LAS VEGAS — Donald Trump was not in attendance at the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) in the swing state’s Sin City on Thursday, but he still had a crowd of hundreds standing to applaud his pro-Israel message.
“Kamala Harris is the candidate of the forces that want to destroy Western civilization and Israel,” Trump told attendees via video link. “I am the candidate of those who want to defend Western civilization and defend Israel.”
“If she becomes president, there will be no more Israel,” Trump warned. “Israel will no longer exist.”
Trump was greeted with cheers and applause from his enthusiastic audience when he promised that his administration would “keep America safe and ensure that Israel is with us for thousands of years.”
The former president denounced Hamas terrorists who killed six Jewish hostages last weekend, including Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin.
“Only an evil and inhumane ideology, truly inhumane, kidnaps, tortures and murders innocent men, women and children,” Trump said of terrorists.
“Likewise,” he said, addressing Democrats, “only a deeply sick political party here in America would make common cause with those who sympathize with such evil, and this is the case.”
Trump then touted his foreign policy record to the audience.
“When I left office, America was safe. Israel was safe. The Jewish people were safe and the world was at peace,” he said. “American Jews felt safe on our streets and on our college campuses when I was president and we kept radical Islamist terrorists out of our country.”
The Republican Jewish Coalition has consistently been pro-Trump in recent years, and this time was no exception. Participants held signs reading “Trump” in Hebrew and English, as well as cards reading “Kamala… Oy Vey!”, a Yiddish expression expressing dismay or grief.
Matt Brooks, the coalition’s executive director, said the RJC is spending $15 million this cycle to get out the vote and reach “persuadable” Jewish voters in key states including Nevada, Arizona and Pennsylvania.
One of those convinced Thursday was Shabbos Kestenbaum, a Harvard University graduate student who said he remains a registered Democrat but would vote for Trump because of the anti-Jewish positions expressed by President Biden and Vice President Harris.
New York Post
