U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) visited a Las Vegas synagogue on Monday on the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack in Israel, describing the contentious aftermath as a fight of “civilization vs. barbarism.”
The event hosted by the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) was billed as a place to honor and remember the more than 1,200 people killed a year ago, but Johnson’s speech focused little on the attack itself and more on the importance of God and America’s “weakness” on the global stage since the attack.
In remarks lasting slightly more than 15 minutes, Johnson compared college campus protesters who have spoken out about Israel’s actions to Marxists and socialists, decried President Joe Biden for his actions since the attack and lauded former President Donald Trump as the person who will truly fight for Jews and bring strength back to America’s foreign policy.
“It is very clear that God says, the Almighty says, he will bless the nation that blesses Israel, and he will curse the nation that curses Israel,” Johnson said.
The event came one year after Hamas launched the attack, the largest killing of Jews since the Holocaust. The group also took 251 people as hostages, and Israeli authorities believe about 70 have been killed. About 100 hostages are still being held in Gaza.
Shortly after the attack, Israeli forces began a military operation in Gaza that continues today and has become the deadliest war ever between Hamas and Israel. Death tolls are often incomplete and inconsistent, but the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health has said that about 42,000 people have been killed by Israel’s military operations.
The event was held at a Jewish center in Summerlin in front of about 250 people, where some people wore red yarmulkes with the RJC’s logo and Trump’s name emblazoned on them.
Attendees included Las Vegas mayoral candidate Victoria Seaman and GOP congressional candidates Drew Johnson and John Lee, both of whom Johnson fundraised for earlier Monday. In a press conference ahead of the visit, Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV) said Johnson’s decision to fundraise on Oct. 7 “says something about his conviction towards addressing peace in the Middle East.”
The attack has upended American politics, dividing the Democratic Party over what role the U.S. should play in helping Israel, a longtime American ally. Biden’s administration has called for a ceasefire, more humanitarian aid to Palestinians and a return of the hostages, but any negotiations with Israel and Hamas have largely gone nowhere.
Biden has continued to assert that Israel should have a right to defend itself and has not wavered in sending American-made weapons to Israel, but others on the left have decried that policy as inhumane with little regard for the safety of Palestinians.
Republicans such as Johnson — the most powerful person in the GOP-led House of Representatives — have criticized Biden for insufficiently supporting Israel.
In his remarks Monday, Johnson said Biden has shown weakness on the global stage — something Trump would restore.
“Our adversaries fear Donald Trump,” Johnson said. “When America shows weakness on the world stage, our adversaries, the enemies of freedom, take advantage of this.”
He also strongly condemned protests that took over some college campuses this past spring, specifically the one at Columbia University in New York, and said the protesters are “ignoring the presence and existence of God’s love.”
“This is the basis of Marxism, socialism,” Johnson said.
He vowed to look into tax rules for university endowments where protests have occurred and stop any “aspiring terrorist” from obtaining a student visa — a pledge that prompted a “send them home” chant from attendees, a play on the “bring them home” phrase that has become a rallying cry to secure the safety of the hostages.
“The next time I face an angry mob of protesters, I’ll just start chanting [that],” Johnson said.
Other speakers at Thursday’s event include Las Vegas Rabbi Yitz Wyne and RJC CEO Matt Brooks , who explained how traumatic and heartbreaking Oct. 7 was — and continues to be — and commended Johnson’s support of Israel.
“I am brokenhearted. I am broken. I am angry. I am not OK,” Brooks said.
Johnson, an evangelical Christian, has angered Nevada’s House Democrats over funding aid to Israel. Last November, Johnson proposed pairing $14 billion in aid to Israel with an equal cut to the Internal Revenue Service (an effort to appease GOP hardliners opposed to any new spending), outraging the state’s congressional delegation over conditioning aid to Israel.
“There is no more righteous Gentile than our speaker, Mike Johnson,” Brooks said.
Updated on 10/7/24 at 9:25 p.m. to include a comment from Rep. Horsford.
