Guest on Bannon’s WarRoom: US voters in Israel a powerful base for Trump
On Thursday, Rabbi Pesach Wolicki appeared on an eye-opening episode of Steve Bannon’s “WarRoom Battleground: Eyes on Israel” program. The special episode focused on the Jewish vote in the 2024 presidential election.
Bannon invited Marc Zell, the chairman of Republicans Overseas Israel, as a special guest. Zell, an American-Israeli lawyer, convincingly argued that American citizens in Israel are overwhelmingly supporters of President Trump and could play a significant role in the upcoming presidential elections in the US.
“According to the US State Department,…there are 750,000 US citizens residing in Israel”, Zell told Bannon. “We figure about half a million are eligible to vote.”
Data show that Israel hosts the world’s third-largest community of eligible U.S. voters abroad.
While US Jews traditionally vote Democrat, their Israeli counterparts are a different breed.
“Eighty to ninety percent of Americans living here in Israel voted Republican,” Zell claimed. “We don’t have to worry about messaging or twisting anybody’s arms, you know, to get them to vote Republican. They will vote Republican.’
In this regard, immigrants to Israel are more similar to their new compatriots than to their fellow Jews in America. In 2020, 68% of US Jews cast their vote for Biden. In 2020. While non-US citizens cannot vote, a survey of Israeli Jews taken one month before the 2020 election found that 70% preferred Trump and 13% preferred Biden, with 17% unsure. A recent Channel 12 survey reported that 44% percent of Israelis would rather see former US president Donald Trump return to the White House in 2025, compared to 30% who would prefer US President Joe Biden be elected for a second term.
“In the 2000 election, George W. Bush was elected with 537 votes in the three southern counties of Florida,” Zell said. “1,200 Israeli Republicans voted in that race. Had they not done so, there would have been a Democratic president entering the White House at that time.”
Zell emphasized that in addition to Israel, Republicans Overseas has chapters in over 50 countries around the world, multiplying the effect.
Zell added that due to Biden’s wavering support of Israel, many US Israelis see the election as an opportunity to influence the outcome of the war.
“Many Americans fought in the war,” Zell said. “My son was a tank commander in Gaza for 150 days and will return early next week. They understand that they have such a special privilege to vote in an American election and to do something about changing the American-Israeli relationship.”
In light of the recent anniversary of the 1967 Six-Day War and Jerusalem Day celebration, Zell emphasized that reinstating Trump was even more important.
“In this election, we need to keep Jerusalem unified, keep Jerusalem Jewish, and keep Israel safe and strong,” he added.
The program also featured discussions on whether secular and liberal Jewish Americans may shift towards supporting Trump’s re-election due to President Biden’s policies toward Israel
In addition, Bannon revealed that he had proposed an audacious plan for President Trump’s first official act after his 2017 inauguration – immediately relocating the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Bannon claims the bold plan was nixed due to pushback from the State Department. The dramatic story was corroborated by former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, a guest on Bannon’s show.
The post Guest on Bannon’s WarRoom: US voters in Israel a powerful base for Trump appeared first on Israel365 News.
Israel in the News
