The top five Republican presidential candidates squared off in their third debate, going head to head for the first time since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war.
Frontrunner former President Donald Trump was once again absent from the debate stage, leaving the candidates to focus on foreign policy and the U.S. relationship with Israel in its war with Hamas.
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Candidates were asked what they would urge Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to do at this moment.
"I would be telling Bibi, 'Finish the job once and for all with these butchers, Hamas,'" answered Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. "They're terrorists; they're massacring innocent people. They would wipe every Jew off the globe if they could."
"The first thing I said to him when it happened was, I said, 'Finish them. Finish them,'" said former U.N. Ambassador and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley.
"America is here, no matter what it is you need at any time to preserve the State of Israel," said former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. "Remember that Hamas' main goal is to get rid of Israel."
Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy sent a message of support, tempered by an America-first stance.
"What I would tell Bibi is that Israel has the right and the responsibility to defend itself," Ramaswamy said. "I would tell him to smoke those terrorists on his southern border, and then I'll tell him as president of the United States, I'll be smoking the terrorists on our southern border."
The candidates also made it clear that Iran is the greater threat to Israel and the world.
"You actually have to cut off the head of the snake, and the head of the snake is Iran and not simply their proxies," said Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina.
"We need to be very clear-eyed to know there would be no Hamas without Iran," Haley said. "There would be no Hezbollah without Iran."
Ramaswamy painted the former U.N. ambassador as an extension of a generation that led America into costly Middle East wars.
"Do you want a leader from a different generation who's going to put this country first? Or do you want Dick Cheney in three-inch heels?" asked Ramaswamy.
Haley fired back.
"I'd first like to say, they're five-inch heels, and I don't wear them unless you can run in them," she responded.
The Republican presidential hopefuls also addressed the surge in antisemitism since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. Several said they would pressure college administrations to crack down and take action against foreign students who support Hamas.
"I was the first presidential candidate to say, 'If you are here on a student visa as a foreign national; you're making common cause with Hamas, I'm canceling your visa, and I'm sending you home, no questions asked,'" DeSantis said.
"Any campus that allows for antisemitism and hate, to allow students to encourage terrorism, mass murder and genocide, you should lose your federal funding today, period," said Scott.
"If the KKK were doing this, every college president would be up in arms," Haley said. "This is no different; you should treat it exactly the same. Antisemitism is just as awful as racism, and we've got to make sure they're protected."
Meanwhile, President Trump held a rally for several thousand people in Florida, where he was endorsed by his former White House Press Secretary and current Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
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