campaign. The reason is that we have 300,000 Israelis that can vote, a huge part of them are from the swing states and a lot of them are young, they are center and right-wing people, this is why they are Republicans. They do not know; they do not even remember that they can vote. This time we are going to convince them that they have to go out and vote because their number one issue, their only issue, is who will be better president to the Israeli government,” said Tzvika Brot, who heads the Republican campaign in Israel. He also estimated that about three-quarters of American-Israelis would support the Republican Party in the upcoming election.
“I think Trump really understands Israel at a level that Hillary Clinton doesn’t understand and the Democrats. The Democratic Party basically, not just Hillary, but they have turned their back on Israel. Americans do not see Israel as an important issue anymore, they did, but recently, you know, that has drifted in a different direction based on a cultural shift that we have seen happening within the United States,” said Srule Cooper, Resident of Modi’in. “As someone who comes from Pennsylvania which is a swing state, I really believe that it is important for a president of the United States that supports Israel and stands beside Israel no matter what and that is why I am planning to vote Donald Trump for the president of the United States,” said Hadasah Schwarz, Resident of Jerusalem.
A Democratic Party representative in Israel, however, disputed that estimation, noting that the majority of Israelis and American Jews had always preferred the Democrats. According to a poll of Jewish-Israelis conducted in May, found that 40 percent of respondents backed the Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and only 31 percent supported Donald Trump. The poll did not specify however whether those who responded were eligible to vote in the US election. Presidential nominee Trump, who has accused the administration of President Barack Obama of lackluster support for Israel, won his party’s nomination for the presidency last month, and announced last night in an address that Israel is the greatest of allies the United States has, while promising to battle the enemies of the Jewish state, including the Islamic State, Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah organizations.