At the end of last week, a resolution was passed during an international summit on the sidelines of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland, calling on the United States and its allies to recognize Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.
Yesha Council Chairman and head of the Binyamin Regional Council Israel Ganz, who had been working with senior CPAC members to help consolidate the resolution, thanked it for passing the motion and said: “Your declaration is akin to the Balfour Declaration.”
Ganz was referring to the British government’s famous public statement in 1917 in support of the establishment of “a national home for the Jewish people” in the Land of Israel, which was then under Ottoman rule.
The resolution was read out by K.T. McFarland, deputy national security advisor during President Donald Trump’s first presidential term.
Rabbi Yitz Tendler, senior fellow for Israel and Jewish Affairs at CPAC, who co-authored the resolution with Julie Strauss Levin, senior counsel at the America First Legal Foundation and activist in CPAC, gave JNS some background:
“Folks have described CPAC as being kind of a U.N. for international conservative movements, aside from focusing on purely American conservative issues, which it also does as well,” he said. “So, before the main conference launches, a series of resolutions are passed that touch on pressing issues around the world. When conservative movements come around and agree on these resolutions, it carries a certain amount of weight above and beyond what it would carry if it was just United States conservative movements,” he added.
With respect to the passage of this year’s resolution calling for sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, Tendler said: “I know it’s being called historic, and it is historic. But it’s more of an organic outgrowth of years of CPAC’s approach to matters related to geopolitics being developed, whether it was from guests that have been on the CPAC stage over the past 5-10 years, who have already talked about sovereignty, who have already talked about the borders of Israel, these are not new ideas. Or whether it’s the CPAC delegation that we brought to Israel in the summer of 2022, which included some folks who went on to become high-ranking White House officials.”
Tendler said: “This language around sovereignty, this language around strident support for Israel and a willingness to combat antisemitism – it’s not new language. It’s channeling, it’s an organic outgrowth of what has been going on for quite a while. In terms of this particular resolution and how it was phrased, it includes sovereignty, so there’s no question that having representatives of the Yesha Council there, having Israel Ganz there and his staff being joined by members of Knesset, who also represent constituencies in Judea and Samaria, and [Minister of Diaspora Affairs] Amichai Chikli being there as well, there’s no question that having them there, put a greater spotlight on this particular aspect of CPAC support for Israel, and made it natural for us to acknowledge their presence in the room and reiterate a position that CPAC has, which is that it supports sovereignty.”
Tendler added: “This year, as President Trump is now in office, there’s been a lot more pivoting towards real-time diplomatic achievements that can be achieved in the context of the president’s lens – the way he looks at the world and the way he looks at Israel, and there’s no question that now is the right time to talk about sovereignty…. CPAC is positioned in a way that they have real-time impact on the policies of the Trump administration. This is the time to make it clear where CPAC stands and provide political backing to what will hopefully result in Israel applying sovereignty to Judea and Samaria.”
Eliana Passentin, the Binyamin Regional Council’s international desk director, and Yesha Council’s English language spokesperson who also worked behind the scenes on the resolution told JNS, “The application of sovereignty is a very natural outcome of what is happening. It’s obvious. It’s common sense. This was true before October 7, but even more so since.”
She elaborated, “Israel has the right, both Biblical and in modern times, to apply Israeli law over Judea and Samaria. It shouldn’t have to take a resolution at CPAC, it’s something that’s so basic and natural, that I’m surprised it’s even up for discussion.”
Passentin added: “That being said I’m so grateful to our friends at CPAC, the United States, and especially President Trump who understands our need to build our future, and to stand strong in a way that we can protect ourselves. I trust the Israeli government will make the necessary decisions on these issues soon.”
Ruthie Jaffe Lieberman, political advisor to Governor Ganz reflected on the passage of the CPAC resolution. She told JNS, “Our hard work over many years of outreach to DC’s political leadership has led to this. We continue to educate on the values of the Jewish people returning to our land. We’ve shared our feelings at times of hardship, after a terrorist attack or particularly during this October 7th war, and we see that our friends in Washington understand. They now feel the need to communicate that support with outspoken words, interviews, and policy actions.”
She added: “Look for some more expressions of this in Congress in the near future, as we embrace our colleagues in Washington and work together to move the needle towards real security and sovereignty for the Jewish people.”
During his remarks at CPAC over the weekend, Ganz declared: “Your decision to support Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria is extremely important to Israeli citizens. Judea and Samaria are an integral part of the State of Israel. This region is the land of our ancestors. It is our homeland. There is no nation in the world that has a connection to its country as the Jews have to the Land of Israel.”
Ganz lauded President Trump’s approach with reference to the American administration’s policy: “Trump understands this truth. He understands that there is good and that there is evil, and he has chosen to stand on the side of good and fight the evil, which is terror and murder, and the violation of human morality and the principles of the Bible. He knows that the Holy Land belongs to the Jews, and if we’re not there, it will become a cesspool of terror and a threat to the whole of the free world.”
This year, the CPAC conference was attended by Trump, along with top U.S. government officials, among them Vice President JD Vance, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Elise Stefanik, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, as well as presidents and leaders of right-wing parties from around the world, including Argentinian President Javier Milei and Eduardo Bolsonaro, member of the Brazilian Conservative Party.