Top US Republican Jewish leaders headed to Las Vegas Friday for a key annual convention, with Israel’s war against Hamas set to dominate the gathering.
The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) that traditionally welcomes White House hopefuls looking for donors is expected to be an opportunity for candidates to demonstrate their support of Israel.
“The world will be watching,” the RJC wrote on social media as it announced a countdown to the event.
The eight main candidates for the Republican Party nomination are all expected to speak at the meeting, including frontrunner Donald Trump, and his nearest rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Trump sparked fury in recent weeks by describing Lebanon-based Islamist group Hezbollah as “very smart” and criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
At a rally earlier this month Trump said that in January 2020 Israel decided at the last minute to pull out of a joint operation with the United States to kill a top Iranian security commander.
“I’ll never forget that Bibi Netanyahu let us down. That was a very terrible thing,” Trump told supporters.
The remarks drew criticism from rivals across the board, with DeSantis saying the Republican Party needed to present a united front in support of Israel.
“Now is not the time to air personal grievances about an Israeli prime minister,” he said. “Now is the time to support their right to defend themselves to the hilt.”
Candidates will be expected to offer unequivocal support for Israel as it continues its bombardment of Gaza in response to a brutal Hamas raid that killed 1,400 people on October 7.
The Hamas-run health ministry said Friday Israeli strikes on Gaza had now killed over 7,300 people, mainly civilians and many of them children.
The only woman in the race, Nikki Haley, Trump’s former US ambassador to the United Nations, has evoked fears of anti-Semitic attacks on US soil, and said she would tighten the law in response to what some see as support on college campuses for anti-Israel views.
“As president I will change the official federal definition of anti-semitism to include denying Israel’s right to exist,” said Haley, adding that she will strip of tax breaks schools that do not combat anti-Semitism.
“College campuses are allowed to have free speech, but they are not free to spread hate that supports terrorism,” she said. “Federal law requires schools to combat anti-semitism. We will give this law teeth and we will enforce it.”
Security around the weekend convention has been tightened, with a larger-than-usual number of people expected to attend.
In addition to the strong rhetoric expected from key players, participants are also set to take part in prayers and tributes to Israeli victims of the Hamas attacks.
Support for Israel is a huge issue for both political parties in the United States, and a rare instance of foreign policy that matters at the ballot box, thanks in part to the large number of Jewish voters.
It is also a significant issue for evangelical Christians for whom the existence of a Jewish state is a key precondition for the hoped-for “second coming” of Jesus Christ.
