James Cerda

VP JD Vance’s 35-year-old chief of staff is Jewish pro-Israel strategist Jacob Reses. Vance delivered a Jewish wedding prayer at Reses’ wedding in January. The Vice President hardly goes anywhere without Reses and maintains a close personal relationship with him. While opposed to mass immigration, abortion, and strong on social issues like transgenderism, Reses is a fervent Zionist who celebrated the erection of Israel’s flag “over the rubble” of Gaza. Reses has been outspoken about his Zionism from an early age. At Princeton, Reses served as treasurer of Tigers for Israel, where he vocally criticized a pro-Palestine student group that targeted the hummus maker Sabra over its alleged links to Israeli human rights abuses in the occupied territories. Reses has publicly advocated for a coalition between conservative Christians and Jews. In September 2025, he reposted Joe Lonsdale’s post remarking that Jews should no longer be “squeamish” about the majority’s invocation of the “Christian deity” and other elements of the Christian faith. Follow: @AFpost

Works for @RealLindellTV Starting to make sense

@BY1959 @ReginaDilo35808 You sure are posting this a lot. Looks like projection. 🤡

In recent days, @CarriePrejean1, a Catholic, was removed from the Presidential Commission on Religious Liberty. She was not given notice as to why she was removed, but it is highly plausible that it was because of comments she made during a hearing. I wish to note both a question she asked and a statement she made. In essence, one of the questions she asked was whether a person who is not a Zionist is therefore antisemitic. The statement she made was that Catholics are not Zionists. Bishop Robert Barron posted on X that she was removed for “browbeating witnesses, aggressively asserting her point of view, hijacking the meeting for her own political purposes.” I must disagree with this statement, having viewed the meeting myself. The purpose of the meeting is to promote religious liberty and to speak out against discrimination and injustice against any person, whether Jewish, Christian, Muslim, or otherwise. Defense of religious liberty under the First Amendment is the defense of all human life. Her comment was fitting for the meeting, and for the following reason. Carrie asked an important question, which was directed to Yitzchok Frankel. She asked whether one could reject antisemitism and at the same time condemn the mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza, reject political Zionism, or not support the political state of Israel. Carrie was fulfilling her duty as a member of the board in speaking not only for the protection of Jews, but also for Palestinians. It is also a fair question to ask in light of the thousands of Palestinians who have been killed since October 7. As Catholics, we decry the killing of all innocent human life. Her comment and question were also fitting in helping the committee address the evil of antisemitism. In other words, her words can be interpreted as a caution that, in light of evil antisemitic actions, one must not resort to uncontrolled violence against Palestinians in Gaza. There is a fire that was lit, and she was simply pointing out that another fire has been lit, and one cannot put out fire with fire. She wished to hold all persons accountable for violence against innocent human life. Furthermore, defining terms is crucial in arriving at proper justice for all. In resolving the issue of antisemitism, it is important to define exactly what that constitutes. It is not foreign to public discussion to speak of Christian Zionism as it pertains to the present conflict in Iran. She, as a defender of all faiths, must be able to defend her own. That she did courageously in noting that Catholics are in fact not Zionists, and that this should not be remotely part of the definition of antisemitism. The reason this is important is that if rejection of Zionism is equated with antisemitism, it opens the door to the persecution of Catholics, or of people in general. Since this language is part of the current political context when speaking about Israel’s actions, it is just that Catholics, having their own religious liberty under the First Amendment, be able to disagree with religiously or politically motivated actions which do not reflect what it means to be Catholic. Otherwise, we run the risk, as a nation, of gaslighting Catholics as antisemitic, which would itself be a form of religious persecution. The committee cannot serve the purpose of defending religious liberty by denying it to another group, namely Catholics. Therefore, I support Carrie as a fellow Catholic and American for her bravery, and I am proud of her. In fact, she was recently awarded the Catholic Champion Award at the Catholics for Catholics Prayer for America Gala only a few days ago. Countless Catholics from all over the country viewed this moment, where Catholics came together in solidarity to pray for our nation and to support fellow Catholics in responding to our Lord’s command: “Let your light shine.”