Former U.S. President and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has expressed support for Jerusalem’s response to the Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre, saying “only a crazy or an idiot wouldn’t respond like Israel did” in an interview with Israel Hayom published on Monday.

However, Trump warned: “You have to finish up your war. You have to finish it up. You’ve got to get it done. We’ve got to get to peace. You can’t have this going on, and I will say Israel has to be very careful because you are losing a lot of the world. You are losing a lot of support.”

Meanwhile, Mike Pompeo, who served as Secretary of State in the Trump administration, has publicly backed an Israeli military operation in Rafah city in southern Gaza, Hamas’ last stronghold in the enclave. In a tweet on Saturday, Pompeo said “allowing Hamas to remain in Rafah would be like firefighters only putting out 80% of a fire. We should support Israel’s mission to completely defeat Hamas.”

Trump has also claimed that the Hamas-led massacre of Oct. 7 would not have happened if he remained president instead of Democrat Joe Biden. “If he [Biden] were supportive of Israel, the Iran nuclear deal would have never been signed, and Israel would have never been attacked,” Trump told Fox News on March 17, adding “I’ll bet you I would have had Iran in the Abraham Accords.”

According to a Channel 12 poll published on March 12, 44% of Israelis want Trump to win November’s election, compared to 30% who prefer Biden to secure a second term. Breaking the figures down, 72% of respondents who voted for parties in Netanyahu’s governing coalition said they preferred Trump, while 8% chose Biden. By contrast, 55% of respondents who cast a ballot for parties in the Israeli opposition preferred Biden, compared to 23% for Trump.

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