With stormy conservative conference ending, 85% say Israel remains an ally to US

A straw poll conducted at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest, which concluded over the weekend, found that 85% of respondents said Israel remains a U.S. ally, despite the conference emerging as the most prominent arena yet for an intra-conservative “civil war” over American support for Israel.

The conference opened with a controversial speech by Ben Shapiro, the Jewish founder of the conservative Daily Wire media company, in which he attacked Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Megyn Kelly and Steve Bannon for either promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories or failing to call out those who peddle them.  

Regarding Carlson, Shapiro said, “If you host a Hitler apologist, Nazi-loving, anti-American piece of refuse like Nick Fuentes… If you have that person on your show and you proceed to glaze him, you ought to own it.”

We also polled attendees views on Israel. A clear majority view Israel as one ally of many (53.4%), about 1/3 of attendees see Israel as our top ally (33.3), while 13.3% do not view Israel as an ally at all. pic.twitter.com/C9Ah7lAZwW

— Andrew Kolvet (@AndrewKolvet) December 22, 2025

All of those mentioned by name by Shapiro proceeded to hit back, with Owens resorting to Nazi-era antisemitic pamphlets and accusations that Shapiro and the state of Israel were involved in the murder of TP USA’s founder, Charlie Kirk.

Despite numerous popular podcasters and activists coming down on the side of Carlson, Owens, Kelly, and others who have turned against Israel in recent months, the straw poll taken among attendees of the conference showed that Shapiro's pro-Israel stance appeared to have carried the day.

Andrew Kolvet, a spokesman for TPUSA, told Fox News, “There are bright dividing lines in the conservative movement right now, so we wanted to get clarity on where the base is on these hot-button issues.”

When asked about their opinion about Israel, only 13.3% said they believe Israel is “not an ally” to the United States.

However, 53.4% believe that Israel is an ally, albeit “one out of many,” and just over one-third (33.3%) think Israel is America’s “top ally.”

Vice President JD Vance’s speech at the conference offered a possible explanation for this apparent contradiction, downplaying the issue of support for or opposition to Israel while emphasizing unity within the conservative movement.

After lauding Israel as an ally in the past and strongly rejecting antisemitism and racism in his speech at the conference, Vance stressed that patriotism should be the only condition for people to join the conservative movement.

“President Trump did not build the greatest coalition in politics by running his supporters through endless, self-defeating purity tests,” Vance said.

“So if you love America, if you want all of us to be richer, stronger, safer, and prouder, you have a home on this team. I didn't bring a list of conservatives to denounce or to deplatform,” he added.

In the poll, Vance was overwhelmingly voted as the favorite candidate for the presidential nomination in 2028, leading the field with 84.2% of support ahead of State Secretary Marco Rubio (4.8%) and Ron DeSantis (2.9%).

The straw poll, while not being a particularly strong indication of overall opinions due to its limited selection pool, offered other insights into the psyche of young conservatives in the U.S.

In another positive sign for Israel, Rubio, who is seen as a stalwart supporter of Israel by supporters of Carlson and Owens, was voted into the top three cabinet secretariats in Trump’s administration.

War Secretary Pete Hegseth (83.3% strong approval), Sec. Robert Kennedy Jr. (80.3%) was voted ahead of Rubio (78.6%).

When asked about the largest threat to America at the moment, “radical Islam” was ranked first, ahead of “Socialism and Marxism,” “mass migration” and “economy and affordability.”

Approximately 89.5% of poll respondents said they support a moratorium on new immigration into the United States.

Conservatives “see Israel as an important ally of the United States despite so much chatter to the contrary,” and “they love the job that Secretaries Hegseth, Rubio, and RFK Jr. are doing, but they harbor skepticism about the DOJ (Department of Justice),” Kolvet stated, summing up the poll.

“Above all,” Kolvet said that conservatives “are laser focused on winning the midterms and fixing mass migration, which they clearly see as connected to the rise of radical Islam, socialism, and crime.”