Klein: Jews cannot ignore the GOP anymore: Why I’ll be in Vegas

By Zvika Klein, The Jerusalem Post
Thursday, October 30, 2025

...So why am I participating in the RJC gathering in Las Vegas this weekend?

Let's start with coalition maintenance. For years, many Jews treated evangelical Christians as an awkward ally. Some still do, with vigor. I don't. I have stood onstage and recited verses from the Hebrew Bible with former VP Mike Pence. I have prayed with Ambassador Mike Huckabee. Their theology is not mine. Their consistency on Israel, however, is indisputable. In a season when Israel has fewer instinctive friends in elite institutions, it is malpractice to spurn the millions who are leaning in. Good politics is not about liking every note in a coalition's soundtrack. It is about recognizing who shows up when it matters and giving them real work to do.

There is also generational work. The American conversation about Israel has not only polarized, but it has also decoupled from its historical context. Younger Americans, including younger Republicans, have been formed by social media and trends. They know slogans, not the long memory of 1948, 1967, 1973, or the events of the second intifada from 2000 to 2005. An organization like the RJC should function as both a political lever and a civic school: teach deterrence without triumphalism, teach Palestinian dignity without euphemism, teach why regional integration is not a photo op but an operating system. If today's leaders are reliably pro-Israel, the bar for their successors should be higher, not lower: knowledge over applause.

The third reason is so simple and a basic trait in Judaism: institutional gratitude. Movements are built by people, some of whom pay a personal price. Someone funds the field operations, the data, and the rooms where lawmakers are briefed by people who actually know what they are talking about. Israeli-American billionaire Miriam Adelson has become a shorthand for that architecture, which is convenient but incomplete. The story spans decades of work, including collaborations with the late Sheldon Adelson and other donors and organizers who helped put muscle behind a set of commitments. In the past year, Israelis across politics watched her press the hostage cause with a persistence that did not fit the caricatures. If you value that kind of persistence, you don't applaud from afar. You show up, say thank you, and invite more partners into the work.

A word about "stats," because we love numbers when they flatter us and mistrust them when they don't. The Jewish vote remains largely Democratic. That is a sociological fact with deep roots. At the same time, the Republican share is higher than it was a generation ago, and the GOP's intensity on Israel is higher still. Both things can be true. Politics, then, is not about demanding a demographic rebirth that will not come. It is about maximizing real leverage where it exists, swing states, persuadable cohorts, and legislative choke points, while preserving a bipartisan floor sturdy enough to survive election cycles...

Read the full article here.

Zvika Klein is the Editor-in-Chief of The Jerusalem Post and the paper's former Jewish World analyst. He's considered one of the world's top journalists specializing in Jewish Diaspora affairs. This article appeared on The Jerusalem Post website on October 30, 2025.