Politics

Band Members With Disabilities Rush To Embrace Trump At Israeli Conference

(Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

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Mary Margaret Olohan Social Issues Reporter
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Band members with disabilities rushed to embrace President Donald Trump on Saturday at the Israeli American Council National Summit.

The president addressed those gathered at the summit, which billionaire Sheldon Adelson hosted, telling them they must vote for him in the 2020 election to protect Israel. The president closed his remarks by asking God to bless Israel.

“So many of you voted for people in the last administration,” Trump said, according to Breaking Israel News. “Someday you’ll have to explain that to me because I don’t think they liked Israel too much.”

“After eight years of which our alliance was undermined and neglected, I am happy to report the United States-Israeli relationship is stronger now than ever before,” Trump added. (RELATED: Anti-Israel Activist Linda Sarsour Says Israel Is ‘Built On The Idea That Jews Are Supreme To Everybody Else’)

“So tonight, together, we ask that God bless our military,” the president said. “We ask that God bless our veterans. We ask that God bless our cherished ally, the State of Israel. And with our flag waving high, our people standing tall, and our faith forever strong, we say our prayer once more: God bless America, our home sweet home.”

His remarks were followed by a performance of “God Bless America” by the Shalva band, a popular Israeli religious singing group composed of artists with special needs, Breaking Israel News reported.

Video footage showed members of the band rushing to embrace Trump after they finished their song.

WATCH:

“In 1918, a young Jewish American soldier stationed at Camp Upton, in New York, wrote a prayer in the form of a song,” Trump said before the Shalva band sang. “His name was Irving Berlin — maybe the greatest of them all. And he held that song close to his heart for more than 20 years. He did not release the song until 1938, as the world learned of Hitler’s evil atrocities against the Jewish people.”

“On November 10th of that year, his song broadcast through the radio and into the homes all across the country,” the president continued. “Millions and millions of people were inspired. It was the first time Americans heard Irving Berlin’s timeless hymn, ‘God Bless America.'”

Trump explained that the song “God Bless America” became “the prayer of our nation,” from the islands of the Pacific to Nazi territory where American soliders opened “the gates of concentration camps and liberated Jewish survivors.”

“It’s the prayer that Americans sang as we faced down communism and as we came together as one nation after 9/11,” Trump said. “It’s the prayer that still unites us today and the hope that burns bright in our hearts, because we are proud American patriots. We love this magnificent nation with every ounce of our strength, spirit, and soul.”

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