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In the latest skirmish in an ongoing clash among pro-Israel and anti-Israel conservatives, the chairman of the White House Religious Liberty Commission announced he’s kicked a Catholic off the panel after she used a hearing to challenge accusations of antisemitism leveled at opponents of Zionism and Israel. However, that Catholic — former Miss California Carrie Prejean Boller — says commission chairman and Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has no authority to terminate her, and that she’s “looking forward to next month’s meeting.”
On Monday, the commission held a hearing on “Religious Liberty Implications of Anti-Semitism.” Temperatures rose when Boller started challenging witnesses, with much of her questioning aimed at scrutinizing their definitions of antisemitism and, specifically, challenging the idea that opposition to the political ideology of Zionism is inherently antisemitic. Zionism is centered on the establishment and maintenance of a nation-state for Jews. Notably, Zionism is opposed by some Jews, including some Jews living in Israel.
“I’m a Catholic and Catholics do not embrace Zionism,” Boller told Yeshiva University President Ari Berman. “Just so you know. So are all Catholics antisemites, according to you?” Berman replied, “If someone says they are an anti-Zionist, they are saying about themselves that they have a double-standard, and hypocrisy, and are taking antisemitic positions.”
Addressing Yitzchok Frankel, a law student who sued the University of California, Boller quoted New York Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro, who said “Zionist ideology falsely claims Israel is the nation-state of Jews everywhere, and that every Jew is…tied to it. This framing is antisemitic at its core…[imposing] collective guilt for actions we neither chose nor control.” The exchange with Frankel ended with him asserting that anti-Zionism is antisemitism.
Addressing Shabbos Kestenbaum, an activist who in 2024 sued Harvard for allegedly failing to protect students from antisemitism, Boller turned to Israel’s war on Gaza: “Since we’ve mentioned Israel a total of 17 times, are you willing to condemn what Israel has done in Gaza?” The testy exchange prompted Patrick to intervene:
Catholic activist @CarriePrejean1 confronts Shabbos Kestenbaum with a direct question demanding condemnation of what happened in Gaza after Israel was mentioned 17 times, before Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick steps in to stop her—a bold and courageous moment that reflects her… pic.twitter.com/SDaGvEufrf
— ADI ALARDAH (@alardah91) February 10, 2026
A backlash ensued, with prominent pro-Israel voices across social media condemning Boller’s questioning, and demanding that she resign or be fired. Some questioned Boller’s authority to make blanket statements about what Catholics think about Zionism and Israel. Amid the dust-up, Boller posted an open letter to Kestenbaum, refuting the idea that she derailed the proceedings to focus on Israel, saying that Israel had already figured heavily in the discourse:
“Nearly every witness framed antisemitism through the lens of Israel and Zionism…Forcing people to affirm Zionism as a condition of participation is not only wrong, it is directly contrary to religious freedom, especially on a body created to protect conscience. As a Catholic, I have both a constitutional right and a God-given freedom of religion and conscience not to endorse a political ideology or government that is carrying out mass civilian killing and starvation.”
On Wednesday, commission chair Patrick used social media to announce that Boller had been removed.
“No member of the commission has the right to hijack a hearing for their own personal and political agenda on any issue. This is clearly, without question, what happened Monday in our hearing on antisemitism in America. This was my decision.”
Boller quickly replied, saying Patrick lacks authority to kick her off the commission, and saying it was actually the Zionists who “hijacked” the proceedings:
“As the name states, this is President Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission, not yours. You did not appoint me to the Commission, and you lack authority to remove me from it. This is a gross overstepping of your role and leads me to believe you are acting in alignment with a Zionist political framework that hijacked the hearing, rather than in defense of religious liberty…I refuse to bend the knee to Israel. I am no slave to a foreign nation, but to Christ our King…Zionist supremacy has no place on an American Religious Liberty commission.”
Boller has a conservative pedigree, having gained notoriety when she told 2009 Miss USA pageant judge Perez Hilton that “marriage should be between a man and a woman.” Boller has said the interaction cost her the crown. She wrote a book about the controversy, and the phenomenon of conservative women being targeted by liberal media.
The White House Religious Liberty Commission was created by President Trump in on May 1, 2025, and charged with “recommending steps to secure domestic religious liberty and identifying opportunities to further the cause of religious liberty around the world.” Dr. Ben Carson is the vice chair, and panel members include the likes of Franklin Graham, “Dr. Phil” McGraw and TV-preacher Paula White, whose over-the-top antics at a 2020 prayer-rally for Trump went viral:
The fight over the definition of antisemitism comes amid an intensifying war within the Republican Party and the US right over the extent to which America should support Israel, with older Republicans more likely to view support for Israel as a core conservative value, while Republicans under 50 are increasingly prone to conclude that support for Israel comes at a staggering, multifaceted price, and defies George Washington’s admonition against “passionate attachments” to “particular nations.”
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