Trump spoke at the Israeli Knesset on Monday.
[Drop Site News reports: “All living Israeli captives and hundreds of Palestinians released; Trump addresses Knesset.” The outlet notes: “Here’s footage of some of the 1,700 Palestinian captives released from Gaza. None were charged with any crime. Even after Israel determined it had no legal basis to hold them, they were kept as bargaining chips for future negotiations. Freed Palestinian prisoner Anan al-Shalabi, seen here with visible bruises, is among those released today.” Israel is reportedly trying to ban interviews with family members of released Palestinians.
[Knesset member Ayman Odeh noted: “They kicked me out of the Knesset just for raising the simplest demand, one that the whole international community agrees on: Recognize the State of Palestine!”]
ELI CLIFTON, [email protected], @EliClifton
Clifton is senior advisor at the Quincy Institute and investigative journalist at large at Responsible Statecraft. He notes that Trump said: “I actually asked [Miriam Adelson], I’m going to get her in trouble with this, but I actually asked her once. I said, ‘So Miriam, I know you love Israel, what do you love more, the United States or Israel?’ She refused to answer. That means, that might mean Israel.” Clifton noted that mainstream media accounts of Trump’s speech frequently omitted this. Grok has falsely claimed clips of this speech are AI generated.
Trump’s other remarks included: “I kept my promise and officially recognized the capital of Israel and moved the American embassy to Jerusalem. Isn’t that right, Miriam? … Miriam and Sheldon would come into the office, they’d call me. I think they had more trips to the White House than anybody else I can think of. Look at her sitting there so innocently — she’s got $60 billion in the bank. … They were responsible for so much, including getting me thinking about [recognizing Israel’s annexation of the] Golan Heights. …”
Clifton noted in a piece earlier this year that Adelson, with her late husband casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, “served as the largest donors to Trump’s presidential campaigns and to the Republican Party, sending approximately $600 million in reported political contributions to support Trump’s three presidential campaigns as well as other Republican congressional and gubernatorial races since 2015.”
Clifton’s other recent pieces include: “Oracle execs: Love Israel or maybe this isn’t the job for you” and “TikTok investor: ‘Embed the love and respect for Israel’ in the U.S.”