October 9 2026 - 5:00pm
“There’s something profound that Christians can learn from Zionism. Israel represents something unusual: a people that once were powerless and decided that they will be powerless no more.” So said George Deek, Israel’s Special Envoy to the Christian World, as he addressed the National Conservatism (NatCon) conference in Jerusalem this week.
NatCon held its first flagship conference in Washington, DC, in 2019. The brainchild of Israeli-American political theorist Yoram Hazony, its conventions quickly became the preeminent annual gathering of the so-called “New Right”. NatCon’s statement of principles, published in 2022 and co-signed by more than 70 individuals, articulated a “rejection of imperialism and globalism”, emphasized the need for “national government”, and stated that “the free market cannot be absolute” and “economic policy must serve the general welfare of the nation.”
A split has emerged, however. With the unpopular Iran war in play and Americans on the Left and Right increasingly souring on Israel, long gone are the days of an energetic and mostly unified “New Right”. On one side are the pre-Trump Republicans, or “normiecons”, for whom backing Israel is basically assumed a priori. Then there are the nationalists and populists, who championed “America First” but who are now debating what, precisely, an “America First” foreign policy should look like vis-à-vis Israel.
This year, NatCon largely dedicated itself to the idea that Israel is a state worthy of emulation, and that Western countries should line up to support it. A flurry of speakers voiced their views on to how to keep the US-Israel relationship alive and sell it to an increasingly disenchanted cohort of predominantly young Right-wingers.
Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation, said that Americans should “put [America] first, like Israelis put Israel first”, and stand up to “red-green Leftism”. Sporting a US-Israel flag lapel pin, Donald Trump’s Senior Director for Counterterrorism, Sebastian Gorka, declared that “we are in a war between civilization and barbarity, it is really that simple,” referencing the massacre of October 7 with whose anniversary the conference was scheduled to coincide.
Last year’s NatCon, held in Washington, was already consumed by divisions over Israel. Though the speakers’ list skewed overwhelmingly pro-Israel, the conference still featured at least one vocal skeptic in Curt Mills, executive director of The American Conservative.
This year’s conference had few such splits. In fact, its attendees were carefully picked. While figures such as Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich — who once claimed it may be “moral” to starve two million Gazans — received a speaking slot, Tucker Carlson’s request to join was denied.
Speaking to the Jerusalem Post last week, Hazony said the conference would revolve around how to strengthen Western — and specifically US — ties with the Jewish state. He added that hosting the event in Jerusalem meant it would be the first time “most Israelis have an opportunity to participate in this kind of a conference” and learn the “reality” about the Western Right, while serving as a chance for foreign guests to see Israel as a “model” for their own nations.
The most controversial moment of the week came when Jonathan Keeperman, the Right-wing influencer also known by the pseudonym L0m3z, cautioned against using the Holocaust and employing accusations of antisemitism to get Americans to support Israel. It’s a contentious idea, yet the advice was given as an aid to those who care about the US-Israel alliance, not as a rebuke of it.
NatCon’s goal was to shore up support for Israel in the face of wavering conviction among much of the Western Right, but restricting the speaker list to those who are already behind the cause may not have been the best idea, and calls into question what, precisely, is “new” in this “New Right”. Behind the facade lies an entire generation of young Right-wingers who have soured towards the state of Israel, and who are unlikely to have been won over by the week’s proceedings.
