Ted Cruz: 'Antisemitism Has Consumed the Democrat Party'

Sen. Ted Cruz warned that antisemitism has "consumed the Democrat Party," accusing its leaders of appeasing a growing "pro-Hamas wing" and ignoring hatred that endangers Jews at home and abroad.

Speaking at the 40th Republican Jewish Coalition Annual Leadership Summit in Las Vegas, Cruz said the rise of antisemitism is no longer confined to the far left — it is now "a real and cognizable faction inside the Democratic Party."

"The Democrats looked away," the Texas Republican said. "They figured it was just a few limited people. And over the last decade, we've watched antisemitism consume their party."

Cruz cited campus protests and anti-Israel riots that erupted in blue states after the Hamas terror attacks on Israel, calling them a direct result of political cowardice.

"You didn't see that in Texas or Florida," he said. "In Texas, the police showed up and threw their butts in jail."

He accused Democrat leaders of privately dismissing the issue, pointing to reports that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told Columbia University officials, "Don't worry about antisemitism — it's only the Republicans who care about that."

Cruz described how Jewish students were told to stay home for safety at elite universities like Columbia and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology while administrators refused to discipline violent protesters. 

"If you engage in a violent protest and threaten Jewish students, you will be arrested," Cruz said, adding, "If you're a foreign student, you'll be deported."

He said the left's moral confusion is part of a larger "contest of civilization versus barbarism."

"Oct. 7 was Nazi tactics carried out for Nazi ends," he said of Hamas' 2023 terrorist raid. "There is no gray area — it's good versus evil."

Cruz also warned that antisemitism is spreading on the right, fueled by online extremism and foreign propaganda.

"In the last six months, I've seen more antisemitism on the right than I have in my entire life," he said. "This is a poison."

Cruz urged Republicans to draw clear moral lines and defend America's alliance with Israel. "The enemies of Israel hate America," he said. "Those who hate Jews hate Christians."

He said the problem cannot be dismissed as just "bots" or "astroturf" funded by foreign adversaries. 

"Yes, Qatar and Iran are paying for it," he said, "but it's also real. It's organic. These are real people." He noted that when he posts online, "Within five minutes, I'll have a hundred viciously antisemitic comments from real accounts."

Cruz blasted voices on the right who have flirted with defending Hitler or attacking Israel, saying that kind of rhetoric has no place in the conservative movement. 

Without naming the individuals, Cruz said bluntly, "In the last year, we've seen three prominent people on the right publicly muse that maybe Hitler's not all that bad."

"No — he is the embodiment of evil," Cruz added. "If you're confused about that, you're an imbecile."

He said too many Republican officials are "scared to confront it," unwilling to risk backlash from "people with big megaphones." "If you sit there and nod while someone says Churchill was the villain of World War II, you are complicit in that evil," Cruz said. "This is a time for choosing."

"As for me, I choose to stand with Israel, and I choose to stand with America."

He praised President Donald Trump as "the most pro-Israel president this country has ever seen" and credited him for authorizing the strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.