Trump claims Netanyahu, Israelis backed out of 2020 attack on Iranian general

WEST PALM BEACH — Donald Trump singed embattled Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, during a speech Wednesday night in which he faulted the Israeli leader for a "bad experience" — the U.S. ally's backing out of an attack on an Iranian general more than three years ago.

Trump told an anecdote from early January 2020 that suggested the Israeli leader lacked fortitude and resolve. He revealed the incident as Netanyahu and Israeli forces are conducting widespread attacks on Hamas targets in the Gaza strip, with the death toll topping 1,300 and Hamas reportedly holding as many as 150 hostages in the region.

"Israel was going to do this with us, it was being planned and working on it for months and now we had everything all set to go," Trump said of the hit on Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani. "And the night before it happened , I got a call that Israel will not be participating in this attack."

Trump then said the Israeili decision was a "terrible thing."

Trump's statements also came ahead of Thursday's meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Netanyahu in which Washington's top diplomat pledged additional support. Blinken said the atrocities were "simply depravity in the worst imaginable way" and "it almost defies comprehension."

On Thursday, two Middle East experts said were unaware of Trump's comments, or the incident in question.

"I won't comment on the particular candidate's comments only to say this is a time even in Israel, where there has been quite divisive politics over the last couple of years, people are pulling together to deal with this tragedy," said Michael Froman, president of the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations.

Froman said political factions in the United States, likewise, need to remain steadfast in backing Israel as well as Ukraine. He said the issue at hand is enforcement of international rules and "standing up for decency and the role of the United States in defending" the global rules system.

"I would hope that we would be able to maintain bipartisan consensus in support of both countries in the context of both of these conflicts," he said.

Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee, said he was unaware of what the former president was referring to "or why he was referring to it at this moment." Deutch, a former Democratic congressman from South Florida, said the world's attention needs to be focused on the onslaught that Israel has been under and the staggering loss of life and the taking of innocent civilians as hostages.

"At a time when Israel has faced this kind of onslaught, and 1,300 people have been killed, the equivalent of tens of thousands of Americans, at a time when some are calling these Hamas terrorists resistance fighters, they are not pro-Palestinian, they are pro-terror, they are not trying to protect the Palestinian people, they are trying to kill Jews and destroy Israel, so I am not sure what comments any of the rest of that would have to do with this moment," Deutch said. "I would hope that everybody would remain focused on the onslaught Israel is facing."

Trump: Israelis pulled out of the 2020 assassination of 'Iranian butcher'

Trump's comments came during Wednesday night's special gathering of Club 47, a Trump fan club, at the Palm Beach County Convention Center. At the podium, Trump started by musing "maybe it is still" classified information, then talked about a plan by U.S. and Israeli forces to kill Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani — before the Israelis aborted their participation.

Trump said the attack was "months," then said "weeks," before a U.S. drone attack killed Soleimani on Jan. 3, 2020. The hit occurred while Trump was at Mar-a-Lago for the 2019 Christmas and New Year's holiday.

"He was a very bad guy, a very smart guy, but a very bad guy," Trump said about Soleimani, noting that intelligence officials said Soleimani planned to attack five U.S. bases overseas. He said Soleimani was known as the "Iranian butcher" who devised roadside bombs that maimed untold numbers of U.S. troops.

It was a covert operation that had been planned for months along with Israeli forces, the former president disclosed. But at the 11th hour, he said, the Israelis backed out.

Trump said he asked U.S. military officials what had prompted the Israeli decision, but they replied that Tel Aviv had not given them a reason.

"I said, 'I don't like that. That's not good,' " Trump recalled.

Trump said he then engaged the American generals overseeing the mission in a discussion over whether to go ahead with the assault.

"Let's do it," Trump said he concluded.

When the mission to kill Soleimani by drone was happening, Trump said he followed it from the Situation Room, which is a commonly referred-to secure facility at the White House. But Trump, who was at his Mar-a-Lago home during that timeframe, on Wednesday did not elaborate on whether he was at the White House or in Florida. In fact, later that day, Trump spoke at a southern Miami-Dade evangelical megachurch. U.S. defense officials also held a briefing at Mar-a-Lago that day about the drone strike.

"I'll never forget that Bibi Netanyahu let us down. That was a very terrible thing," Trump said. "We were disappointed by that, very disappointed, but we did the job ourselves, and it was absolute precision."

He later added: "And then Bibi tried to take credit for it. That didn't make me feel too good, but that's alright."

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The anecdote was told within the context of a speech in which Trump portrayed himself as the lone global leader able to command respect and fear among the planet's "monsters, villains, dictators and terrorists."

"I dealt with the strongest people in the world," Trump boasted. "They respected me and I respected them. We had different viewpoints, that's certainly true, but they were afraid of America."

Trump also extolled the defeat of the ISIS militia during his presidency, saying "we beat them down" and "wiped them out in a short period." He also noted a prior attack, in 2019, that killed Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim al-Badri, known as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, an Iraqi militant Trump labeled as the "number-one terrorist in the world" at the time.

He also cited the controversial decision to move the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem during his administration. In doing so, Trump said "I kept my word" on a promise his predecessors in the Oval Office repeatedly made but never carried out. And he said he got the embassy done for $500,000, far less than the $2 billion budget he was initially given, and "built" the facility with Jerusalem stone.

"I can see why the other presidents didn't do it, because there was tremendous pressure," he said. "I kept my word. I said I was going to do it, and got it done."

He also cited his support for Israeli sovereignty in the Golan Heights and Abraham accords as successes.

"I was proud to be the best friend Israel ever had in the White House," he said. "I fought for Israel like no president in history."

Biden campaign: Trump 'pushing dangerous disinformation' about Israel crisis

Trump insinuated Israel's security and future rested more in his hands than Tel Aviv's.

"That's a very sad thing when you look at what happened," Trump said of the Hamas attacks and hostage-takings. "What difference a president makes. Isn't it incredible? Just a president. What a difference. You would never, ever have had anybody attacking Israel if I were president. It wouldn't have happened."

Trump called the Hamas attacks "savage" and said, if elected president, he would lead an effort to destroy the terrorist organization. He demanded that the Biden administration freeze the $6 billion that was part of a hostage release announced this fall.

But earlier Wednesday, the Biden campaign pushed back on Trump's assertions.

The Biden campaign chastised Trump saying he was "pushing dangerous misinformation about the crisis in Israel at a time when we should be standing together to support the country."

A Biden campaign statement pointed to reports from Fox News that the $6 billion is in a secure bank account in Qatar, and the U.S. Treasury must validate "the bills of lading for the money" to be withdrawn, according to social media posts by a Fox News reporter on X, formerly Twitter.

The report said none of the frozen Iranian money could have been used by Hamas.

In the statement, the Biden campaign also reminded the U.S. public that top military officials who served in the Trump administration have called Trump a threat to democracy; adding that they have called him “dangerous,” “unfit,” and lacking any “idea what America stands for.”

The statements were from officials such as retired Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley, former Defense Secretary James Mattis, ex-White House Chief of Staff and Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly as well as the former commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan Gen. John Allen.

Trump was undeterred, saying the hostage arrangement was "not a good deal."

"Take it back and freeze it, Joe," he said. "It's not too late."

Antonio Fins is a politics and business editor at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at afins@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Trump: Israel, Netanyahu got cold feet on killing of Iran's Soleimani