As they addressed an annual assembly of powerful Jewish donors on Saturday, Republican presidential contenders queued up to assure Israel of their unflinching support in its fight against Hamas.
At the Republican Jewish Coalition event, former president Donald Trump pledged to “defend our friend and ally in the State of Israel like nobody has ever.”
With President Joe Biden’s administration as his target, Trump—who got the strongest reception from the audience—argued that the battle between Israel and Hamas is “a fight between civilization and savagery, between decency and depravity, and between good and evil.”
The former reality show host, the overwhelming favorite to win the party nomination to run against Biden next year despite facing multiple criminal prosecutions, spoke after sparking fury in recent weeks by describing Lebanon-based Islamist group Hezbollah as “very smart” and criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Also on hand in Las Vegas was Trump’s nearest rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who called the Oct 7 Hamas surprise attack on Israel “the most deadly attack against Jews since the Holocaust itself.”
At least 1,400 people were killed, the most of them by Hamas terrorists.
The health ministry in the Gaza Strip, which is governed by Hamas, reports that over 8,000 Palestinians—mostly civilians and many of them children—have perished as a result of Israel’s ceaseless retaliatory bombardments.
DeSantis and other proponents of the Palestinian cause suggested cutting off financing to colleges and revoking visas for international students who support the cause, citing an increase in anti-Semitism on US college campuses.
“We need cultural chemotherapy to fight this cancer,” Senator Tim Scott said.
“Any student with a visa who calls for genocide should be deported.”
The only woman in the race, Nikki Haley, Trump’s former ambassador to the United Nations, has evoked fears of anti-Semitic attacks on US soil.
“As president I will change the official federal definition of anti-Semitism to include denying Israel’s right to exist,” said Haley, adding she would strip tax breaks from 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.”
The event was scheduled to take place on Saturday night, and the speakers scheduled to speak were House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and freshly appointed Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson.
Mike Pence, the former vice president, shocked everyone on Saturday by declaring he was withdrawing from the 2024 presidential contest, making history as the first significant contender to do so.
“It’s become clear to me: this is not my time,” he said. “After much prayer and consideration, I have decided to suspend my campaign for president.”
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.
