Trump is considering a pre-convention visit to Israel

Having made major progress toward unifying a hostile Republican Party, Donald Trump is now seeking to win over another skeptical constituency: politically conservative Jews. According to four sources briefed on the discussions, Trump is considering traveling to Israel sometime before the GOP convention in July to bolster his support among Middle East hawks. In February, the candidate lost the confidence of many Israel backers when he said he would be “neutral” in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. His son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and associates of casino mogul Sheldon Adelson are organizing the potential tour, sources say. “This is a typical time frame when a general-election candidate has an opportunity to flex his foreign-policy muscles,” one Trump staffer says. (Later this month, Trump plans to visit Scotland).

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Trump sources cautioned that an Israel trip has yet to be finalized. The planning is delicate, and not only because Trump supporters have launched anti-Semitic online attacks on Jewish journalists who’ve covered Trump. In December, Trump canceled a planned visit to Jerusalem after Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized Trump’s call to ban Muslim immigration.

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