Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Israel News

Republicans in Israel Are Backing Trump Despite His Comments About Women

As prominent Republicans have disavowed their support of Donald Trump for his comments about women, the Republican Party in Israel has doubled down its support of the candidate.

Marc Zell, head of Republicans Overseas Israel, called Trump’s boasting about sexual assault in a 2005 video “disgusting and absolutely unacceptable,” but said he will continue to support the Republican nominee — and so will his five daughters.

“I have five daughters and they will all, all, vote for Trump,” Zell told Israel’s Army Radio, according to the Times of Israel.

Apparently unaware that his microphone was on, Trump was captured in a 2005 Access Hollywood segment bragging that he would grab women by their genitals. “And when you’re a star they let you do it,” he said.

The release of the video, just a month before the November election, has sent the Republican Party into a total panic as more than 40 prominent Republicans who once backed the candidate have withdrawn their support, according to the New York Times’ count.

The Republicans Overseas Israel lambasted these leaders in a Facebook post that said that Republicans should “RALLY AROUND THE FLAG, YOU DON’T BURN IT AND RUN!”

Zell said that Trump’s comments did not warrant his resignation, maintaining that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s leaked emails about her close relationship to Wall Street, are worse than anything Trump said.

“He said he’s not perfect, he apologized,” said Zell.

He added that there is “no chance” that Trump will quit.

Republican Overseas Israel said it has registered 200,000 American-Israelis to vote, half of them women. Zell told Army Radio that most will be supporting Trump.

Contact Naomi Zeveloff at [email protected] or on Twitter @naomizeveloff

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.

In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.

At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.

Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly. 

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.