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November 27, 2023

Leora Levy leads Republican National Committee trip to Israel

MARK MIRKO / CONNECTICUT PUBLIC An exultant Leora Levy on a congratulatory call from Donald J. Trump.
By Mark Pazniokas, CT Mirror

Republican National Committee member Leora R. Levy of Greenwich left Sunday on a trip to Israel that Levy says she organized with other Republicans to “show solidarity, support and to bear witness” to what happened in the terrorist attack by Hamas on Oct. 7.

“It’s important to counter a lot of the very negative and untruthful things that are being said by so many people who are demonstrating in the streets supporting a terrorist organization that committed a depraved, horrific attack on innocent civilians in Israel,” Levy said in an interview Sunday.

Levy said the trip to Israel is not a step toward a second run for U.S. Senate. She won a three-way Republican primary last year after a late endorsement by former President Donald J. Trump. She then lost to Democrat Richard Blumenthal, who won his third term, 57% to 43%.

Republicans have yet to identify a challenger capable of raising the resources to run credibly in 2024 against Chris Murphy, also a Democrat seeking a third term. He has raised $8.8 million and was sitting on $7.4 million in available campaign cash as of Oct. 1. The only Republican to begin fundraising against Murphy is Robert Finley Hyde. His tally is $433.

“I don’t see this as the cycle for me to run for Senate,” Levy said. “But I hope to have an opportunity to serve in the next administration, whoever that will be. If the Republicans are successful, if we are successful, in winning the White House, that would be my hope to serve my country.”

Levy supported Jeb Bush over Trump for the presidential nomination in 2016. But she rallied to the Trump cause after he clinched the nomination, raising funds for the campaign. He rewarded her with a nomination as ambassador, but the Senate never acted on her confirmation.

Levy had measured praise for President Joe Biden, the Democrat who unseated Trump and could face him again in 2024.

“I have to commend President Biden for going to Israel, for supporting Israel,” Levy said. “I wish he was a little stronger against those forces in his party who are trying to really disrupt the relationship and force him not to support Israel. I’m concerned he is going wobbly.”

An itinerary provided by Levy shows the Republicans plan a visit to the field where 250 concert goers were massacred as part of a broader surprise assault that Israeli officials say claimed the lives of at least 1,000 civilians and 300 members of the Israeli Defense Force.

The military response by Israel, including dropping massive 2,000-pound bombs on the thickly settled Gaza Strip, has left 14,000 dead, with women and children comprising nearly 70% of the fatalities, according to the United Nations. The civilian deaths are coming at “a historic pace,” according to a New York Times analysis.

Levy said she grieves the loss of any innocent civilians, but called the response justified and not dissimilar to the U.S. firebombing of Dresden and its use of nuclear weapons against Japan during World War II.

“When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, did we hold back? No.” Levy said. “Did we let the people in Dresden know to get out because we were going to level the city? No.  Did we let the people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki know they had to come out because we were going to level their cities? No.”

It was Hamas who “attacked and brought this on their own people,” she said.

Her last trip to Israel was as a guest of Trump at the opening of the U.S. embassy in the contested city of Jerusalem in May 2018, and she praised Trump for the role his administration played in brokering the Abraham Accords: bilateral agreements between Israel and several Sunni Arab nations, who share a wariness of the Shia power, Iran.

Accompanying Levy this week are Duke Buchanan, the finance chair of the Republican National Committee and a former U.S. ambassador to Spain, and five RNC members: Levy, Shawn Steel of California, Alex Plechash of Minnesota, William O’Brien of Hampshire. Steel is married to U.S. Rep. Michelle Steel, R-Calif.

Others on the trip include: Paul Alexander, who was a science advisor at the Department of Health and Human Services under Trump; Reed Rubinstein, a lawyer in the Trump administration who now is a senior counselor at the America First Foundation; and Jonathan Tratt, an investor who served with Levy on the advisory board of the Jewish Coalition for Romney in 2012.

Sixty years ago, Levy was a 16-year-old who had just returned from a nine-week trip through Israel when Egypt and Syria launched a surprise coordinated attack on the Jewish nation.

“I felt powerless and hopeless. I had the same visceral reaction on Oct 7, but this time I’m not 16 years old. I am 66 years old and I am not helpless,” Levy said. Her first reaction was to raise money for Israel, she said.

Levy is the daughter of Lithuanian Jews who fled Europe in 1940, settling in Cuba after failing to gain admission to the U.S. She was born on the island, emigrating to U.S. with her parents as a three-year-old in 1960.

“I am a Zionist and it’s in my DNA,” Levy told the Jerusalem Post during her 2022 campaign. “I will lead on every policy that promotes a strong security alliance between the United States and Israel, cultural and economic alliances and ties between the United States and Israel. I support the Abraham Accords, and I’m hoping that they will be expanded to include other countries.”

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