Avraham Shusteris is a hareidi writer, who studied Political Science at Rutgers University and went on to study in hareidi Yeshivot in Israel and New York. He made aliyah in 2018, works as an accountant and is an aliyah activist, creating an organization called Nachliel.org which promotes the viability of aliyah to American hareidi communities.
Last week on October 7th, an historic conference was held in Jerusalem. The National Conservativism Conference brought together conservative right wing leaders from the United States, Israel and around the world with a stated purpose of forging a coalition between Western national conservatives and Israel around shared values of national sovereignty, traditional family, and strong borders.
It was the first time the National Conservative movement held a conference in Israel. The speakers provided a clear view of the American Republican Party’s future.
And by “future," I don’t mean thirty years from now. I mean two years from now.
Some of the speeches in the conference provoked an uproar on social media amongst many Pro-Israel accounts: many labeled it anti-Semitic, condescending, and insensitive given the fact that some of the speakers chose Oct 7th as the day to tell the Pro-Israel community that they need to stop "Nazi-hunting" and using the Holocaust to gain sympathy. But rather than descend into hysterics, it would be more useful to look calmly at what was said and draw the right conclusions. Many of the complaints were misplaced, while some of the most important lessons went unlearned.
What Upset People
Many commentators were furious that the organizers chose October 7th, the most painful day for Jews worldwide. On that day, the antisemites of the world unsheathed their swords and showed what they would do to the Jewish people if given the chance: an unbridled orgy of rape, murder and torture. On that day, of all days, the organizers came to Jerusalem to tell Jews to stop complaining about antisemitism. The young generation of Republicans sees these complaints as stale, tiresome and overdone. They have no interest in pitying Jews, and claims of antisemitism carry no weight with them.
The truth is, they are right. No one wants to hear complaining. Many secular Jews don’t believe in the Bible or in the Jewish people’s religious, biblical and historical right to the Land of Israel. They see Israel as having been born in 1948 and have no way to justify the rebirth of the Jewish nation, so they have no answer, to the world or to themselves, as to why they are not thieves. Instead, they have used the Holocaust and Islamic terror as the justification for their right to the land. But the world doesn’t care. The world loves dead Jews; it will never love living ones. Asking the world for pity is pointless.
The best way to earn the world’s respect is to be strong and project strength, not to ask for sympathy. In this sense, NatCon speakers were correct: for their own good, Jews should stop relying on pity and antisemitism to win legitimacy and respect.
The End of Unconditional Support
The speakers also argued that the pro-Israel community needs to accept a hard fact: the next generation of Republicans has no sentimental attachment to Israel and will not give it blanket diplomatic or military support. Young Republicans want an America First policy, where America does what is good for America without weighing Israel’s needs. When our interests align, great. When they diverge, Israel can’t count on American support the way it has in the past.
Many pro-Israel voices saw this as an antisemitic betrayal. In truth, this, too, is in Israel’s best interest.
Israel cannot keep being an economic, military and diplomatic dependant. It cannot rely on the United States for its existence as a nation. We need to become independent. We need to forge our own diplomatic ties outside our alliance with the US. We need a military that doesn’t depend on American support and a resilient economy that doesn’t depend on foreign aid.
We need to grow up as a nation and stop acting like a ward of the state. We have come of age, and it is time to become the power that is our destiny. On this point, I fully agree with several of NatCon’s speakers.
Where NatCon Got It Wrong
Agreeing with all of that, what bothered me was the implication that Israel must somehow curry favor with the Republican Party’s future, or else.
America should be America First. Israel should be Israel First. Israel does not need to go easy on terrorists, or adjust its foreign policy, or change how and when it fights its wars, to avoid offending young Republicans. Israel is in a fight for survival. Hundreds of millions of hostile neighbors threaten its existence every day. What young Republicans think is interesting, but it has nothing to do with how Israel should conduct its affairs.
Polls have repeatedly shown that a large share of Americans aged 18 to 24, Republicans and Democrats alike, sided with Hamas over Israel even after October 7th. In some surveys it was about half or more. This is the generation we are supposed to court, and go soft on our enemies to please?
Too many of them can’t tell right from wrong. They are a generation in moral freefall, handed iPhones as toddlers, raised on screens and violent video games and pornography, often in broken homes, with no connection to religion or spirituality. What did we expect would become of them?
So what should our attitude toward them be? Pity, yes. But risk the lives and safety of our nation to appease them? Are we crazy?
The Vance Question
Another troubling aspect of the conference, and I suspect its main purpose, was to suppress any serious pro-Israel opposition to JD Vance. I disagree. If the Republican Party foolishly nominates a president who embraces Tucker Carlson and Theo Von, that will be terrible for Israel, terrible for American Jews and terrible for the United States.
Americans feel free to criticize Israeli politicians like Netanyahu, Smotrich and Ben Gvir. Those of us in the pro-Israel community are just as free to criticize JD Vance. If he doesn’t like it, he can disavow Carlson, a man who has given a friendly platform to Holocaust revisionists. So far, he has chosen not to.
The Real Lesson: Two Years to Prepare
Finally, and most importantly, we have to draw the right conclusions from this conference. The era of the US-Israel alliance is ending, and fast. That is NatCon’s most important message. Whoever wins the next election, Israel will need to become radically more independent, and it has very little time to adjust.
Netanyahu has already proposed weaning Israel off US military aid over the next ten years. I don’t think he realizes that Israel doesn’t have ten years. The next prime minister should plan on having about two.
Picture a reality in which Egypt, Turkey and Spain decide to choke off Israeli trade by blocking sea routes in and out of the country, and the United States stands by and does nothing. Israel would be left to face a multi-front conflict, including against NATO members, alone.
The best thing Israel can do is to start, immediately, preparing for a long period of total blockade. The government should identify the critical goods Israel depends on entirely from imports, then fund grants and support initiatives for local production. The goal is a self-sufficient economy that can survive an extended blockade.
If someone in the Israeli government starts that project now, NatCon will have been well worth it.