Modi’in (TPS) – The Republican Party’s branch of Republicans Overseas, the party’s expatriate group, is now reaching out to American expatriates living in Israel. On Monday, August 15, Republicans Overseas Israel launched its official presidential campaign in the city of Modi’in, home to many Israeli-Americans in central Israel.

It is the first time a US political party has launched an official presidential campaign in Israel in a campaign that is specifically aimed at drawing in second and third generation Israeli-Americans.

“We would like to double the number of voters in Israel,” explained Co-Chairman of Republican Overseas Israel, Marc Zell to Tazpit Press Service. “In order to do that we need to reach out to second and third generation Americans, people like my daughter who sees herself as Israeli, having been born in Israel but holds a U.S. passport,” said Zell.

“Most of these people are young and see themselves primarily as Israelis, so we want to reach out to them and convince them that it is in their interest to vote. We want to convince these potential voters, who have never voted in U.S. elections in the past, to cast a ballot in an election that will have a dramatic effect on the future of American-Israeli relations,” Zell added.

“The campaign is very close in swing-states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, where there are large Jewish populations, and there are many voters in Israel from those states,” noted Zell.

Zell’s strategy in reaching out to second and third generation Israeli-Americans mainly revolves on highlighting what he believes to be the stark contrast between Trump and his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton.

“The Republican party in contrast with the Democratic party, is solidly behind Israel and not only the party, but Trump himself,” argued Zell, who originally supported Republican candidate, Sen. Marco Rubio. “The Democratic party has gone off the cliff,” he believes.

“When I was in Cleveland before the convention, I worked hard with the Trump’s advisors to get an historic amendment passed in the Republican party platform, which was the most pro-Israeli one in either party, and that was done with the open cooperation and with the Trump advisory team which we could not have done without,” Zell recalled to TPS.

The amendment removed support for the two-state solution as well as a reference to “Palestine,” both of which were in the Republican party’s presidential platform four years ago. The 2016 platform also describes Jerusalem as Israel’s “undivided” capital of Israel and objects to any depiction of Israel as an “occupier.”

“We reject the false notion that Israel is an occupier, and specifically recognize that the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement (“BDS”) is anti-Semitic in nature and seeks to destroy Israel,” the new platform read.

Volunteers for Republicans Overseas Israel’s created the Hebrew campaign slogan for candidate Donald Trump, which translates into English, “Trump – The Israeli Interest.”

“The Hebrew logo is designed in the spirit of the American logo,” the campaigners said in a statement. “It is directed at the Israeli-American audience which is mostly right-wing and tends to support the Republican Party.”

Zell and the campaign organizers are planning to hold similar campaign events in other cities and localities with significant percentages of U.S expatriates such as Jerusalem, Ra’anana, Beit Shemesh, Gush Etzion, Haifa and Be’er-Sheva. A number of campaign props including shirts, hats, stickers and badges have already arrived in Israel, delivered from Trump’s US campaign headquarters.

Michael Bachner contributed to this report.