The Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership summit in Las Vegas kicks off Wednesday night with a powerhouse of Israel and Donald Trump loyalists paving the stage for the former president’s highly anticipated remarks on Thursday morning.
Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst
Ernst, co-chair of the Abraham Accords, just returned from another trip through Israel and the Middle East since October 7. Ernst and a bipartisan delegation of representatives happened to be in the region meeting with Abraham Accord states when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7.
Her record of supporting Israel’s defense and criticizing President Biden’s war response is strong.
Last week, she led the first Congressional delegation to Majdal Shams, where last month Hezbollah forces killed 12 children playing soccer.
“In the face of this loss, the future appears dim, but the fight for justice on behalf of these young, innocent lives is not over,” Ernst said in a statement following her visit there.
“Instead of allowing the Iranian regime to prosper and withholding weapons from our greatest ally in the Middle East, I’m calling on the Biden-Harris administration to deny the IRGC’s ability to support and arm terrorists and provide Israel the resources it needs to decimate these terrorists once and for all. America must not waiver in its support of Israel,” she said.
Ernst had harsh words for Biden in May in a resolution condemning the president for withholding aid to Israel.
“The last thing we need is a president who waffles in his support for our ally, but we have one who has broken his ‘ironclad’ promise by withholding weapons from Israel. These are the precision tools needed to target Hamas and protect civilians,” Ernst said in a statement. “We already have the mouthpieces of Hamas here at home, violently ‘protesting’ on college campuses – we don’t need it in the White House. It’s clear we need new leadership.”
Earlier this year, Ernst was the leading signatory of 16 Republican senators on a letter to the Internal Revenue Service asking the agency to investigate nonprofits that support National Students for Justice in Palestine.
Ernst signed onto a bipartisian resolution in March calling for the UN Security Council to open a formal investigation into October 7 sexual violence, an issue the senator has spoken out against since October 7.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum
Burgum ran against Trump in the Republican primary. He is notably the only Republican candidate who, in a debate just weeks before October 7, mentioned Iran could soon pose a threat as a nuclear-armed nation.
Burgum described Iran as an issue that “Israel and its allies here believe should be front and center of US foreign policy.”
Just weeks after October 7 while campaigning in Iowa, Burgum said he’d consider sending US troops to Israel, the Iowa Capital Dispatch reported.
On social media, he’s accused President Biden of “pressuring US allies to appease Iran before the November election.”
“Why does Biden continue to negotiate FOR the terrorists?” Burgum wrote on X in May.
In the past few days in response to the six hostages found dead in a tunnel under Rafah, Burgum wrote “All who have played a role in Hamas’ evil – killings, kidnappings, and torture – must be held accountable.”
“Now is the time to give Israel our full support and put maximum pressure on Hamas and its sponsors to demand that all remaining hostages are immediately returned,” he said on X.
Ways & Means Committee chairman Rep. Jason Smith
Smith has demonstrated the power of the purse in his leadership position with actions taken to update “the calculation of the endowment tax formula to align the tax code’s treatment of students on college campuses with the Higher Education Act.”
This policy update is the result of legislation from the Committee to hold colleges and universities accountable for “failing to protect student civil rights, including combating the rampant discrimination experienced by Jewish students this past school year.”
A Committee investigation found that “weak university leadership has failed to protect students, enforce campus policies, and discipline students and faculty who violate such policies or rules.”
The Committee also said, “Radical faculty have emboldened students to take part in antisemitic activity and have themselves flouted campus policies and opaque foreign influence, including some international students and faculty, have helped fuel discriminatory activity on campus.”
Rep. David Kustoff
Congress will make sure that Israel has all the tools necessary to defend itself because its battle against terror groups is also America’s battle, the Tennessee Congressman said at the Knesset in early July.
“In your fight to eradicate Hamas and any other genocidal extremist group that threatens your way of life, America is with you all the way,” he said.
Kustoff spoke at a special event in the Knesset to mark the creation of the first-ever Knesset-House Parliamentary Friendship Group.
Last November in the wake of October 7, Kustoff and Democratic Rep. Brad Schneider of Illinois introduced a bill that would allow the Treasury secretary to revoke the tax-exempt status of an organization if it determines the nonprofit is delivering material support to a terrorist group.
The bill passed the House easily but came under controversy in the Senate with opponents fearing overreach.
RNC chairman Michael Whatley
In an op-ed at the end of October, Whatley wrote the alliance between Israel and America is “far more than geopolitical, more than cultural – it’s moral.”
“Israel and the United States of America are built upon a shared foundation of Judeo-Christian values which, in turn, rest upon the very value of human life itself. Humanity’s progress through the ages has been marked by recognition of this eternal truth,” he wrote.
He said that college students, political activists, and even some lawmakers have made statements and participated in demonstrations that show clearly “the choice THEY are making.”
“Sadly, they oppose a democratic society built upon shared Judeo-Christian values, and instead offer credibility and support to movements that worship death and have begun to act upon their aspiration to commit genocide,” he said.
In the months since October 7, he’s followed suit with criticizing Biden’s Iran policy.
“As Iran menaces Israel, do not forget: less than a month ago, Joe Biden was bending over backwards to make sure Iran could access billions of dollars. Iran’s aggression is a direct result of Joe Biden’s weakness,” Whatley wrote on X.
Interestingly, in his own community, Whatley did not disavow Republican candidate state legislature Joseph Gibson III, who the Anti-Defamation League described as a white supremacist and found had ties to Nazi movements, according to reporting from The News & Observer.