The Jerusalem Post spoke with Elizabeth Pipko, national spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, shortly before her speech last week at the Republican Jewish Coalition‘s annual leadership summit in Las Vegas. Pipko works closely with the Jewish Coalition and with Lara Trump, RNC’s co-chair.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
What’s the message that you deliver to die-hard Jewish Trump supporters, and how does that differ from messaging when you’re speaking before a maybe-Trump Jewish voter, or a previous Biden voter?
PIPKO: I would say it used to differ. After October 7, I say the same thing to absolutely everyone. I never thought I’d wake up seeing what I saw October 7, October 8, the last 11 months. I don’t even like mixing politics and religion, but for me, it’s like this is common sense. This is what I feel I have to do to protect my people as a Jew and as an American. So, I would say the same thing to a group of Trump supporters as a group of Biden supporters.
I believe Donald Trump will protect this country, as well as Jewish groups here, as well as our allies, like Israel, better than Kamala Harris for Joe Biden or anyone else would right now. And what we’ve seen these last four years has been so terrifying. I just can’t believe that we’re here, and I know we need to change. I think the only way to beat evil of this level is with someone as strong as Donald Trump.
Can you walk me through the broader conversations happening within the campaign right now about messaging toward the Jewish community? I know you said that it’s the same for you, whether it’s directed toward a Trump supporter since 2015 or to a Jewish American considering voting for a Republican for the first time.
PIPKO: It’s definitely different for me versus the campaign. I don’t shy away from the fact that I am a religious Jew, and I approach things differently, and I view the issue of Israel differently. I understand people in America who don’t view Israel the same way. I don’t expect them to, right? At the same time, I think there’s been a big loss when it comes to information and knowledge, especially these last 11 months.
I think a lot of people have failed in explaining why we have a strong relationship with Israel and what Israel represents. I think for a lot of people, especially on the campaign, it’s become kind of natural because they’ve been around Donald Trump for so long to understand his messaging of “Peace through Strength” and what that means.
But for those that don’t, I like to remind them that the horrendous Afghanistan withdrawal, everything we’re dealing with in Iran, this all is the same as October 7. It’s all the same kind of evil that wants to wipe Israel off the face of the earth and wants to wipe America off the face of the earth. What’s happening in Afghanistan should not be happening. What happened in Israel should not be happening. All these things happen when you a, appease the enemy, and b, when you think that negotiating with the enemy is the way forward.
So it’s about tying that to other issues around the world and helping people understand there’s a reason we support Israel. There’s a reason that Iran is Israel’s enemy and our enemy. There’s a reason what happened in Afghanistan happened the way that it did. There’s a reason Kamala Harris and Joe Biden have not met with the families of those impacted by the Afghanistan withdrawal; everything goes together, and the only way forward is strong leadership, like that of Donald Trump.
You said, not everybody on the campaign, or at the RNC, views [Israel] the way you do, as a religious Jewish woman. How do you see your role then as the most religious Jewish woman that is being consulted on messaging around issues like this?
PIPKO: My message will change if I’m in a room of those that aren’t interested in politics. For example, I love being in my synagogue on Shabbat, and I love doing speeches with young kids and trying to inspire them to get closer to God and to try keeping kosher and try keeping Shabbat, or doing all these things. So, in general, I take that role very seriously, and I also try very hard to separate that from my role on the campaign and in life in politics because I don’t think the two should be intertwined.
At the same time, every single person around the world, I think, realizes there’s been a shift around how people treat Jewish people, how people look at Israel over the last 11 months. And I think it’s still our duty as Jews to try to educate people and make sure that people that are Jewish realize what we’re going through, and help us when we stand up against antisemitism and anti-Zionism and all these things.
So it’s separating my faith from my politics because I don’t want people to think that that’s the only reason I’m doing this and because it’s so deep and so personal that I don’t want to put anyone else through that. It’s easy for someone that’s not Jewish to talk about October 7 as a political issue, which it isn’t for someone like me. I watched my own people get murdered on camera by those that don’t want me to exist either, so it’s always going to be different for me. So it’s explaining to people what affects me in a personal way and what doesn’t, and then politically explaining why I think Israel needs to remain the strongest ally that we have, because a good relationship with Israel is a good relationship for America. The relationship with Israel also keeps us safe. I don’t just support Israel as a Jew, and that’s what I have to remind people all the time.
What did the campaign’s Jewish community outreach look like pre-October 7, and what does it look like now?
PIPKO: For a lot of years, people didn’t take the Jewish vote very seriously because it was in the pocket of the Democrats, like a lot of other minority groups. I would say that has changed slightly after October 7 for political reasons. It’s very obvious people assume that after what happened under Joe Biden’s leadership, people might start looking at things differently. So I think if you’re looking very black and white, obviously when the current leadership has failed, as they have, people are going to start possibly looking for other options. At the same time, minority groups in general have seen small shifts over the last eight years, especially you see it in the Black community, the Hispanic community, now the Jewish community. So I think it just went from political to personal. That was the real difference, because people are really affected in a different way.
Does Donald Trump need to give a clear answer in the second debate if he’s asked again about supporting a future Palestinian state?
PIPKO: I think every single day things change in Israel. I don’t think anyone thought after October 7, we’d still be here 11 months later. So I’d say he can’t answer a lot of specific questions until he gets into office in January 2025, and sees the state of the Middle East. God forbid we still have hostages being held, God forbid the war is still ongoing. So I don’t know how much he can even answer until he knows the state of the Middle East, of everything going on whenever he gets into office, which is obviously months away.
At the same time, however, his America First policy has remained, and his “Peace through Strength” policy has remained. I think he proved himself with the Abraham Accords.
People laughed at him when he moved the embassy and they said it was going to erupt the Middle East into chaos, and it didn’t. People laughed when he said he was going to get the Abraham Accords done, and he did. And people laughed when Joe Biden came into office and gave billions of dollars to Iran, and he said it was going to backfire, and it did. So. I think it’s really just saying, my record a, speaks for itself, but b, my vision is what matters, not the record, it’s the vision. I have the same vision. Then, I’ll have the same vision in the future, and that’s going to have to work with whatever the circumstances are when I take office.
This article was originally published in The www.jpost.com
