LAS VEGAS – The weekend’s events brought to light growing concerns about increasing antisemitic sentiments within Republican circles. What began as a celebration of a fragile Middle East ceasefire at a gathering of the nation’s top Jewish Republicans soon transformed into a rallying cry to combat anti-Jewish rhetoric infiltrating the party.

The divide became apparent when a well-known conservative think tank leader defended talk show host Tucker Carlson for featuring a far-right figure with antisemitic views on his podcast. Carlson’s reluctance to challenge these views stirred a strong response, with nearly every participant at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual conference in Las Vegas urging the expulsion of antisemitic voices from the GOP.

Despite the discord, the conference underscored the necessity for the Republican Party to address internal differences regarding the U.S.-Israel alliance. However, the speakers on Friday and Saturday uniformly denounced antisemitism, emphasizing a collective stance against it.

“We find ourselves in the early phases of what I would describe as an undeclared civil war within the Republican Party, concerning Israel, antisemitism, and the Jewish community,” stated Matthew Brooks, leader of the Republican Jewish Coalition, in an interview with The Associated Press.

This situation has sparked debate over whether the GOP is undergoing a significant shift.

Brooks and the dozens of other speakers who condemned antisemitism within the GOP from the stage before an audience of about 1,000 in the Venetian Resort ballroom in Las Vegas set an ominous tone that cut into the air of celebration many had anticipated over the October ceasefire.

Brooks had planned to fold some of his concerns into the three-day, annual conference of Republican Jewish elected officials, fundraisers, media personalities and activists. But comments made just before the meeting by Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts denying the conservative group was “distancing itself” from Carlson — a former Fox News host and powerful voice on the right — after his podcast hosted Nick Fuentes prompted a sudden pivot.

Fuentes has said the Holocaust was exaggerated, and that he believes in a global Jewish conspiracy. Carlson has espoused a white supremacist ideology called the “great replacement theory,” which says people of color are replacing white people and that Jews are furthering the change.

The video of Roberts’ comments sparked outrage from some Heritage staffers, senators and conservative activists. But they also reflect increasing skepticism toward Israel and of Jews among some on the right, complicating GOP efforts to cast the Democratic Party as antisemitic.

For months The Republican Jewish Coalition has been uneasy about Carlson, who has criticized U.S. support for Israel in its war with Hamas and has come under fire for his own far-right views. One is his opposition to Christian Zionism, the belief that some evangelical Christians interpret the Bible as promising the land of Israel eternally to the Jews, thus viewing Israel as belonging to the Jewish people.

Brooks had named others for contributing to the schism, including Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and conservative social media figure Candace Owens.

“And it’s really going to be our challenge going forward to combat that before it has a chance to grow and metastasize in the Republican Party,” Brooks told the AP.

That challenge was met by a steady chorus from the podium.

“Sadly, we’re seeing antisemitism on the fringes of our own party,” Tennessee Rep. David Kustoff lamented.

Republican Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida later proclaimed: “In our party we will not tolerate antisemitism.”

Sen. Lindsay Graham tries to lighten the mood

Sen. Lindsay Graham sought to lighten the mood, calling himself a member of the “Hitler-sucks wing of the Republican Party,” prompting laughter. But even as he injected humor, the South Carolina Republican downplayed the threat Fuentes and others pose to the GOP.

“You can sit in a basement with weird people and say weird things. It’s a free country, right?” he added. “But if you ever run for office as a Republican, and you embrace this weird s(asterisk)(asterisk)(asterisk), we’re going to beat your brains out.”

Fuentes, who is 27, has 1 million followers on the social media platform X, and his following is generations younger than Graham, who is 70. Brooks said the leak of a series of TeleGram text messages from National Young Republican leaders in New York, Kansas, Arizona and Vermont praising Hitler, joking about gas chambers and other atrocities, which was published last month by Politico, is a symptom of the division he and the coalition are trying to contain.

Perhaps that is why dozens of college-age Jewish Republicans attended the conference, cheekily waving red signs emblazoned with “Tucker is not MAGA,” a reference to President Donald Trump’s Make-America-Great-Again mantra, during Florida Congressman Randy Fine’s presentation.

There was joy at the event, notably over the release of Israeli hostages, many held for more than two years since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas, prompting two years of brutal retaliation in Gaza.

“I’m sure many of you have spent the last few weeks watching with joy and tears the joyful of Israel’s resilient heroes, reuniting with their loved ones,” said Norm Coleman, a former Minnesota Senator and chairman of the coalition’s board. “It has been a deeply emotional time for all Jewry.”

And the testimonials to Trump came from nearly all speakers, praising the Republican president for his role in brokering the ceasefire that resulted in the returned hostages.

Trump, perhaps the party’s most unifying voice, was expected to address the convention live via satellite during the Saturday evening program.

But even enthusiasm over his role was tempered by questions about the terms of the ceasefire, which required Hamas to disarm, disband and have no role in the future of Gaza. Several coalition members saw it as unlikely to hold, especially in light of Israel’s renewed strikes in Gaza after it claimed Hamas had violated the ceasefire terms by firing on Israeli soldiers.

Board member Bobby Schostak of Michigan suggested a lasting peace was possible but would take years.

“I think we’re some distance away from that,” he said.

Coleman was even more grim, suggesting that Hamas still must be completely eradicated.

“If they are still part of the equation,” he said. “I think it’s going to be very difficult to hold.”