Standing Strong for Israel and American Jews
Republican Jewish Coalition CEO Matt Brooks writes that we must push back forcefully against those who would undermine the U.S.-Israel alliance – on both sides of the aisle
Editor’s note: This is the second in a two-part series about the future of support for Israel in the two major U.S. political parties. You can find the first piece, by Jewish Democratic Council of America CEO Halie Soifer, here. We will be exploring these themes in greater depth on the Jerusalem Journal Podcast over the next few weeks. Shabbat Shalom from Jerusalem. — A.M.
The last two years have been tough for American Jews. Attacks against Jews in this country have surged since Hamas invaded Israel on October 7, 2023. Restaurants and synagogues have been damaged, identifiably Jewish people have been assaulted in broad daylight, and some have been murdered. Online posts or comments in support of Israel are met with a deluge of attacks, from putrid name-calling to threats of violence and doxxing. It’s scary out there.
For Jewish Democrats or progressives, life is particularly hard. Extreme ideas they could once dismiss as fringe have become part of the Democratic mainstream. Based on polls and the sentiments expressed at activist gatherings, the typical 2025 Democrat views Israel as not just off course, but as guilty of “genocide” — outright evil. In many instances, Zionist Democrats have been pushed out of once-welcoming political and community spaces, including the universities, professional associations, and political organizations they helped build.
For those of us on the Republican side of the aisle, the virulent antisemitism and anti-Israel activism coming from the left is no surprise. We’ve watched it grow for decades, slowly at first, faster under President Barack Obama, taking new forms in President Trump’s first term, and then surging again under President Biden and presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
Social media is filled with anti-Israel and antisemitic content. Young people who get their history from progressive university professors and their news from TikTok are conditioned to accept the most outrageous lies about Israel and go along with the growing extremism we are seeing on the left. That is likely why recent public polling shows a sharp decrease in support for Israel among young voters on both sides of the aisle.
Recent events — most notably the dramatic and successful joint U.S.-Israel action to lay waste to Iran’s nuclear infrastructure — put a spotlight on a few high-profile people on the right whose isolationism has veered into hatred. The preeminent example of this is Tucker Carlson, who has openly trafficked in antisemitic conspiracy theories and has given Israel haters and Holocaust revisionists the opportunity to spew their propaganda to his audience unchallenged, but he is not alone.
When people who claim to stand on the right express extreme views about Israel and Jews that mirror those on the far left, it demonstrates the validity of the so-called Horseshoe Theory, suggesting that political extremes come together in their hatred of Jews and of Israel. Young people who reject progressive ideology can still be exposed to the same poisons in some corners of the right.
What many young people miss is Israel’s history and reality. Though a young and imperfect state, Israel is a vibrant democracy where citizens of all faiths enjoy equal rights, religious freedom is protected, and holy sites safeguarded. Despite attempts by Muslim authorities on the Temple Mount to erase Jewish history, Israel ensures access to Muslim holy sites across the country.
Under constant threat, Israelis have resisted bitterness, building a society rooted in family, tradition, and education. In Israeli universities, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim students prepare for the country’s high-tech future; in hospitals, Muslim doctors treat Jewish patients and vice versa; in the citizen army, immigrants and natives, religious and secular Jews, Druze and Muslim soldiers serve together.
Since the 1950s, Israel has shared life-saving agricultural and medical expertise with developing nations and responds immediately to disasters worldwide. It is also a global leader in medicine, technology, and security, providing benefits far beyond its size, while its partnerships with the U.S. and Europe enhance safety and innovation for all.
That is not to say that Israel is perfect, that its leaders are always wise and right, or that Israeli and U.S. interests are always fully aligned. It is okay for Americans, Israelis, or anyone else to criticize Israel’s actions. But demonizing or delegitimizing Israel, holding it to impossible double standards, and denying its right to exist — as so many do — are not constructive criticism: they are rank antisemitism.
How do we, today, bring a positive, factual assessment of Israel to the fore and push back to the fringes those extremist voices on the left and right? How do we counter the incredible volume of hate-filled, lying, pro-violence, anti-Western civilization activism that we’re seeing in America?
For the Republican Jewish Coalition, which has been fighting this fight for 40 years now, the answer is clear: keep fighting and fight harder. Since its founding, the RJC has advocated for a strong strategic alliance between the US and Israel and has spoken up, fearlessly and publicly, when politicians on either side of the aisle took actions that could weaken that alliance.
Likewise, the RJC fought alongside Republican Party leaders to make sure that toxic cranks Patrick Buchanan, David Duke, and Steve King stayed where they belong: on the sidelines of a GOP that supports Israel and defends Jewish Americans.
The RJC has supported primary challengers to incumbent Republican members of Congress who vilified Israel and Jews. We hate to spend money in GOP primaries, but we will if we must. One part of the fight is to hold elected officials accountable for their statements and actions — and to help pro-America, pro-Israel candidates get into office.
The RJC also knows that for good or ill, American policy starts at the top, with the occupant of the White House. We are extremely fortunate to have in Donald J. Trump a president who deeply and sincerely supports Israel’s right to exist and prosper. Israel has never had a better friend in the Oval Office.
There is a long list of President Trump’s actions that have strengthened the U.S.-Israel alliance and defended the rights and safety of American Jews. It includes presiding over the Abraham Accords peace agreements; moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem; recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights; providing Israel with diplomatic support — and even more importantly — defensive weapons, to fight Iranian proxies Hamas and Hezbollah and Iran itself; and taking the fight to Iran directly by committing U.S. military forces to an historic operation against Iran’s nuclear weapons program. President Trump’s executive orders, and his Justice Department’s robust activities regarding antisemitism on college campuses and elsewhere, have helped protect American Jews from attack. Not only did Joe Biden not do these things — he and Kamala Harris did just the opposite.
Under the Biden/Harris administration, the U.S. withheld a critical arm shipment to Israel while the Jewish state was at war on multiple fronts. President Biden also exerted significant pressure to force Israel to hold back from key moves in the Gaza war, including a major military offensive in Rafah. These constraints gave Hamas both military and psychological encouragement to continue fighting, which lengthened the war.
The Biden administration decried antisemitism on college campuses but never held universities accountable for failing to protect their Jewish students. Biden accepted empty words when strong action was needed.
The adage that “elections have consequences” is even more true at the presidential level, so the fight to keep a pro-Israel Republican in the White House is vitally important. Sadly, there don’t appear to be any viable, truly pro-Israel Democratic presidential candidates on the horizon.
Pro-Israel Americans can do much to stem the growing anti-Israel and antisemitic activism growing in America just by voting thoughtfully. But there are other ways as well. Keeping the truth front and center is a critical one. We know that there is a vast difference between criticizing an Israeli policy or politician and calling for the destruction of the one Jewish state in the world, the one democracy in the Middle East. That is a distinction that we must keep making, clearly and loudly.
Likewise, we must hold accountable the people who educate, inform, and influence Americans — from universities to news outlets to social media influencers — and not let lies go unrefuted. The more solid information we can all put out there, in every medium, and the more we can provide facts and thoughtful analysis, the better.
The pro-Israel community should be investing heavily in reaching people where they are, with the tools to think about Israel and the Middle East coherently.
It is possible to push extreme ideas and their advocates back to the fringes. The GOP and the conservative movement have done it before. It is possible to hold people accountable and call out anti-Israel and antisemitic words and actions when we see them. It is possible to use every means at our disposal to fight the information war being waged against Israel. It is possible, and it is imperative.
Step up,speak up, and teach others to do the same. This is no time for quiet — “never again is now” in more ways than one.
Matthew Brooks serves as Chief Executive Officer of the Republican Jewish Coalition, an organization dedicated to enhancing ties between the Jewish community and the Republican Party. In addition to his duties leading the RJC, Matt also serves as the organization’s principal spokesman. In this role Matt has been a frequent guest on CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC and has been quoted extensively in publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and other major newspapers.
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Chazak V'ematz and keep standing strong, not only against the progressive Left but also the dangers of the loony right
https://substack.com/@thinktorah/note/c-135861839
To clarify: I believe in the right of Israel to exist and welcome all Jews but this Gaza war has lost any sense and meaning and is not serving the interests of Israel. https://open.substack.com/pub/calimero77/p/lets-just-rewind?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=5jou0d