Republican Delegation Comes to Stand Strong with Israel

Republican National Committee member Leora Levy of Greenwich, Connecticut is leaving Israel on Sunday after spending a week in Israel with a delegation of ten Republicans to show support for the Jewish state in the wake of the horrific October 7 Hamas attack.

As soon as she heard about the attack, Levy went into action.

“In 1973, I was sixteen years old and had just come back from a nine-week trip to Israel,” Levy said. “I fell in love with the country so it was a terrible shock when the rabbi announced in the Synagogue on Yom Kippur, October 6, that Israel had been attacked. I felt helpless and my parents would not allow me to return to Israel in the middle of a war. As soon as I heard about the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, I knew I had to act. I’m no longer 16 and I’m not powerless and this is what I could do. But this is worse. 1973 was an attack on the military. This was an attack on civilians.”

(The delegation at Hadassah Hospital)

Meeting with Israelis was a powerfully uplifting experience.

“We didn’t meet a single Israeli who wasn’t personally touched by the war,” Levy added. “Everyone either knows or is related to a soldier. And so many Israelis have been displaced because of the rocket attacks. We met with many of these people and heard their stories. Israel feels like one large, extended family right now.”

“Israel is united,” Levy added. “It doesn’t matter if they are on the right or the left or in the center. They are united that Hamas must be entirely eliminated. They can no longer live with somebody on their border. And the PA is not the answer. There is no two-state solution. This is coming from the Israeli left as much as from the right.”

The delegation traveled to the South where they viewed the lingering aftermath in Sderot, Ofakim, Kibbutz Nir Oz, and Soroka Hospital. They also went North to the Lebanese border where they saw a Hezbollah base.

(In northern Israel, near the Lebanese border)

“We spoke to Rachel and John Goldberg whose son Hersh is held captive in Gaza,” Levy said. “We met survivors of the October 7 attack who fought back against all odds. We met the brave young soldiers of the IDF who are determined to rid their country of the scourge called Hamas.”

The delegation also viewed the 47-minute movie showing the horrors of October 7.

“I don’t even watch scary movies but I felt compelled to watch the video evidence from the terrorists’ own phones and GoPro’s,” Levy said. “We saw the destruction and bloody evidence of the evil, depraved Hamas attack on 10/7. The victims can no longer speak out but their voices need to be heard. I will be their voice in Washington.”

Levy experienced first-hand the unity of the Israelis in the face of terrorism.

“The courageous, patriotic soldiers of the IDF are ready & determined. Their spirit and morale is strong & positive. They will prevail because there is no other choice.”

Levy also heard from all quarters that the war Israel is currently fighting has dire implications for the US.

“I heard this from the military and individuals,” she told Israel365 News. “Israel is really fighting Iran. And they are fighting this war for the US because if Iran destroys Israel, God forbid, they will then attack the US.”

She also heard from Israelis a concern that US support for the war was wavering.

“They all fear that the US, Biden/Blinken, and the Democrats in Congress have gone wobbly,” Levy said. “Israelis are concerned that the administration will attempt to impose impossible and unreasonable restrictions on Israel. No other country in the world would be expected to follow these restrictions in a war like this. Israelis fear that the Biden Administration has lost its initial moral clarity on what provoked this war, on what is required to win it, and will equivocate in their support for Israel.”

(In Ofakim with MK Almog Cohen, one of the heroes of 10/7)

Levy emphasized that the Republican party unequivocally supports Israel.

“I don’t know one Republican who isn’t a Zionist,” Levy said. “There are 168 members of the Republican National Committee from across the country. And every single one loves Israel and is on board.”

“But this really should be a bipartisan issue,” she added. “It’s important that the United States is unified behind supporting Israel. We cannot listen to those who are demonstrating in the streets who lack moral clarity and are supporting an actual terrorist organization over a Western, civilized democracy.”

Levy also noted that the war in Israel is having implications for the explosive wave of antisemitism circling the globe.

“Israelis are concerned about the virulent antisemitic demonstrations by American young people,” Levy said. “They are confused by these young people who don’t understand what happened on October 7. These young people are calling for Palestine ‘from the river to the sea’ which is a call for the elimination of Israel. Israelis are incredulous at American young people’s inability to distinguish good from evil, right from wrong, their lack of moral clarity, and frankly, so am I.”

After her wartime visit to Israel, Levy is confident in the future of Israel.

“Israel will prevail because as Golda Meir said, ‘We have nowhere else to go’,” she said. “But it won’t be easy. This is not just a border skirmish against Hamas. It is one battle in the bigger war against Iran. Our role is easy, help Israel win! And not to put obstacles in their way!”

“Israel needs to know that they have friends and allies in America and we are going back to America to fight for them,” Levy said.

Significantly, the delegation was composed of five Christians and five Jews. Levy noted that her grandparents fled Lithuania in 1940, narrowly avoiding the Holocaust.

“This attack is being compared to Kristallnacht which was the beginning of the Holocaust,” she said. “The Jews were almost entirely alone in the Holocaust. Now, Christians are standing with Israel. We aren’t alone.”

Accompanying Levy was Duke Buchanan, the finance chair of the Republican National Committee and a former U.S. ambassador to Spain, and five RNC members: Levy, Shawn Steel of California, Alex Plechash of Minnesota, William O’Brien of Hampshire. Steel is married to U.S. Rep. Michelle Steel, R-Calif.

Others on the trip include Paul Alexander, who was a science advisor at the Department of Health and Human Services under Trump; Reed Rubinstein, a lawyer in the Trump administration who now is a senior counselor at the America First Foundation; and Jonathan Tratt, an investor who served with Levy on the advisory board of the Jewish Coalition for Romney in 2012.

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