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The focus of Republican contenders attempting to catch up to distant leader Donald Trump is the Gaza War.
In their most recent debate, five Republican contenders for president in the United States engaged in heated argument on a variety of topics, such as immigration, the conflict in Gaza, and their challenging race to unseat incumbent President Donald Trump.
At the third debate of the campaign, which took place in Miami, Florida on Wednesday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, and Senator Tim Scott engaged in heated exchanges.
With former Vice President Mike Pence suspending his campaign and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum not qualifying, the stage was reduced from the previous debate in September.
Once again, Trump chose to forego the proceedings; despite his growing legal troubles, he is still the clear favorite.
The opening portion of the discussion was dominated by the Gaza War and its domestic and international ramifications, but even as the candidates moved on to other subjects, their support for Israel continued to come up.
The evening saw Haley and Ramaswamy, who are still long shots, intensify their rivalry with back-and-forth exchanges.
After playing a more subdued role in the last discussion, Scott made a stronger impression and demanded more speaking time.
Long viewed as the biggest challenger to Trump’s hold on the party’s nomination, DeSantis criticized President Joe Biden’s policies while highlighting his conservative record in Florida.
These are the debate’s five main conclusions.”End them”: Positions in favor of Israel
Despite Biden’s steadfast support for Israel, which included advocating for an extra $14 billion in aid to the nation, rival Republican presidential contenders attempted to outdo the Democratic leader in endorsing the US ally.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, would be instructed by DeSantis to “finish the job once and for all” with Hamas.
They support terrorism. They are killing hordes of innocent people. If they could, they would exterminate every Jew on the planet,” he declared.
Echoing the governor, Haley declared that she would likewise order Netanyahu to “finish them.”
Israel does not require America. Israel is essential to America, she argued. “We must make sure we have their backs in this process because they are the tip of the spear when it comes to this Islamic terrorism.”
While Ramaswamy expressed support for Israel as well, he stood out from the crowd by cautioning against US military engagement in the conflict.
“I want to exercise caution so that I don’t repeat the mistakes made by the previous neo-con establishment,” he declared.
“In places like Iraq and Afghanistan, corrupt politicians in both parties wasted trillions of dollars, killed millions of people, and amassed billions for themselves by fighting wars that claimed thousands of lives of our sons and daughters, people my age, in conflicts that served no one’s interests.”
Regarding the situation, none of the contenders used the terms “Palestinians” or “Palestine.”
Positivity toward Iran
In the midst of the Gaza War, the contenders also demonstrated a harsh stance against Iran, as US forces being targeted by terrorists aligned with Tehran in both Iraq and Syria.
Scott seemed to advocate taking Iran directly on the battlefield.
He made reference to the US assault earlier in the day on a Syrian “weapons storage” facility connected to Iran when he added, “You cannot just continue to have strikes in Syria on warehouses.”
“You really need to remove the snake’s head, and Iran is the snake’s head—not just the proxies.”
Haley said that she will deal with Iran and its allies more firmly.
“Iran reacts to the attack,” she declared. “If you strike them with a forceful blow once, they will retreat.”
In addition, DeSantis threatened Iran with an attack on US servicemen in the Middle East. “If you injure even a single hair on the head of an American service member, you will pay a price in hell,” he declared.
Ukraine remains a chasm.
The candidates disagreed on help to Ukraine, as they have in previous debates. Ramaswamy’s resistance to more aid to Kyiv drew criticism from other candidates.
Ramaswamy cited the combination of television networks into a single state-run channel and the unpredictability of the next election as evidence that Ukraine is not a democratic nation. Additionally, he called Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, a “comedian in cargo pants.”
“Don’t buy into framing this as a conflict between good and evil,” he urged.
Tens of billions of dollars have been given to Ukraine by the US to help it repel a full-scale Russian invasion that Moscow initiated in February 2022.
Haley quickly disapproved of Ramaswamy’s viewpoint, claiming that Xi Jinping, the president of China, and Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, would be “salivating at the thought that someone like that could become president” of the US.
The fighting in Gaza and the crisis in Ukraine were connected by the former US ambassador.
“The Ukrainians know that Russia will win if Iran wins, which is why they want us to support Israel,” the speaker stated.
DeSantis, for his part, criticized Biden’s appeal for further assistance to Ukraine and advocated for greater funding to be allocated to the Asia-Pacific region’s struggle with China.
Regarding the crisis in Ukraine, he declared, “We need to bring this war to an end.” “Europeans must take the initiative and contribute fairly.”
Think about China
The contenders seemed to agree that the Washington-Beijing rivalry should take precedence over China in the midst of the US’s growing conflict with that country.
Christie referred to China as “the enemy” and threatened to increase the US nuclear submarine fleet to counter any potential invasion of Taiwan by Beijing.
“I would first go to increase American naval power because the United States Navy’s nuclear submarines [are] the greatest deterrent to Chinese aggression,” the speaker declared.
Haley, for her part, accused China of smuggling the potent, lethal narcotic fentanyl into the US.
“Unless they cease killing Americans with fentanyl, we will terminate all official trade relations with China,” she declared. China is the nation from which the US purchases the greatest commodities.
DeSantis issued a warning that Americans will be directly impacted if China emerged as the world’s preeminent superpower. He declared, “They will export authoritarianism as a cost of doing business all over the world.”
Additional jabs against Trump
With some surveys showing Trump leading his nearest competitor by over 50 percentage points, the other contenders will have a steep hill to climb before the first primary in Iowa in January.
The former president is accused of four different crimes, one of which relates to his attempts to rig the 2020 election.
On Wednesday, a number of contenders aggressively attacked Trump, who has up to now mostly avoided harsh criticism from opponents.
Using the former president’s unfulfilled pledge to erect a wall on the US-Mexico border and have Mexico pay for it, DeSantis attacked Trump for skipping the debates.
The governor of Florida remarked of Trump, “He owes it to you to be on this stage and explain why he should get another chance.” “Why he didn’t have Mexico foot the bill for the border wall needs to be explained,” He ought to give a reason for why he accrued so much debt.
Christie, a critic of Trump, also brought up the president’s legal issues. “This party and this country cannot be led by someone who is going to dedicate the next year and a half of their life to staying out of jail and courtrooms,” he said.
SOURCE:ALJAZEERA
