Wall Street Journal editorial page editor and former editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem Post Bret Stephens said in an interview that Donald Trump is like the Islamic State in that they are both “perceived” as “winners”.

Like Donald Trump, continued the political expert, ISIS “draws adherents and makes converts and gains strength” despite advocating a distasteful message.

“[Trump] went in front of the Republican Jewish Coalition and said, ‘You’re all fantastic negotiators.’ Exactly! ‘We’re terrible basketball players, but we’re great negotiators,’” Stephens told the Jerusalem Post, referring to a moment in Trump’s campaign in which the candidate stereotyped Jews in front of an influential Jewish audience. “When you’re too stupid to realize that you’re engaging in anti-Semitic tripe, then you’re really far gone.”

Stephens, who is currently in Israel to participate in meetings of the Israel Democracy Institute’s International Advisory Council, expressed serious concerns that the next president of the US may not be supportive of Israel – perhaps even less so than current President Barack Obama, who, he said, at least maintains a pro-Israel rhetoric.

“Obama will always say, ‘I’m a great friend of Israel.’ I think he’s a great friend of Israel when it’s easy, when it’s about providing planes to wipe out the forest fire or giving de minimis funding for Iron Dome – de minimis on the scale of the US budget,” said the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.

“I think he’s not a great friend when you have an overwhelming majority of Israelis opposed to an Iran deal, and he pushes it through in a way that I thought was deceptive. But the next president might not even bother with that,” he continued.

Stephens warned that Bernie Sanders, currently the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, represents a particular danger for Israel despite being the only Jewish candidate. “Bernie Sanders is, as befitting a very left-wing Jew, not exactly sympatico with the cause of Israel,” he said, pointing out that Sanders could easily feel comfortable dropping a pro-Israel facade because “no one can accuse him of being an anti-Semite.”

While he doesn’t think Trump will get the nomination, he admitted that “it’s really anybody’s race”, as evidenced by yesterday’s New Hampshire primaries, the results of which varied enormously from the results of the Iowa caucus last week.

“This is such a wild year politically in the United States that it’s very hard to forecast where we’re going to be in 12 months’ time,” he said.

While he did not reveal which candidate he believed would be the best choice for Israel-minded voters, he did offer several political “disendorsements”, saying that most of the biggest candidates – including Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump – “worry” him. “Frankly Ted Cruz kind of worries me too,” he said.

He called Trump an “ignoramus” and said that Clinton’s close relationship with Sidney Blumenthal, “whose son [Max] is a raving, psycho anti-Semite”, gave him strong doubts about her Israel stance.

Stephens said that of all the candidates, Senator Marco Rubio had “the most nuanced and sophisticated foreign policy.”

While he sharply criticized the Obama administration, who he says should have been “more empathetic” with Israel, Stephens recognized that the current president at least “goes through the motions” of saying he is pro-Israel, although “it’s in ways that very few Israelis recognize as pro-Israel.”

“It’s like, ‘I’m going to break your nose as your friend because you’ve got a bad nose, and if I break it, you’ll get a nose job,’” he said. “That’s the kind of wisdom that the administration likes to peddle: that sometimes friends have to tell each other ‘the truth.’

“A statement that apparently doesn’t go in two directions because when [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] went to Congress to talk about the Iran deal, the Obama administration blew a gasket. So what’s sauce for the goose, apparently, is not sauce for the gander,” he added.

While in Israel, Stephens will spend four days participating in activities and discussions with the International Advisory Council, meeting with Netanyahu, President Reuven Rivlin, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, former US secretary of state George Shultz and former US ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk.