Donald Trump at the Republican Jewish Coalition annual meeting in Las Vegas in 2019. Jacquelyn Martin (AP)
Ron DeSantis was a sensation in Las Vegas last year. A lot has happened since the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) last met in the gaming capital in 2022. The Florida governor appeared at the meeting of the influential Jewish lobby as the favorite to defeat Donald Trump in the race for the White House. The former president leads the preferences despite a total of 91 charges in four allegations opened in court. This Saturday, however, the candidates will be able to contrast their viewpoints while pledging allegiance to Israel in its offensive against Hamas.
“Today, more than ever, we are on Israel’s side.” With these words from Norm Coleman, one of the organization’s presidents, the event began on Friday evening. “This year Israel is experiencing the greatest devastation since the Holocaust (…) we are hurting, but we know how to move forward and wait for better days,” said the former senator from Minnesota. The importance of his message was underscored by two videos from Israel Defense Forces fighters, which received widespread applause from the public.
Starting Saturday morning, the RJC event in Las Vegas will become a forum where the eight Republicans running for president and other high-profile politicians will march across the stage to champion the Jewish cause.
Organizers announced Friday morning that Mike Johnson will be attending the event. Johnson became leader of the House of Representatives on Wednesday after 22 days of chaos and four candidates who showed Republicans’ internal tensions. Johnson, an ultra-conservative close to Trump, will give a speech on Saturday evening. Before him will take the stage, Steve Scalise, the leader of the conservative majority in the House, who was also added at the last minute “to show solidarity with the people of Israel and the American Jewish community.”
The presence of Johnson, the youngest member of Washington’s political leadership, will provide clues about how the party digests the conflict in the Middle East. The leader of the House of Representatives is an evangelical Christian, a group that represents one of the most loyal foundations within the conservative organization. The war against Hamas has emerged as the most pressing concern of evangelical voters, some polls showed in Iowa, the first state to hold the Republican primary next January and where religious people have a significant presence.
In Iowa, Nikki Haley, Trump’s former ambassador to the United Nations, described the Israel-Gaza conflict that began Oct. 7 as a “war against good and evil.” “We need a leader who has the clarity to tell the difference,” South Carolina’s governor said this month.
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Both Haley and DeSantis, vying for second place in Trump’s shadow, have placed the Middle East conflict at the center of their international political narrative. This Thursday, CNN and the Associated Press reported that Florida is easing procedures for third parties to send drones, ammunition, combat armor and helmets to Israel for use by elements of the defense forces. The information was confirmed by a spokesman for the DeSantis campaign, who noted that the state had not committed resources to purchasing these objects and that the assistance was limited to expediting transportation permits.
The annual meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition is also one of the largest fundraisers. The group is one of the most important lobby groups in favor of Israel. Its members represent the third largest organization in terms of funding capacity, after the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and J Street. According to the Open Secrets organization, this group’s money has increased significantly since 2018, from $130,000 to over $320,000 last year.
Donald Trump returns
Last year, the former president attended the event electronically. In a video, Trump assured the audience that no administration has done more for Israel than his. Among the measures he highlighted that met the demands of the most hardline segments of American Jewry were the relocation of the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and the official recognition of the Israeli colonies established in the Golan Heights.
Trump has in the past had the support of one of the most influential men in the RJC, billionaire Sheldon Adelson, the owner of the Sands Casino and a major donor to the Republican Party. Adelson died in 2021, but his widow Miriam remains a central figure within the organization thanks to a fortune of around $30 billion. Unlike her husband, she prefers to remain on the sidelines and does not openly support any candidate.
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