The newest front in America’s cultural battles is a war taking place thousands of miles away.

As the conflict between Israel and Hamas escalates, Republican officials, candidates and activists have expressed staunch support for Israel, offering military aid, diplomatic support and financial assistance. Yet they are also focused on combating what they portray as enemies at home: elite universities and the liberal culture they help produce.

Debates over Israel and the fate of the Palestinians have divided college campuses for decades, though never quite on this scale: violent threats against Jewish students, huge pro-Palestinian protests, doxxing campaigns sponsored by outside conservative groups and Jewish donors pulling major contributions.

Whether in the halls of Congress or the nation’s high schools, Republicans have cast these episodes as part of a larger cultural battle over education that has energized the party since the pandemic, as angst over school closures and mask policies gave way to warnings of liberal indoctrination in schools.

Conservative organizations that have spent years focused on combating critical race theory, limiting support for transgender students and policing books have waded into the domestic political unrest over the Mideast conflict. And Republican candidates have called for campus crackdowns, urging the removal of federal funding from schools that fail to investigate threats and the expulsion of foreign students who share antisemitic messages.

The message has unified broad parts of the party, including socially conservative grass-roots activists who are focused on issues like school curriculums and so-called parents’ rights, evangelical voters driven by their faith to support Israel, and the highest-ranking members of the party establishment.

At an event last Saturday in Las Vegas hosted by the Republican Jewish Coalition, a conservative political group, Republican presidential candidates described universities as incubators of a dangerous, far-left ideology.