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<\/a><\/p>\nTexas Sen. Ted Cruz addresses the convention of the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas, Oct. 30, 2025. (Joseph Strauss)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The speech reiterated comments he made at a San Antonio megachurch last week, including the core message that he\u2019s recently seen more right-wing antisemitism than ever before.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the last six months, I\u2019ve seen more antisemitism on the right than I had in my entire life,\u201d Cruz said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a poison,\u201d he continued. \u201cAnd I believe we are facing an existential crisis in our party and our country.\u201d<\/p>\n
The RJC\u2019s annual gathering, being held this weekend at the Venetian Resort Las Vegas, comes as a growing number of conservatives are turning against Israel, while right-wing voices who are spreading antisemitic conspiracies are finding mainstream audiences.<\/p>\n
Cruz, a longtime supporter of Israel, presented the moment of division on the right as \u201ca time for choosing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd as for me, I choose to stand with you,\u201d Cruz said to the room of about 100 Jewish Republican donors. \u201cI choose to stand with Israel, and I choose to stand with America.\u201d<\/p>\n
As at the megachurch, Cruz, who is Christian, did not name names in his criticism of the \u201canti-Israel right.\u201d But on Thursday he hinted strongly that he was speaking about Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News personality who recently hosted a friendly conversation with the white nationalist livestreamer Nick Fuentes. Carlson said during the interview that GOP supporters of Israel \u2014 including Cruz \u2014 are infected by a \u201cbrain virus.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you sit there and nod adoringly while someone tells you that Winston Churchill was the villain of World War II, if you sit there and nod while someone says, \u2018There\u2019s a very good argument America should\u2019ve intervened on behalf of Nazi Germany in World War II,\u2019 if you sit there with someone who says \u2018Adolf Hitler was very, very cool,\u2019 and that their mission is to combat and defeat global Jewry, and you say nothing?\u201d Cruz said. \u201cThen you are a coward and you are complicit in that evil.\u201d<\/p>\n
His comments came just hours after Kevin Roberts, the president of leading conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation, answered mounting questions about whether he would continue to associate with Carlson after the Fuentes interview \u2014 with a resounding defense of Carlson.<\/p>\n
RJC CEO Matt Brooks told Jewish Insider that, after working with Heritage over the years, there would be \u201ca reassessment of our relationship with Heritage in light of this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cruz called out the silence of Republican elected officials who\u2019ve not spoken out against increasing right-wing antisemitism.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to say, too many people are scared to confront them,\u201d he said, referring to the \u201cgrotesque bigots\u201d who do not plainly see Hitler as \u201cthe embodiment of evil.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow many elected Republicans do you see standing up and calling this out?\u201d Cruz said. \u201cHow many do you see willing to take on the voices on the anti-Israel right?\u201d<\/p>\n
One name invoked by Cruz in a positive light was President Donald Trump, whom the Texas senator called \u201cthe most pro-Israel president in the history of the United States,\u201d to loud applause.<\/p>\n
Cruz affirmed to the RJC\u2019s membership that with Trump in the White House, their interest in assisting Israel in its conflicts would be upheld, and kept away from the skepticism of a growing isolationist faction that would rather the United States not get involved.<\/p>\n
(Trump has not publicly weighed in on Carlson hosting Fuentes; Trump once dined with Fuentes and rapper Ye between presidential terms in 2022, later saying that he had not known who Fuentes was.)<\/p>\n
But Cruz then pointed to the post-Trump future as a fork in the road moment for the Republican Party.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Trump is not in the White House, what then?\u201d Cruz said.<\/p>\n
One man called out, \u201cTed Cruz!\u201d<\/p>\n
One potential candidate for Republican leadership in 2028 was not named in Cruz\u2019s speech: JD Vance.<\/p>\n
Cruz lauded Trump\u2019s efforts in taking on Hamas and cracking down on campus protests, but did not name Vance as a friend of Jewish Americans.<\/p>\n
Vance faced criticism this week after failing to push back on skeptical questions about Israel, including one laced with an antisemitic conspiracy theory, at a Turning Point USA event at Ole Miss. Vance also downplayed the messages sent in the recent Young Republicans leak, saying the text messages sent by early-career GOP activists \u2014 which included jokes about gas chambers, racist slurs and praise of Hitler \u2014 were simply immature \u201cjokes\u201d and that critics should \u201cgrow up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cruz emphasized the need to \u201cengage in college campuses\u201d and \u201cengage in the facts\u201d in order to overcome the \u201chandful of voices that are spreading this garbage,\u201d whom he said were \u201cgiving every one of us a time for choosing.\u201d<\/p>\n
He thanked the crowd for being \u201cpatriots.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou love America \u2014 although the fact that you are Jewish means that there are idiots who would accuse you of not loving America simply because of it,\u201d he said, invoking the dual loyalties trope to which Fuentes subscribes.<\/p>\n
Cruz\u2019s 25-minute speech included celebratory jokes about Israel\u2019s pager operation that killed some and wounded hundreds of members of Hezbollah, condemnations of what he called a growing \u201cpro-Hamas wing\u201d of the Democratic Party, and a reflection on the horrors of Hamas\u2019 Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.<\/p>\n
But its main thrust was that the Republican Party has reached a point where its Jewish and pro-Israel membership must think about how to stave off a growing anti-Israel movement, and quell the proliferation of antisemitic conspiracy theories.<\/p>\n
Cruz began his speech by remarking that this was the RJC\u2019s 40th-anniversary summit \u2014 a fact that he said poignantly reinforced the weight of this moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThinking back over the last 40 years, I don\u2019t know that there has been a year in those 40 that the Republican Jewish Coalition was more needed than right now,\u201d Cruz said.<\/p>\n