LAS VEGAS — Speaking at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual conference in Las Vegas, Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-MT) warned of a “red-green alliance” between the far left and Islamists that has fueled antipathy against the Jewish people and America.

“These two forces should be natural enemies. One denies God; the other claims exclusive possession of Him. One worships the collective; the other commands submission to a caliphate,” Sheehy said. “Yet they have formed a red-green alliance of convenience, united by one thing: shared hatred of the West, of capitalism and of the Jewish people, who stand as living proof that a people can thrive anywhere despite any oppressor.”

He said that he’s seeing patterns that played out across the world in the 1970s, including in the Iranian revolution, unfolding on American college campuses and across the country.

“Radical progressive movements march under the banner of decolonization while providing political cover for those who openly celebrate the massacre of Jews and the destruction of the only Jewish state in history,” Sheehy said.

He described higher education as the “point of fatal penetration,” funded by taxpayer dollars and philanthropy, which have “fueled an engine of Marxism and Islamism gilded as credentialism.” He said that this alliance is using tools including universities, podcasts and mass migration to tear down the United States, in lieu of the terrorist tactics of prior ages.

“Generations of young adults and their families have been mortgaged to student debt, while Marxist and anti-Western indoctrination became the primary byproduct,” Sheehy said. “Deranged hatred of Israel has been their most valued product. What was once the intellectual property of liberal elites is metastasizing into a generational rejection of Israel, of Jews and of American global power. Young Americans, products of this infected system, have been conditioned to blame their grievances on a fictitious global elite led by Israel and the Jews.”

But he also acknowledged that such problems aren’t exclusive to the left, with the same antisemitic conspiracy theories, isolationist sentiments and collectivist impulses pushing into the fringes of the right.

“Antisemitism has repeatedly been the early warning system for far worse,” Sheehy said. “Antisemitism is never merely hatred of Jews; it is the asset that dissolves the restraints of civilization and paves the way for tyranny. The standing of the people of Israel and the Jewish people worldwide is therefore not political convenience or strategic calculation. It is fundamental morality.”

He said that abandoning Israel would be a signal that the West “no longer believes its own story” and that the United States has abandoned the values of the Constitution. And he said that embracing isolationism and leaving allies to face threats alone is a “capitulation,” a betrayal of U.S. interests and global leadership. 

Sheehy drew a comparison between President Donald Trump’s efforts to confront Iran to President Thomas Jefferson’s efforts to combat the Barbary Pirates in the early years of the United States.

“Like our current president, he took decisive action despite allied and congressional opposition to protect Americans and American interests. It was the right decision. It sent a message that our nation was here to stay,” he said.

Sheehy also said that U.S. adversaries in Russia and China are using Iran to divide and weaken America. And he said that if the U.S. can come together and show strength, it will inspire other U.S. allies to “retake their nations as well.”