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Trump is 'very divisive figure' says Board of Deputies President on Question Time appearance
Marie van der Zyl says Trump has done 'some good things' with foreign policy
October 30, 2020 13:36
Marie van der Zyl says Trump has done 'some good things' with foreign policy
October 30, 2020 13:36Board of Deputies President Marie van der Zyl has described President Donald Trump as a “very divisive figure” but has refused to say whether she wanted to see him defeated him at next week’s US election.
Speaking during an appearance as a panellist on BBC1’s Question Time on Thursday, Mrs van der Zyl expressed concern that President Trump had not “disavowed himself from the associations with the right-wing, or the white supremacists.”
But she insisted that “in terms of foreign policy he has done some good things.”
Question Time host Fiona Bruce then pressed the Board’s chief on whether she would “rather it was Trump” who triumphed at next Tuesday’s poll.
She said: “I want someone with the right values. Values are what matter to me. We are talking about the worst and least worst.
“I want the person who has got those values, who is going to be a leader. I am very worried about the outcome whatever happens. We have seen what has happened with the Labour Party in this country.”
Not being an American citizen, Mrs Van der Zyl stressed that she was not a voter next week, but twice referred to polls which have shown Jewish support for the Democrats at 75 per cent.
Commending the current president’s record on foreign policy issues she said: “With the Middle East, for example, he has helped to normalise relations with Israel and Dubai – with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.”
She also spoke of her fears for the “special relationship” between the UK and America as the Brexit deadline approached.
The Board President added: “And of course I am going to be very concerned if there was a Biden President – will that relationship carry on?”
Fellow panellist Bonnie Greer challenged Mrs van der Zyl over her remarks over the peace deals in the Middle East, and on the US President’s association with the far-right.
Ms Greer asked how it was possible “to have peace with two countries that Israel is not even at war with?” The novelist and playwright then remarked that the Palestinians “weren’t even at the table” of peace negotiations with Israel and the Arab States.
She added: “That’s the con Trump lays down.” Ms Greer also referred to the death of a “Jewish girl” in Charlottesville in 2017 during a neo-Nazi rally. She said that pro-Trump supporters at the march looked like those attending Nuremburg rallies of the 1930s.
Mrs van der Zyl responded by saying: “All I’ve said in fairness to him is that in terms of foreign policy the Abraham Accords and normalisation is important. I agree that Trump is very divisive.”
Ms Greer said: “The antisemitic tropes of QAnon, which is gaining a hold here, Charlottesville, I don’t get it. You have to explain it to me.”
The Board President then stressed that in the past, her organisation had criticised the US President on issues such as the Muslim travel ban.
