Conservative evangelical activists and the Republican presidential candidates they support are speaking out in different ways about the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack that killed 1,300 innocent Israelis and has sparked a retaliatory war.
They agree on main points: that Israel should strike back and destroy Hamas; and that Democrats somehow share the blame for what happened.
Where they differ is on how much compassion Israel should show to innocent Palestinians who don’t support Hamas and are themselves victims of the terror group’s violent worldview.
Focus on the Family’s activist outlet, Daily Citizen, has published numerous stories about the attack on Israel and its meaning, including one article that concludes, “The United States, however unintentionally, helped fund Hamas’ attacks on Israel.”
Former President Donald Trump, the leading candidate for the GOP nomination in 2024, took a different approach than his rivals by commending Hezbollah, another anti-Israel group. Trump has a beef with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said publicly Trump lost the 2020 presidential election — a true statement but one that belies Trump’s false claims.
Last week, Trump told a group of supporters, “You know, Hezbollah is very smart. They’re all very smart,” according to The New York Times. Trump contrasted the terrorists’ intelligence with the failures of Netanyahu, saying intelligence failures left Israel vulnerable to attack.
“Thousands of people knew about it, and they let this slip by,” Trump said on a Fox News Radio program. No one else has claimed “thousands of people” knew about the carefully planned attack.
Democrats and some Republicans were swift to condemn Trump’s comments.
Among those standing up for Netanyahu was Trump rival Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida and struggling presidential candidate.
At campaign events over the weekend, DeSantis said: “We cannot accept people from Gaza into this country as refugees. I am not going to do that. If you look at how they behave, not all of them are Hamas, but they are all antisemitic.”
Republican presidential candidate and former Vice President Mike Pence is given the “Defender of Israel” award by the founder and National Chairman for Christians United For Israel (CUFI), evangelical pastor John Hagee (R) during the 2023 Christians United for Israel summit on July 17, 2023, in Arlington, Va. GOP presidential hopefuls for 2024 are making their cases before the pro-Israeli group. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
This summer, speaking at a summit organized by Christians United for Israel, a group founded by Texas pastor John Hagee that claims to be the largest pro-Israel organization in the U.S., DeSantis defended Netanyahu and attacked the “disgraceful” Israel policies of the Biden administration, reported The Times.
Hagee’s group’s goal is to see that “every pro-Israel church, parachurch organization, ministry or individual in America can speak and act with one voice in support of Israel in matters related to biblical issues.”
Speaking at the same Christians United for Israel Summit in July, GOP presidential contenders Nikki Haley and Mike Pence criticized liberal Democratic Congresswomen who have expressed support for the Palestinians’ cause.
U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan are the original members of an informal group dubbed The Squad.
“It’s time to censure The Squad and get antisemitism out of America for good,” Haley declared.
DeSantis and Haley differed over how much care to show for innocent Palestinians.
On news programs last weekend, DeSantis and Haley differed over how much care to show for innocent Palestinians, with DeSantis claiming there’s really no such thing as an innocent Palestinian.
“They teach kids to hate Jews,” he said. “The textbooks do not have Israel even on the map. They prepare very young kids to commit terrorist attacks. So I think it’s a toxic culture.”
Haley disagreed. “America has always been sympathetic to the fact that you can separate civilians from terrorists,” she said.
The message heard on conservative Christian media is: Pray for Israel and boo Biden.
The Family Research Council sent out an email prayer alert that devoted 109 words to the horrors in Israel and 144 words on the “feckless Biden administration,” which it said faces “questions of culpability” in the attack.
Tony Perkins, who leads that group, says the $6 billion in funds the Biden administration released to Iran in exchange for hostages helped fund the attack, a common claim in conservative media but one denied by the Biden administration.
Perkins made it clear the absence of a speaker in the GOP-led House of Representatives was not “a catalyst” for the attack.
As BNG previously reported, seven of the eight House Republicans who voted to oust former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy two weeks ago, including ringleader Matt Gaetz, are endorsed by Family Research Council, which was founded by Focus on the Family decades ago.
The Dr. James Dobson Family Institute, the organization Dobson founded after leaving Focus, sent an email, “Savage Attack on Israel,” that called for prayer while attacking Biden.
“In addition to asking all Americans to stand with Israel, we also urge the Biden administration to reverse ill-conceived policies that are strengthening Iran, the major funding source for Hamas,” the email stated.
Dobson’s organization cited the funds for Iran, which have not yet been released: “The money is supposed to be used only for humanitarian purposes, but, obviously, the availability of the funds allows other money to be redeployed for Iran’s terror policies.”