Key moments and highlights from the Israeli-American Council Summit 2024

Former President Donald Trump's new strategy for campaigning in front of Jewish audiences was on display Thursday night across Washington, D.C., as he sought to link Vice President Kamala Harris's border policy to rising antisemitism, pro-Palestinian campus protests and the need for the reinstation of his travel ban. 

Trump addressed two friendly crowds on Thursday night at a campaign event on antisemitism and at the Israeli-American Council's National Summit. In both speeches, he railed against the Vice President for "importing migrants from terrorist hotspots all over the world," which, according to Trump, led to "armies of jihadists sympathizers marching through the streets of our cities."

These lines of attack were new even two weeks ago when Trump addressed the Republican Jewish Coalition's annual leadership conference in Las Vegas. 

Trump's new messaging for targeting Jewish voters comes as his frustration with the low percentage of the Jewish vote he earned in 2016 and 2020 is becoming a fixture in his speeches to Jewish crowds. 

According to a poll from the Pew Research Center released earlier this month, Harris has the support of 65% of the American Jewish community.

As seen in both speeches Thursday night, Trump utilized rising antisemitism to drive home his reasoning for restoring his travel ban and "keeping radical Islamic terrorists out of our country."

In his speech at IAC, Trump's message indicated a comparison of pro-Palestinian protestors to terrorist attacks, as he said under his presidency, "We had no terrorist attacks for four years."

"We will deport the foreign Jihad sympathizers and Hamas supporters," Trump told the crowd at IAC. "If you hate America, if you want to eliminate Israel, we will throw you out of our country so rapidly."

His new messaging was met with standing ovations. 

Trump focused more on the hostages in his speech at the IAC than in his earlier campaign speech, bringing up a released hostage and the father of a hostage on stage with him. 

"We're going to get them out; they're going to come out," he said, addressing the hostage families in the crowd. "We pray for you, and somehow it's going to work out. We're going to get it to work out."

Otherwise, Trump kept to his standard messaging, bashing Jewish Democrats and anticipating the demise of the Jewish state without him. 

"With four more years of Kamala, you will be faced not just with an attack but with total annihilation. And I hate to say it so much; it's total annihilation. That's what you're talking about," Trump said. " And I've said long and loud, anybody, and especially over the last few years, anybody who's Jewish, and loves being Jewish and loves Israel, is a fool if they vote for a Democrat."

To laughter in the ballroom, Trump said Harris makes Obama "look like he loved Israel by comparison." 

"With your vote, we will reject anti-semitism in our schools, reject it in our foreign policy. We will reject it in our immigration system," Trump said. "But all of that starts with rejecting Kamala Harris at the ballot box this election."

In a speech on fighting antisemitism in Washington, D.C, former President Donald Trump attempted to tie his chief campaign issue of immigration with the wave of rising antisemitism seen across the United States in the aftermath of October 7. 

"Under border czar Harris, armies of foreign hamas sympathizers march brazenly through our cities, they come from some very vicious violent parts of the world. They do not like Jewish people, they do not like Israel, and they let that be known," Trump said. "And we are not going to tolerate it. I will not let what happened to Paris, what happened to London, and what's happening to them too, by the way, that's not over; what happened to Brussels, happen here in America. It's not gonna happen."

Trump added, "We will deport the foreign jihad sympathizers and Hamas supporters from our midst.  We will get them out of our country."

Trump said he would ban refugee resettlement from "terror-infested areas" like the Gaza Strip. 

Trump read mostly from the teleprompter during his almost 40 minute speech, going off script about polls at both the beginning and end. 

He began with his standard line that October 7 wouldn't have happened if he were president. 

"I always have to preface it by saying that," he said. "Innocent babies maimed, tortured, killed, it was a wake-up call for the entire world. 
Instead, here in America, Jewish citizens are forced to endure the worst antisemitism in generations."

Israel had the strongest lobby 15 years ago, he said. 

"If you said something bad about Israel or a Jewish person, you were out of politics. Today, you have to fight; we all have to fight for Israel," Trump said. "We're gonna win the fight, so don't worry about it."

Trump said, "All across our land, you've seen Jewish Americans harassed and attacked by Hamas sympathizers."

"Yet presiding over this explosion of antisemitism...Kamala Harris has done nothing," Trump said. "Not lifted a finger to protect you or your children."

Trump said this "ugly tide of antisemitism' will be "turned back and crushed" at noon on Jan. 20, 2025. 

Jewish Americans will "no longer have to walk the streets in fear, young college students afraid to go college will no longer be threatened on campuses and no longer discriminated against in admissions," he said.

"No longer will your government import jihads from places we don't want to talk about," Trump added.

He called on Harris to disavow Hamas sympathizers and Jew haters on college campuses.

"She won't do that. She'll talk, talk, talk about nothing," he said. 

Trump then repeated his now-infamous talking point about Jewish Democrats. 

"It hurts me to say this: you'll still vote for Democrats. I say all the time, any Jewish person that votes for her or any Democrat, especially now, should have their head examined," Trump said to applause. "I just find it so hard to believe. Part of it is habit, I guess."

Trump's Antisemitism Plan

Trump then outlined his plan for combating antisemitism. 

"Here's what I will do," he said. "The first week back in the Oval Office, I will inform every college president that if you don't end antisemitic propaganda, you will lose your accreditation and federal support."

Trump said he will then inform every educational institution that if they permit violence or threats against Jewish students, they will be held accountable for violations of civil rights law. 

However, Trump has also vowed to dismantle the federal Department of Education, the bureau responsible for both managing higher education accrediting agencies and for upholding federal civil rights law in education. 

Trump also said he'd "move to restore safety for Jewish people on the streets."

"I will be your defender, your protector, the best friend Jewish Americans ever had in the White House," Trump said. "You know that. But in all fairness, I already am. I am the best defender you've had by far."

This speech was Trump's first of two on Thursday night addressing the Jewish community, as he's also the keynote speaker of the Israeli-American Council's national summit. 

In a speech Thursday night on fighting antisemtiism in Washington, D.C, former President Donald Trump attempted to tie his chief campaign issue of immigration with the wave of rising antisemtisim seen across the United States in the aftermath of October 7. 

"Under border czar Harris, armies of foreign Hamas sympathizers march brazenly through our cities; they come from some very vicious, violent parts of the world. They do not like Jewish people, they do not like Israel, and they let that be known," Trump said. "And we are not going to tolerate it. I will not let what happened to {aris, what happened to London, and what's happening to them too, by the way, that's not over; what happened to Brussels, happen here in America. It's not gonna happen."

Trump added, "We will deport the foreign jihad sympathizers and Hamas supporters from our midst.  We will get them out of our country."

Trump said he would ban refugee resettlement from "terror-infested areas" like the Gaza Strip. 

Esther Panitch, the Democratic State Representative from Atlanta who spearheaded the legislation defining antisemitism in Georgia, will be boycotting former President Donald Trump's speech on Thursday night at the Israeli-American Council summit, she told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday afternoon before the 

"His words have been very divisive to Jews who are not Republicans, and I don't need to be lectured by him about the state of my mind," Panitch said, referencing Trump's repeated comments about Jews who vote for Democrats needing to "have their heads examined."

Panitch said this is her first IAC summit, and she credited the organization for their help in passing the antisemitism legislation. She described her energy ahead of the summit as "fangirling" about seeing speakers such as Eylon Levy, Montana Tucker and Douglas Murrary. 

"There are a lot of people I see online, on Twitter, who I'm looking forward to meeting in person to thank them for their advocacy," she said.

But Panitch also said she was not going to give Trump the satisfaction of being a person in his crowd "when size matters to him," especially after his recent comments about how Israel will be destroyed in two years if he is not president and how Democratic Jews aren't real Jews, she added. 

Panitch, and several other Democrats, were hopeful Vice President Harris would accept the invitation to address IAC "and then it would be more palatable to listen."

"Unfortunately, she's not here," she said. 

Instead, Panitch said, she and several other Democrats will be going out to dinner during Trump's speech. 

From all American Presidents

The Israeli American Council needs to hear from all of America, not just former President Donald Trump, that the US stands squarely with Israel in the face of Hezbollah, former Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren told the Jerusalem Post on Thursday afternoon before the IAC's national summit officially kicked off in Washington, D.C. 

Trump will be addressing the summit on Thursday night following meetings with Jewish leaders in the capital. 

So far, President Biden and Vice President Harris have declined IAC's invitation to also address the summit. 

The Post asked Oren if Trump needs to avoid repeating his controversial debate stage remarks that Israel will not exist within two years if he does not win the presidency.  

Oren smiled ruefully. 

"Israel will exist in two, 20, 2,000 years," he said.