Steve Bannon speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort Hotel And Convention Center on Feb. 20, 2025 in Oxon Hill, Maryland. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
(JTA) — An Orthodox right-wing pro-Israel group will honor Steve Bannon, nine days after the former Donald Trump adviser faced criticism for a gesture that resembled a Nazi salute.
Neither the gesture nor the rebuke fazed Israel365, whose founder calls it “Israel’s voice in the MAGA movement,” and which caters to an evangelical Christian audience. On Saturday night, the group is hosting an event in Dallas where, it confirmed to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, it will proudly fete Bannon as the guest of honor.
Bannon — whose podcast, “War Room,” commands considerable influence among pro-Trump diehards — will also deliver a speech and answer questions. The event is hosted by Israel365 Action, the group’s advocacy arm, which is running a slate in the upcoming elections for the World Zionist Congress.
“We are grateful to Steve Bannon for using his voice and his War Room platform to help the Jewish State achieve Total Victory and are proud to honor him this Saturday night as a Warrior for Israel,” Rabbi Tuly Weisz, Israel365’s founder, wrote in an email to JTA.
In a subsequent message, he wrote, “Anyone who listens to Bannon, knows that he is a Warrior for Israel, and is frequently even criticized for being the most pro-Israel voice in the movement.”
Even as Israel365 is rebuffing those who call Bannon an antisemite, the event has sparked some local controversy. It was originally set to take place at a local Orthodox Jewish day school, Akiba Yavneh Academy, but at least one parent complained and the school canceled.
“Appalled and embarrassed that my children’s school is the location this event is taking place,” the parent, who asked to remain anonymous, wrote on Torah Trumps Hate, a Facebook group largely of Orthodox Jews who oppose Trump. “How any Jewish group is comfortable aligning with antisemite Steve Bannon is crazy to me.”
The parent praised the school for cancelling. Akiba Yavneh did not respond to JTA requests for comment on Friday, but Weisz confirmed that the school canceled the event booking shortly after Bannon was announced as a speaker.
The school is not the only institution to distance itself from Bannon. His gesture at the conservative confab CPAC last week drew criticism from Jewish groups, including the Anti-Defamation League, which called out his “long and disturbing history of stoking antisemitism and hate, threatening violence, and empowering extremists.”
The blowback extended beyond the Jewish community and into Bannon’s own political camp. Far-right French leader Jordan Bardella canceled his own CPAC appearance because of Bannon’s gesture, which Bardella called “a gesture alluding to Nazi ideology.” Bannon denied it was a Nazi salute and said Bardella “wets himself like a little child.”
The gesture was the latest one by a pro-Trump figure after Elon Musk, the billionaire Trump adviser, made a similar salute at an inauguration event in January, drawing widespread criticism.
Another wave of criticism came in response to Bannon’s subsequent statement that “the number-one enemy to the people in Israel are American Jews that do not support Israel and do not support MAGA.”
Weisz says accusations of antisemitism against Bannon are misinformed and defamatory. He said his group was “fighting ferociously against the dangerous antisemitism slowly metastasizing on the far right” — and called Bannon a staunch ally in that battle.
He called Bannon a “counterweight” to far-right voices such as Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson, who have criticized Israel and made a series of statements widely seen as antisemitic. (Carlson also has Trump’s ear: He spoke at the Republican National Convention last year and has visited the White House since the president returned to office.)“When people get demonized unjustly as antisemites it makes the charge of Jew hatred meaningless,” Weisz wrote. “Instead of letting the ADL dupe the Jewish community by demonizing him as an antisemite in an effort to cancel his voice, we decided to get him in front of a Jewish audience so the pro-Israel community can actually hear what he has to say.”
Weisz later clarified that the group’s invitation to Bannon was unconnected to the CPAC controversy. He called the timing “fortuitous.”
This is not Bannon’s first invitation to a Jewish conservative pro-Israel event. He spoke at a 2017 gala of the Zionist Organization of America, where he called himself a “Christian Zionist.”
For Israel365 which fiercely supports Israeli West Bank settlements and seeks to build bridges between evangelical Christians and Israel, the Bannon invitation is the latest manifestation of its outspoken support for Trump and his “Make America Great Again” movement.
Israel365 Action’s executive director, Rabbi Pesach Wolicki, has been called the “MAGA rabbi” by other Trump supporters and is a frequent guest on “War Room.” He said in a video that he and Bannon have “a close personal friendship,” and he dismissed concerns about the gesture, which he acknowledged “looked very much like a Nazi salute.”
When it came to Bannon’s statement about American Jews who don’t support Israel, Wolicki said he agreed. He pointed to a Reform Jewish organization that raised concerns about evangelical leader Mike Huckabee, Trump’s pick for U.S. ambassador to Israel, because Huckabee opposes a Palestinian state.
“The greatest enemy of the Jewish people in America for sure is the progressive left-wing establishment of the Jewish people, those same people who call Steve Bannon an antisemite,” Wolicki said in the video.
He continued, “Now what was he doing with his arm there? I don’t know. Maybe he was trolling some people, maybe he was just waving and it came out a little strange. I have no idea what Steve was doing there. But focusing on that is missing the point.”
In a War Room appearance in February, Wolicki praised Trump’s plan to completely depopulate Gaza of Palestinians, and have the United States take over the territory — which has drawn bipartisan and international opposition. He said it “makes sense from every perspective.”
Saturday night’s event will also honor local Jewish leaders including an Orthodox rabbi, a conservative activist and an Israeli emissary at Akiba Yavneh. A pastor who emphasizes Christianity’s Jewish roots, and who is active in Holocaust remembrance, will also receive an award.
The event page also touts Israel365 Action’s campaign in the upcoming elections for the World Zionist Congress, a body elected by Jews worldwide that allocates $1 billion to Jewish causes annually and oversees institutions such as the Jewish National Fund. The Israel365 slate advocates a staunchly right-wing vision for Israel, including opposition to a Palestinian state and perpetual Israeli control of the West Bank.
The slate was involved in its own controversy a few months ago, when David Friedman, Trump’s former ambassador to Israel, publicly distanced himself from it. His statement came at a time when dozens of people left the slate around allegations that it was promoting a hidden Christian agenda.
Israel365 denies those allegations and says people focusing on its latest controversial honoree are also off-base. Weisz warned that Jews who fight against the MAGA movement do so at their own peril.
“If the Jewish establishment thinks the best course of action is to push MAGA away by unjustly demonizing them as antisemites, it will only become a self fulfilling prophecy,” he wrote to JTA. “MAGA is the ascendant force in American politics and the Jewish establishment is missing the plot.”
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