GOP Presidential Candidates to Talk Israel-Gaza at Republicans’ Jewish Confab in Las Vegas - U.S. News - Haaretz.com
LAS VEGAS – At last year’s Republican Jewish Coalition annual confab, the GOP found itself reeling following disappointing midterm election results. Top governors, senators and party figures each took turns to cautiously articulate their vision for life after Donald Trump – whom many blamed for the poor electoral showing dominated by extreme candidates who proved unelectable.
Twelve months later, the RJC returns to the Venetian with Trump the party’s presidential front-runner by every single metric, leaving the rest of the field to snipe at each other and jockey for second place behind the indicted former president.
The annual conference is always among the most significant events of the year for the Republican Party, particularly as it is the bridge that connects Jewish Republicans and GOP decision-makers.
While the sizable majority of American Jews vote Democrat, Republicans argue that they are chipping away at that with each passing election. Furthermore, Republican Jewish megadonors – many of whom are RJC board members, and others who are otherwise close with the organization – outkick their coverage in terms of their financial importance to politicians with national aspirations.
All of that, however, could not have prepared the RJC for the national significance of this year’s confab, which is being held four weeks after the deadliest terror attack in Israel’s history.
Israel’s war has not only been the biggest story in America over the past few weeks, but it has perhaps become the singular issue in the Republican presidential primaries. Every contender, without fail, has linked Israel’s war to their areas of focus – with some efforts proving more of a stretch than others.
People searching for survivors and the bodies of victims through the rubble of buildings destroyed during Israeli bombing in Khan Yunis, the southern Gaza Strip, on Thursday.Credit: MAHMUD HAMS - AFP
This point has been driven home with the news that the RJC will co-sponsor the next Republican presidential debate in Miami, on November 8. This is the first time a Jewish organization has ever co-sponsored such an event for either major political party.
“As the horrific events of the last week have unfolded in Israel, the issue of American foreign policy has taken on an even greater role,” said RJC National Chairman and former senator Norm Coleman. “American strength and American resolve – and our candidates’ vision for America’s role in the world – are more important than ever.”
All current GOP efforts, however, have one unifying thread: that U.S. President Joe Biden is somehow complicit in Hamas’ October 7 massacre in southern Israel, whether due to his Iran policy or Israeli-Palestinian policies, or his general approach to politics and the world we live in.
The fact remains, though, that the pro-Israel community in both parties has roundly praised Biden’s stance over the last month – including former U.S. ambassador to Israel David Friedman, an RJC board member who will speak at the confab’s gala dinner on Saturday night. And the Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper owned by Miriam Adelson – the GOP megadonor who is close with the RJC but did not attend last year’s summit – praised Biden on its front page, a fact knowingly highlighted by White House officials.
Isolationists versus hawks
The Republican Party’s unabashed pro-Israel support has been a steadily evolving phenomenon over recent decades, fueled largely by the evangelical Christian community. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies – including former ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer – have publicly and privately stressed the importance of evangelical support as U.S. Jews have grown increasingly critical of Israel’s rightward shift.
President Joe Biden speaking during a news conference in the Rose Garden of the White House on Wednesday. He has won praise from many Jewish Americans for his support of Israel following Hamas' October 7 attack.Credit: Manuel Balce Ceneta /AP
Israel has become an increasingly partisan issue, where the GOP has often adopted a blanket pro-Israel approach while using every moment of intraparty disagreement among Democrats as evidence that the party is anti-Israel. Time and time again, Republicans push Democrats into a corner in which they either have to toe the GOP narrative or be painted as unduly critical of the Jewish state, and therefore trafficking in antisemitism.
Ironically, Israel’s latest war in Gaza may be the first true test the Republican Party is facing over its hitherto stalwart support.
Not only are the internal cracks already beginning to show, but the RJC confab will be the first major showcase on the “isolationist versus hawk” debate that is slowly but steadily dividing the party.
Friday night’s speakers will include Sen. Lindsey Graham and Rick Scott, who in the aftermath of the Hamas attack have largely embodied the traditional GOP approach of the last few years.
Graham has employed some of the more hawkish rhetoric, including calling it a “religious war,” saying that Israel should do “whatever the hell you have to do to defend yourself – level the place.”
U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham speaking during a press conference by members of a bipartisan group of U.S. senators in Tel Aviv earlier this week.Credit: Gil Cohen-Magen - AFP
Scott, meanwhile, has attempted to fast-track legislation preventing the Biden administration from spending $100 million in emergency humanitarian aid for Gaza by locking it in congressional gridlock – one of several efforts aimed at preventing the funds from making their way toward the Palestinians.
To that end, Republican candidates have not only attempted to differentiate themselves by attacking Trump and Biden: Much of the internal jockeying has quickly evolved from who can prove their pro-Israel credentials to who can better prove their anti-Palestinian bona fides.
This dynamic was perfectly captured by two of Saturday’s speakers, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.S. ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley – both inaccurately feted by last year’s RJC attendees as the heirs apparent to Trump.
DeSantis accused Haley of wanting the United States to accept Gazans as refugees – an allegation that deeply offended Haley, who cited her opposition to letting Syrian refugees in while she was UN ambassador.
Haley also drew criticism from several of her rivals for stating that not all Palestinians are antisemitic and that half of the Palestinians in Gaza do not support Hamas.
Beyond his promise to block Gazan refugees, DeSantis has also pledged to shutter two chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine at Florida public universities, revoke student visas and deport foreign nationals who are critical of Israel or support Palestinian rights.
Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaking in Nashua, New Hampshire, earlier this month.Credit: Michael M. Santiago - Getty Images via AFP
Several of these plans were supported by other candidates slated to address the RJC, including Sen. Tim Scott and former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence.
At this point, it’s hard to know whether the candidates are fueling the sentiment, or the sentiment is fueling the candidates. Either way, much of the Republican Party is following.
Skeptical voices
This dynamic, while it is one shared with the vast majority of Jewish Republicans, only explains one side of the spectrum of Republican positions on Israel.
Vivek Ramaswamy, also speaking Saturday, has repeatedly spoken online with Tucker Carlson – the weather vane of the GOP’s isolationist wing – to express his skepticism of U.S. support for Israel’s war.
“It doesn’t make any sense,” he said about giving unconditional U.S. support for Israel, “and we can draw clearer red lines when we’re just honest about the fact that U.S. leaders should act in the U.S. national interest.
“The fact that that’s become controversial shows how far our mistaken foreign policy establishment has come,” added Ramaswamy, who previously called for the United States to wean Israel off annual foreign military assistance.
While his position is still on the party’s fringe, more Republicans skeptical of U.S. spending may be forced to move in that direction after Biden paired the proposed $60 billion of Ukraine emergency aid with $14.3 billion for Israel.
Several figures in Carlson’s orbit online and on the far right have begun circulating conspiracies that the Hamas attacks were not far removed from a false flag operation, alleging that Netanyahu ignored intelligence prior to the attack in order to rally support after months of unprecedented protests against his government.
New low
Outside the burgeoning debate within the party, Donald Trump exists on his own plane. He remains far and away the most popular politician within the GOP, even after all the controversies, scandals and premature pronunciations of his political demise.
Trump infamously criticized Israel for its response to the Hamas attack, using it as a cudgel to re-air personal grievances with Netanyahu while calling the Hezbollah terror group “very smart” just days after the Gaza border massacre.
All of Trump’s rivals roundly criticized him for his remarks, whether out of personal revulsion or sensing an opportunity to chip away at a seemingly unsurmountable gap in popularity.
A supporter of former U.S. President Donald Trump at a West Palm Beach, Florida, event where Trump was scheduled to speak earlier this month.Credit: Giorgio Viera - AFP
While perhaps hitting a new low, Trump’s offending of the vast majority of American Jews is hardly a new phenomenon. The comments came barely a month after he posted an ominous warning to U.S. Jews, retreading his well-worn territory of dual loyalty tropes and conflating support for Israel with American Jews.
Trump, whose opinions of American Jews have deteriorated into stereotypes for decades, has also repeatedly used his self-proclaimed unprecedented support for Israel as a deflection against accusations of antisemitism – all while deeming Jews who vote for Democrats as “very disloyal” to Israel.
A Haaretz review of Jewish Republican donations over the first several months of the 2024 Republican presidential primary campaign revealed that a notable number of pro-Trump donors will clearly back the former president no matter what. However, Jewish donors appear divided on who represents the best alternative to the former president, with several hedging their bets by donating to several candidates.
“I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters,” Trump famously declared at the beginning of his political ascendance. GOP Jewish voters have stomached a lot of Trump-related controversies over the past decade. After his flippant, narcissistic reaction to the October 7 attacks, his reception at RJC this weekend could prove whether his observation seven years ago still holds true for Republican Jewish voters.