GOP puts Israel and antisemitism front and center, courting U.S. Jews

Politics

An Orthodox Jewish student from Harvard University castigated the Democratic Party he once supported as “ideologically poisoned” by “far-left antisemitic extremism.”

By Jonathan Weisman, New York Times Service

July 18, 2024

Hamas’ brutal massacre in Israel and Israel’s retaliatory war in the Gaza Strip crashed into the Republican National Convention in prime time Wednesday night, as former President Donald Trump’s Republican Party moved to make Israel’s fight its own — and to further fracture the Democratic Party’s long-standing bond with American Jews.

A coterie of fresh-faced fraternity brothers from the University of North Carolina was invited onstage to be celebrated for defending the American flag from pro-Palestinian protesters who had tried to take it down. An Orthodox Jewish student from Harvard University, Shabbos Kestenbaum, castigated the Democratic Party he once supported as “ideologically poisoned” by “far-left antisemitic extremism.”

And Orna and Ronen Neutra, the parents of a U.S. citizen still held by Hamas in Gaza, led the crowd in a chant of “bring them home,” after recounting how Trump had called them after their son was taken hostage.

Then Lee Zeldin, once one of two Jewish Republicans in the House before running unsuccessfully to be New York’s governor, accused President Joe Biden of pandering to antisemitic protesters.

It was a tricky two-step for a party whose nominee dined in 2022 with an outright and outspoken antisemite, Nick Fuentes, and for a convention that had also featured Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson of North Carolina, who has spouted Holocaust denial, and Charlie Kirk, the youthful conservative leader who stirred controversy last fall by defending Elon Musk’s endorsement of an antisemitic conspiracy theory.

But it underscored how the brutal war in Gaza has badly strained a Democratic Party that is struggling to balance its long ties with American Jewry and its support from American Muslims.

The Republicans let it be known no such strains were afflicting their position. They were standing with Israel, regardless.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.