Former President Donald Trump told attendees at the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) annual leadership meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Thursday that they must convince other Jews to vote Republicans to save Israel, and America.
Trump, who has addressed the gathering in person several times before, spoke via satellite from the campaign trail. He promised to speak next year in person — as the 47th President of the United States.
He began his remarks with a tribute to Hersh Goldberg-Polin, the 23-year-old American-Israeli who was murdered last week, together with five other hostages, by Hamas terrorists before he could be rescued.
“Only a deeply sick political party here in America” would make common cause with those who sympathize with such evil,” Trump said of the Democrats. He called President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris “morally rotten” for blaming Israel for terror committed against it.
He warned that if Harris won, Israel would no longer have an ally in the White House. “And our country, America, will never survive, if they get in.”
Trump recounted his many achievements in Middle East policy, including defeating ISIS, withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal, withdrawing from the anti-Israel United Nations Human Rights Council, moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, and crafting the Abraham Accords between Israel and several Arab states — a process that stalled under Biden and Harris.
He noted that the Biden-Harris administration had restored funding to terror-linked agencies in Palestinian areas, removed the Houthis from the list of terrorist organizations, and gave Iran access to billions in funds.
Trump promised to bring stability back to the Middle East, and “peace through strength.” He warned that if Harris were elected, Israel’s enemies would continue to wage “unrelenting” war against it.
He noted the high percentage of Jews who vote Democratic, and asked his Republican audience to explain to fellow Jews that if Harris won, “You’re not going to have an Israel … if she becomes president. Israel will no longer exist.”
He added — to a standing ovation — that he would deport jihad sympathizers and Hamas sympathizers from the country. “If you hate America, if you want to eliminate Israel, then we don’t want you in our country.”
He added, to anther standing ovation, that he would “put every single college president on notice: the American taxpayer till not subsidize the creation of terrorist sympathizers on American soil.” He said that he would revoke the accreditation and federal funding for any university that did not “end the antisemitic propaganda.”
Above all, Trump said, Jews had to convince other Jews to vote Republican — and to make sure that they did.
“This November, you must get Jewish people, or people that love Israel — you must get them to vote Republican. You must get them to vote for Trump,” he urged the audience.
Dr. Miriam Adelson, whose late husband, Sheldon, was a major backer of the RJC and a supporter of the State of Israel, introduced Trump, telling the gathering that he is “a president who already proved that he is committed to Israel, that already proved [to] us, that what he is promising, he will do.”
“He is our best friend. He will save us. And I am eagerly waiting for him to enter the White House and save the Jewish people.”
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of “”The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days,” available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of “The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency,” now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.