Among pro-Israel conservatives, concern mounts over isolationism — and antisemitism — on the right
Republican far right-wingers who favor isolationism and occasionally resurrect anti-Jewish tropes are alarming pro-Israel evangelicals and their Jewish allies
Pastor John Hagee addresses a conference of Christians United for Israel, National Harbor, Maryland, June 29, 2024. (CUFI)
(JTA) — NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland — Sandra Parker was going over talking points with 3,000 Christians United for Israel activists before they headed to Capitol Hill to lobby their representatives. She delivered the usual cautions: Be punctual, be polite, be thankful.
But Parker, the chairwoman of the CUFI Action Fund, the political advocacy arm of the movement, allowed the activists one pass for rudeness when she wrapped up the annual CUFI summit on Tuesday at a Maryland resort just outside of Washington.
If they speak to right-wing Republicans who cite scripture to oppose legislation that defines antisemitism, she suggested a retort: “You’re a fundamentally unserious person, aren’t you?”
Parker, the daughter of CUFI founder Pastor John Hagee, knew what the response would be. “They probably won’t like that,” she said, as chuckles rippled through the ballroom.
It was a stark contrast to Parker’s advice on dealing with liberal Democrats — explain patiently — or even with the pro-Palestinian activists who the night before had paddled by on the Potomac bearing a banner saying “CUFI kills.” (Ignore and avoid them, was her counsel.)
The palpable disdain for isolationist Republicans stood out at CUFI, a stronghold for conservatives despite being nominally nonpartisan. Multiple speakers at this year’s conference openly stumped for Donald Trump’s return to the presidency, to thunderous applause.
The rise of Republican far right-wingers who spurn decades of pro-Israel orthodoxies, favoring isolationism and resurrecting anti-Jewish tropes, is alarming pro-Israel evangelicals and their Jewish allies, who have in recent years made a mantra of saying the Republican Party is the natural home for Jews and their allies.
Parker referred to Republicans who oppose one of three items on this week’s CUFI legislative agenda, the Antisemitism Awareness Act. It would add protections into civil rights law for Jewish students and cites the definition of antisemitism according to the International Holocaust Awareness Alliance. Because among its examples of antisemitism are “claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel,” 21 Republicans in May voted against a version of the bill, with some saying that the idea that Jews killed Jesus is gospel.
“When they say ‘it goes against scripture,’ what they mean is ‘we should be able to say that Jews killed Jesus,’” Parker said. “That’s an actual thing that’s gross, that’s repugnant. It’s not Christian, it is anti-Christian. Anybody who says that has a fundamental misunderstanding of the Christian faith.”
The Republicans who rejected the legislation defining antisemitism also question unalloyed U.S. defense assistance for Israel, calling for offsets from other government spending, which would be unprecedented. More broadly, they reject the robust U.S. role abroad that once defined Republican foreign policy, as championed by President Ronald Reagan.
The break with decades of assertive foreign policy was evident last year when Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley derided what he called a “liberal empire” that he said was bipartisan.
“Neoconservatives on the right and liberal globalists on the left,” Hawley said at an event hosted by the Heritage Foundation, the think tank closest to Trump. “Together, they make up what you might call the uniparty, the D.C. establishment that transcends all changing administrations.”
Republicans isolationism — and the antisemitism that at times it accompanies — is alarming enough that a panel on Monday at the CUFI conference was dedicated to dismantling its arguments.
Parker introduced the panel, “The Myth of Isolationism: Why American Engagement Matters,” by saying that it will “get you ready for the whole reason why we’re in Washington, D.C.”
The panel moderator, Gabe Groisman, the Jewish former mayor of Bal Harbor, Florida, described isolationism as the belief “that the United States can really just bury its head in the sand and ignore what’s happening around the world. Focus on the home front and everything will be okay.”
Isolationism and its baggage were also a topic of concern earlier this month among Jewish and pro-Israel Republicans attending the party’s convention in Milwaukee.
“It’s a debate we’re having within our party, there’s no question about it,” Matt Brooks, the Republican Jewish Coalition CEO, said at the Republican convention, when asked about isolationism in the party.
“Our perspective is very Reagan: We believe in a robust American foreign policy — peace through strength,” said Brooks, whose speech to the convention argued that his party was the better choice for Jews.
“America’s got a unique role in the world to help defend liberty and support democracy and fight back against totalitarianism,” he said. “We’re going to continue to wage that battle in the party and make sure that the Tucker Carlson wing of the party doesn’t get a foothold.”
It may be beyond a foothold: Carlson sat alongside Trump in his convention balcony, had a prime speaking spot the evening Trump accepted the nomination, and reportedly was critical in Trump’s selection of Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as a running mate.
Carlson is a populist talk show host and a vocal isolationist who has platformed conservatives who trade in antisemitic tropes, and who himself has advanced white supremacist rhetoric and the antisemitic “Great Replacement” theory both on Fox News and, since last year, his show on X. The week of the convention, he posted a podcast in which he entertained a theory that the Rothschilds, the Jewish banking family who figure prominently in antisemitic conspiracy theories, perverted the New Testament.
At the CUFI conference, the panel on isolationism talked up the virtues of Trump’s first term and contrasted it unfavorably with Joe Biden’s presidency. They argued that Trump’s projection of American strength, through his isolation of Iran and his orders of the assassination of top terrorists, helped bring about the normalization agreements between Israel and four Arab countries. What they said was Biden’s weakness — his reluctance, compared to some of his predecessors, to deploy the military — had diminished American power, in their view.
But the fear of increased isolation on the right remained an undercurrent. “You’re going to see adversaries that see the United States in retreat” if isolationists get the upper hand, said Rebecca Heinrich, a senior fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute.
Heinrich advised the activists to push back if lawmakers claim that NATO expansion is what triggered Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, an argument that Carlson has advanced.
“If anybody begins to say, begins to make the argument that the reason the Russians have moved in on Ukraine is because of NATO enlargement, can I just say that this is the age old ‘blame America’,” she said.
And they rejected the isolationism-lite favored by Vance, who like Hawley carves out an exception for Israel — but for months sought to block an aid package that included $14 billion in emergency assistance for Israel because they objected to $60 billion in aid for Ukraine.
“They have the strain of isolationism that’s, ‘Let’s just do China and forget about Iran, forget about Russia, let’s just do one thing,’ and it doesn’t work that way,” said Boris Zilberman, the director of policy and strategy for the CUFI Action Fund. Instead, he described an intricate fabric of bad actors working hand in hand.
“Iran is working with the Russians to use Ukraine as a proving ground for the [unmanned aerial vehicles] that those same UAVs [Iran is] sending to the Houthis, and the Houthis are attacking Israel,” Zilberman said. “You really see a circle in this axis when the Chinese are buying Iranian oil, enriching them, since 2021.”
Not mentioned from the stage at CUFI was the degree to which Trump is gravitating toward the isolationists like Carlson or Vance. Trump has threatened to pull out of the NATO alliance if he is returned to the presidency and recently proposed converting assistance to Ukraine and Israel into a loan.
Rich Goldberg, a senior adviser to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said that at the end of the day, Republicans across the board would reliably mount an aggressive counter to any threat to U.S. interests.
“All these individuals have far more in common at their baseline, there may be a skepticism, there may be an avoidance of intervention at some points,” Goldberg said at an American Jewish Committee event on the outskirts of the GOP convention, where he was part of a panel that fielded tough questions on isolationism from politically conservative Jews. “But in the end if there’s a bad guy threatening the United States, threatening one of our closest allies, J.D. Vance will support President Trump.”
That may not be enough for the politically conservative pro-Israel movement.
“We don’t have the luxury of being isolationist,” said Gary Morton, an Alaskan pastor attending the CUFI conference. Morton said he can hear from his church U.S. combat jets scrambling when Russian or Chinese aircraft enter U.S. airspace. “We can see Russia from our front door. Our geography means that we take a leadership role in the world.”
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