The vice president is attempting to unite conservative Jews with their antagonists in one coalition, as one appearance in Nevada on Monday showed. Some are uneasy about it.

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Republicans hold their trolls close. For Democrats, it’s more complicated.

© Nic Antaya for The New York Times

The appearance, which was to be closed to the news media, comes at an extraordinarily sensitive time for Jewish Americans and the U.S. relationship with Israel.

A growing number of former Israeli generals, intelligence officials and prime ministers are accusing settlers in the West Bank of committing ethnic cleansing with government support. “Once a society behaves this way,” one said, “that society is doomed.”