After Democratic Party activists filmed themselves burning an Israeli flag outside of the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday, party officials were quick to reassert their pro-Israel standing.
Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton “strongly condemns this kind of hatred,” Clinton’s Jewish outreach director, Sarah Bard, told The Jerusalem Post. “Burning the Israeli flag is a reckless act that undermines peace and our values.”
Speaking to members of the American Jewish Committee at the convention, Clinton adviser Wendy Sherman said the candidate had issued “very direct instructions” that the official Democratic Party platform remain pro-Israel.
Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, was spotted at the convention on Wednesday wearing a lapel pin with Hillary’s name in Hebrew.
At the same time a small group of Democrat activists were burning an Israeli flag, Clinton’s running mate, Senator Tim Kaine, was adding his name to a request to appropriate $320 million for Israeli missile defense.
Not to be outdone, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump told reporters at a campaign stop in Florida on Wednesday, “I back Israel 100 percent.”
Trump suggested that he could take a pre-election campaign trip to Israel in the coming months, and further lambasted the Obama Administration, of which Clinton was a part, as “the single worst thing politically that could happen to Israel.”
In remarks reported by the Washington Post on Wednesday, former New York Mayor Rudi Giuliani claimed that Israeli leaders had told him they prefer Trump over Clinton as the next US president.
Originally posted at Israel Today Magazine.
