Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio shifted gears in the race for the Republican nomination on Wednesday.
Speaking at a campaign rally in Texas, following a second-place showing in Tuesday’s Nevada Caucus, Rubio highlighted his policy differences with the current front-runner, Donald Trump, by criticizing his recent comments on Israel.
“We have a frontrunner in this race, Donald Trump, who says he’s not going to take sides on Israel versus the Palestinians,” said Rubio. “He wants to be an honest broker. Well, there is no such thing as an honest broker in that because the Palestinian Authority, which has strong links to terror, they teach little kids that it’s a glorious thing to kill Jews. They turn down deal after deal after deal. They don’t want a deal. They’ve already said, ‘We want to destroy Israel.’”
Rubio was referring to Trump’s comments during a town hall event last week, in which he suggested that he would take a ‘neutral’ approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“We will not be an impartial advocate when it comes to the issue of Israel,” Rubio stressed. “When I’m president, we’re going to take sides. We are going to be on Israel’s side.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Trump somewhat walked back his comments, stating, “I am with Israel one hundred percent.”
