Teaching America’s Children Who the Enemy Is

Posted on by
1

Antisemitic Jihadi Education in America

“The internal enemy is usually more deadly and destructive than the external enemy.” – Sami Shawkat (1898-1984) Iraqi politician

That was the warning of Sami Shawkat, one of Iraq’s most influential education officials in the 1930s. He believed a nation needed to identify its enemies within and uproot them before it could prosper.

Shawkat served as director-general of education and later minister of education. He helped organize al-Futuwwa, a militarized nationalist youth movement influenced by European fascism and the Hitler Youth. His speeches circulated in government schools, promoting sacrifice, obedience and militant Arab nationalism.

Jews had lived in Mesopotamia for more than 2,500 years. Yet Iraq’s increasingly radical nationalist movement helped portray them as outsiders and enemies.

Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, supported Iraq’s pro-Axis government in 1941. He subsequently collaborated with Nazi Germany and broadcast antisemitic propaganda to Arab audiences. In June 1941, Baghdad erupted in the Farhud. Approximately 180 Jews were murdered, hundreds were injured, and Jewish homes and businesses were looted.

The Farhud massacre was conducted by Iraqi mobs who had been taught that Jews were internal enemies

Schools had helped spread a militant nationalist ideology in a society where longtime Jewish neighbors were increasingly treated as enemies.

Eighty-five years later, the language of identifying Jewish enemies is being heard in America.

Know Your Enemies

In November 2021, Zahra Billoo, executive director of the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), addressed an American Muslims for Palestine conference.

“Know your enemies,” she told the audience.

She named the Anti-Defamation League, Jewish Federations, Hillel chapters and Zionist synagogues. Billoo warned against “polite Zionists,” including those seeking dialogue and cooperation. These were American Jewish institutions. Synagogues, campus organizations, community federations and civil rights advocates were being identified as enemies because of their association with the Jewish State.

Billoo won the 2017 Human Rights Award from the Society of American Law Teachers and the 2018 Community Builder Award from People Acting in Community Together (PACT)

CAIR has also sought to influence how American children learn about Israel, Zionism and antisemitism.

Entering American Schools

In October 2026, George Washington University’s Program on Extremism published The Long Game: CAIR’s Campaign to Influence K–12 Education, by researchers Asher Stern and David Collins. The researchers documented CAIR’s efforts to influence public schools through educator guides, curriculum proposals, teacher resources, district outreach and state education agencies.

In August 2026, CAIR expanded its Unhostile Campus Campaign to include elementary and secondary schools. Its educational resources addressed Palestine, Gaza, October 7, antisemitism and definitions of terrorism.

In Washington State, CAIR participated in months of exchanges with education officials before revised state guidance concerning antisemitism, Islamophobia and political expression was published. The report documented an organized effort to influence the people responsible for determining how politically sensitive subjects are taught.

Other organizations have sought influence through money.

Qatar’s Billions and American Classrooms

Qatar has become a major financial supporter of American educational institutions, with approximately $9 billion in cumulative gifts and contracts reported by U.S. universities, much of it supporting their campuses in Doha.

An October 2026 investigation by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies uncovered another channel: $10.6 million in Qatar Foundation International grants and allocations involving 24 American school districts across 19 states, along with charter schools and universities supporting K–12 programs. The figure represented only a partial accounting of Qatar’s K–12 educational funding. The money supported Arabic-language instruction, teachers, classroom materials and professional development.

In Houston, agreements permitted Qatar Foundation International representatives to observe classrooms. Correspondence showed representatives reviewing lesson plans and providing instructional feedback.

In Austin, Texas, investigators obtained materials from a Qatar-funded Arabic program that included a Saudi government textbook claiming that Western ignorance of Arabs allowed “Zionists to manipulate them.” The familiar antisemitic conspiracy theory of Zionists manipulating Western society had appeared in resources held by an American public school program.

Investigators also identified maps labeling Israel as Palestine.

At PS 261 in Brooklyn, a classroom displayed such a map. The school had received more than $600,000 from Qatar Foundation International between 2015 and 2024, primarily supporting teachers’ salaries. The map was subsequently removed.

Foreign money had reached American classrooms, and investigators were finding troubling materials within programs associated with that funding

Extremism in Religious Education

The investigation also uncovered more than $17 million in Islamic Development Bank funding to at least 50 private Islamic schools in America. One recipient was Brighter Horizons Academy in Texas, which received $995,000 for construction, technology and teacher training.

A separate investigation by Sam Westrop of the Middle East Forum examined textbooks developed by the school’s parent organization, the Islamic Services Foundation.

One presented a Quranic description of certain nonbelievers among the People of the Book and pagans as “the worst of creatures,” under the heading “Words of Wisdom.” Another attributed Muslim weakness to abandoning jihad and submitting to enemies. A third praised Jamal Badawi, who has described Hamas terrorists and suicide bombers as freedom fighters and martyrs. It also praised CAIR and its national leader, Nihad Awad.

CAIR’s Nihad Awad with Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN)

One of the curriculum’s principal authors, Nabil Sadoun, was deported in 2010 after concealing Hamas connections on immigration paperwork, according to reporting cited by the Middle East Forum.

These were textbooks produced by the organization operating an American school, presenting religious outsiders in hostile terms and praising figures associated with Islamist extremism.

And Jewish students are already experiencing hostility in their schools.

When Jewish Students Become Outsiders

California’s Department of Education found instances of discrimination affecting Jewish and Israeli students in Oakland Unified School District. The findings involved school activities, instructional materials and the district’s response to complaints. When the district failed to complete required corrective measures, California sued in March 2026.

In September, an Alameda County judge ordered Oakland Unified to comply with state directives, including antisemitism training and improved procedures for addressing discrimination. The state had determined that Jewish students were being treated unfairly in their own public schools and had to turn to the courts to secure corrective action.

Teaching the Internal Enemy

Eighty-five years after the Farhud, American Jewish institutions are again being publicly identified as enemies, while researchers document troubling educational materials and state authorities intervene over discrimination against Jewish students, funded by foreign governments and promoted by CAIR.

The classroom is where children learn history, citizenship and their place in society. It is also where they can learn suspicion and hostility toward people sitting beside them. The latter is happening right now.

Toldot: Unearthing Names

Posted on by
Reply

Last week’s Torah portion, Chayei Sarah, described Abraham burying his beloved wife Sarah in the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron. In his grief, he insisted on purchasing the land at full price, securing a permanent resting place for his family in the land they called home.

This week’s portion, Toldot, moves from land for the dead to water for the living.

After Abraham’s death, the Philistines filled the wells he had dug. His son Isaac, facing hostility and pressure to leave the land, refused to abandon his father’s legacy. He reopened the wells, and the Torah adds an important detail: “He called them by the names that his father had called them.” (Genesis 26:18)

The medieval commentators Rashbam (1085-1158) and Abarbanel (1437-1508) recognized the significance of Isaac’s actions: preserving Abraham’s claims to the wells while resisting efforts to drive his descendants away.

Isaac’s servants then dug new wells, encountering further opposition. He named the first Esek (contention) and the second Sitnah (hostility). When they finally found water that nobody contested, he named the well Rehovot, thanking God for making room for his family to prosper.

Isaac preserved his father’s names and gave his own wells names that recorded the struggles of his generation. He would neither surrender the past nor disguise the present.

Well from 1,500 years ago near Tel Aviv (photo credit: Hami Shif, Israel Antiquities Authority)

Names carry history. They connect people to places, preserve their accomplishments and record their struggles. When those names are erased or replaced, generations can lose their connection to the people who came before them.

For thousands of years, Jews have faced efforts to rename their places, challenge their history and deny their connection to their ancestral homeland. Isaac’s determination remains a lesson for every generation that inherits this history.

Abraham secured a place for Sarah to rest. Isaac secured the water his children would need to live. Neither would allow others to determine whether their family belonged in the land.

The graves of our ancestors and the lives of their descendants are chapters of the same history. We owe it to both to preserve their names, defend their legacy and ensure that the story continues.

Randi Weingarten’s Affordability Problem

Posted on by
1

Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.8-million-member American Federation of Teachers (AFT), was celebrating Democratic electoral victories. Her social media post praised political organizing and the role of labor unions in getting candidates elected.

There was no mention of students, reading, mathematics or educational achievement.

Weingarten’s enthusiasm makes sense. Teachers’ unions collect dues, organize voters, support political candidates and lobby elected officials. Those officials influence school budgets, employment contracts, staffing rules and teacher accountability.

The unions help elect politicians who subsequently make decisions affecting the unions’ members.

Consider four states: Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Florida.

CTNJNYFL
Governor’s partyDDDR
Teachers in unions97.7%97.0%96.6%58.1%

The three northeast Democratic-governed states have nearly universal teachers’ union membership. Republican-governed Florida has substantially less.

What do those unions secure for their members?

Higher Pay and More Teachers

CTNJNYFL
Average teacher salary$89,593$84,974$98,655$56,663
Students per teacher11.911.811.618.4

New York teachers earn approximately 74% more than Florida teachers. New York also employs approximately 59% more teachers relative to its student population.

Some of the salary difference reflects the higher cost of living in the Northeast. But the staffing difference is substantial. New York maintains roughly 86 teachers for every 1,000 students, compared with 54 in Florida. Higher salaries and more teachers per student are attractive benefits for educators.

What Happens When the Students Leave?

Public-school enrollment has declined across much of the Northeast. New York alone lost more than 165,000 students between 2019 and 2024.

One might expect the teaching workforce to decline alongside enrollment.

Five-year changeCTNJNYFL
Student enrollment−2.9%−1.2%−6.1%~0%
Teacher staffing+1.5%+0.7%+0.5%−6.1%

New York lost 165,000 students and ADDED teachers.

Connecticut and New Jersey also increased teaching staff despite declining enrollment. Florida maintained approximately the same student enrollment while reducing teacher staffing by 6.1%.

Teachers’ unions have an obvious interest in preserving teaching positions. For taxpayers, maintaining staffing while enrollment falls can mean paying more per remaining student.

And New York taxpayers are paying considerably more.

Follow the Money

Annual spendingCTNJNYFL
Per student$26,316$27,234$31,918$12,693

New York spends $19,225 more per student every year than Florida, approximately 151% more, due to many more teachers per student and much higher salaries for teachers.

These figures include salaries, benefits, administration, transportation and other operating expenses. They exclude major capital construction and are not adjusted for regional living costs.

One might wonder whether New York is educating a much more challenging student population.

Are the Students Different?

Poverty and English-language proficiency affect educational outcomes. Schools serving disadvantaged students frequently require additional resources.

Student demographicsCTNJNYFL
English-language learners9.4%8.2%9.7%9.5%
Low-income students*41.9%36.1%57.1%~54%

New York and Florida have similar reported percentages of English-language learners and economically disadvantaged students. Meanwhile, New Jersey has lower percentages of both, which may help explain some of its stronger academic performance.

The student populations are hardly identical, but the demographic figures offer little obvious explanation for New York spending two and a half times as much as Florida.

What Do Students Get for the Money?

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) provides standardized mathematics and reading examinations across states, allowing direct comparisons of academic performance.

Here are the 2024 results.

NAEP average scoreCTNJNYFL
4th-grade math239240234243
4th-grade reading219222215218
8th-grade math277282271267
8th-grade reading263266257253

Florida outperforms New York in both fourth-grade subjects, despite spending less than half as much per student. By eighth grade, New York pulls ahead, but only by four points in mathematics and four points in reading. New Jersey leads three of the four categories while spending approximately 15% less per student than New York.

New York spends two and a half times as much as Florida, yet its students score worse in fourth grade and only modestly better in eighth.

The Political Machine Keeps Humming

Teachers’ unions secure higher salaries, more teachers per student and job protections. They help elect politicians who approve the budgets and laws sustaining those benefits.

In New York, students leave, teachers stay, and taxpayers continue funding one of the nation’s most expensive public-school systems, with little corresponding academic advantage.

Weingarten concluded her post by promising to tackle the issues weighing on families, including “affordability.”

Perhaps she should start with the teachers’ unions. Their demands contribute to the school spending and property-tax burdens making life less affordable for the very families she claims to champion.

Sources and data notes: Teacher union membership is from the 2020–21 federal teacher survey, as reported by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. Per-pupil spending is from the U.S. Census Bureau, FY2024. Teacher salaries are from the National Education Association, 2024–25. Enrollment and teacher staffing changes are from federal education data for fall 2019–2024. NAEP scores are from the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress. English-language learner percentages are from NCES. Student-teacher ratios refer to full-time-equivalent teachers, not classroom size.

Low-income figures use school-meal eligibility as a proxy and are drawn from different reporting periods. Florida’s approximate figure and full cross-state comparability remain to be verified before publication.

The Countries the New York Times Doesn’t See

Posted on by
Reply

Chico Harlan wrote a beautiful article in The New York Times about Malawi, a poor African country struggling with devastating droughts, unpredictable flooding and the destruction of its agricultural economy. Joao Silva’s extraordinary photographs capture the beauty of the landscape and the hardships of the people who depend on it.

It is excellent journalism. But one passage is revealing.

Harlan quotes Malawi’s chief secretary, Justin Saidi, explaining that the government has been appealing to development banks and countries “like Britain and Australia” for assistance in implementing its El Niño preparedness plan.

Australia?

The United States has historically been Malawi’s largest bilateral donor, providing an average of more than $400 million annually between 2017 and 2023. America also contributed millions in emergency assistance during Malawi’s devastating 2024 El Niño drought. Britain has been another important donor, but Australia is nowhere near the top of the list.

Yet readers hear about Australia while America goes unmentioned in the discussion of international assistance.

Even more curious is the absence of Israel.

Israeli-founded Innovation: Africa led by Sivan Yaari has completed more than 200 solar and water projects in Malawi, reportedly benefiting approximately one million people. The organization uses Israeli technology to bring clean water and electricity to rural villages, installing solar-powered pumps and training local residents to maintain the systems.

IsraAID, another Israeli humanitarian organization, responded to Cyclone Freddy in 2023 by rehabilitating damaged boreholes and restoring clean water to more than 100,000 Malawians. Israeli medical organizations have treated children with serious heart conditions, trained healthcare workers and introduced medical technology. The two countries have also developed an agricultural employment partnership that allows Malawians to work in Israel and send money home.

Then there is the recent bonding of Israel and Malawi since the October 7 massacre by Gazans of Israelis. The two countries are becoming much more integrated.

Water, agriculture, healthcare and economic resilience. These are precisely the challenges Harlan describes so effectively.

Harlan is no stranger to either country. His recent reporting has repeatedly criticized American climate and foreign-aid policies, including the Trump administration’s retreat from international climate commitments. His 2018 reporting from Gaza focused on Palestinian casualties during confrontations with Israeli forces.

He also previously worked as a journalist in Sydney, Australia.

Perhaps Malawi’s chief secretary simply offered Britain and Australia as examples. We do not know what else was discussed during the interview or why those particular countries survived the editing process.

A journalist can report every fact accurately and still leave readers with a distorted understanding of the world. The selection of facts, the people interviewed, the questions asked and the information omitted all shape the story.

Harlan’s article makes Malawi’s suffering impossible to ignore. His photographs and reporting deserve praise. Yet readers come away knowing that Malawi is seeking help from Australia, without learning about America’s enormous financial contributions or the Israeli organizations already bringing water, electricity and medical care to Malawian communities.

The most revealing biases in journalism are sometimes found in the facts that never make it onto the page.

The New York Times Invites a Guest to Explain Antisemitic Language

Posted on by
Reply

I want to thank The New York Times for publishing today’s guest essay, “The Spanish Shylock Problem,” about the antisemitism embedded in everyday language. It is a welcome subject for a newspaper that has done so much to negatively shape the language used to describe Jews and Israel.

The author focuses on the Royal Spanish Academy, whose official dictionary includes a definition of judío, the Spanish word for Jew, as a miserly or usurious person. In 2024, an Argentine judge ordered the Academy to remove the definition following a campaign by Jewish organizations. The Academy refused, explaining that dictionaries record how people actually use words.

Which came first, the antisemitic stereotype or the dictionary definition? Did the Academy simply record centuries of prejudice, or has its dictionary helped perpetuate that prejudice by presenting Jewish stinginess as an accepted meaning of the word Jew?

The essay could have challenged the stereotype with some actual evidence. A national American survey found that 76% of Jewish households donated to charity, compared with 63% of non-Jewish households. Median annual donations were $1,200 for Jews, twice those of non-Jews. Among Jewish donors, 92% contributed to non-Jewish organizations. Hardly the portrait of a miserly people.

The essay also discusses Spanish expressions associating Jews with secrecy. Here, a little history would have been useful beyond generic persecution to the specific religious nature of the attacks on Jews.

The Spanish Inquisition forced Jews to convert, flee or risk death. The Inquisition existed in Mexico and Latin America for hundreds of years until the 1820s. Many converts continued practicing Judaism secretly, risking imprisonment, torture or execution. Their descendants spread throughout Latin America, where a 2018 genetic study published in Nature Communications found evidence of widespread ancestry – 23 percent! – associated with converso migration.

The persecutors forced Jews into secrecy. Their descendants inherited a language that characterized Jews as secretive.

When Our History Begins

Society has shown that it can change its vocabulary. Polite society has largely abandoned the N-word, recognizing it as an ugly racial slur. Muslim organizations have campaigned to separate Islam from terrorism, arguing that the association unfairly casts suspicion on nearly two billion Muslims rather than the radical jihadists responsible for terrorist attacks.

Yet centuries-old stereotypes about Jews remain embedded in dictionaries, journalism and everyday speech. The willingness to reconsider offensive language seems to stop when Jews are the subject.

William Safire spent decades examining the origins and meanings of words in his celebrated New York Times column, “On Language.” He understood how much a single word could convey.

In July 2014, as antisemitic attacks swept across Europe during the Gaza war, three Times articles described the protests as having an antisemitic “tinge.” A slight whiff of Jew-hatred. Dan Bilefsky used the expression on July 21, Helene Cooper and Somini Sengupta on July 24, and Jodi Rudoren on July 27.

And what was going on? On July 20, anti-Israel rioters attacked a synagogue in the Paris suburb of Sarcelles, while Jewish businesses were looted. A week earlier, demonstrators in Paris had threatened synagogues, chanting “Death to the Jews” and “Hitler was right.” French Prime Minister Manuel Valls condemned the violence, explicitly identifying the attacks on Jewish institutions as antisemitism and racism.

A “tinge” of antisemitism.

The newspaper seemed determined to preserve the distinction between criticism of Israel and antisemitism, even when protesters themselves had erased it. Calling the hatred a “tinge” allowed the events to remain principally political demonstrations, with antisemitism appearing as an unfortunate side effect.

“Pro-Palestinian demonstrations are continuing in Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Amsterdam and other European cities, some of them assuming an anti-Semitic tinge.” – New York Times article on July 24, 2014, “As Much of the World Frowns on Israel, Americans Hold Out Support”

The Spanish Academy says it merely records how people speak. The Times cannot hide behind that explanation. Its journalists and editors decide how events are described, which words are emphasized and what readers are encouraged to believe.

I appreciate today’s guest essay. It is refreshing to see the Times devote space to the antisemitism that survives in ordinary language, especially as The Times has spent years choosing the words through which readers understand Jews and Israel.

It might begin its examination of antisemitic language with the words it chooses itself.

The Devil Has a Way with Words

Many Faiths. One Uniform.

Posted on by
Reply

More than a quarter-million Jewish Americans are military veterans. So are 145,000 Orthodox Christians, 121,000 Buddhists, 85,000 Latter-day Saints and 62,000 Muslims.

The Department of Veterans Affairs published a breakdown of living veterans by religious affiliation in 2020, offering a remarkable picture of military service among America’s minority religious communities. Comparing those numbers with the adult population of each faith reveals another dimension of their contributions.

Religious communityVeterans% of adults
Jewish276,6384.8%
Orthodox Christian145,61611.3%
Buddhist120,9925.9%
Latter-day Saint84,9222.5%
Muslim62,3753.0%
Shinto40,799—
Hindu16,0061.2%
Sikh3,379—
All U.S. adults18.5 million7.3%
Sources: Department of Veterans Affairs (2020), Pew Research Center and PRRI.

The differences are striking. Orthodox Christians have an estimated veteran share above the national average, while Buddhists and Jews fall below it. Latter-day Saints, Muslims and Hindus have smaller percentages of living veterans relative to their adult populations.

Part of the explanation is demographic. Veterans are disproportionately older Americans. Religious communities established in the United States for generations have had more opportunities to accumulate living veterans, while communities that expanded rapidly through recent immigration are generally younger.

But percentages tell only part of the story. The history of military service among America’s religious minorities is extraordinary.

More than 550,000 Jewish Americans served during World War II, fighting an enemy systematically exterminating Jews across Europe. Approximately 11,000 died in military service.

Japanese American soldiers, including Buddhists, fought for the United States while many of their families were imprisoned in American internment camps. The 442nd Regimental Combat Team became one of the most decorated units of its size in American military history.

Sikhs have served in the American military for more than a century, sometimes confronting regulations that restricted their religious practices. Expanded military accommodations for turbans, beards and uncut hair have made it easier for observant Sikhs to serve while maintaining their faith.

These histories reflect different paths into American life. Some families have served for generations. Others arrived more recently, bringing religious traditions that were unfamiliar to much of the country. Their service also reflects a distinctive American promise: people can maintain their religious identities while participating fully in the nation’s defense.

On Veterans Day, we do not ask how our veterans prayed. We remember what they were willing to sacrifice so the rest of us could pray as we choose.

Sources

A Morocco Plan for Israel

Posted on by
Reply

The United Nations may have discovered a new approach to resolving territorial disputes. It is called accepting reality.

For fifty years, Morocco has controlled most of Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony. It has built cities, roads, ports and businesses, and encouraged Moroccans to make their homes there. Their children and grandchildren have grown up knowing no other home.

The indigenous Sahrawi people have long demanded independence. In 1991, the UN established a peacekeeping mission to organize a referendum on their future. The vote never happened.

So Morocco continued developing the territory while the UN continued demanding self-determination. For decades, neither side moved.

Recently, something remarkable happened.

In October 2025, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2797, making Morocco’s proposal for Sahrawi autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty the basis for negotiations. The UN was prepared to consider a future that accommodated Moroccan control rather than reversed it.

“a just, lasting, and mutually acceptable solution to the dispute; affirming
that genuine autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty could constitute a most feasible solution; and further welcoming the commitment of Council members to facilitate progress” – UNSC Resolution 2797

A year later, the Security Council failed to renew the referendum mission. After 35 years, the UN was closing a mission that had never held its referendum.

Consider what this means for Israel.

In 1967, Israel took control of Judea and Samaria, including eastern Jerusalem, from Jordan. Jordan had seized the territory in 1948 and annexed it in 1950, an illegal claim that received almost no international recognition. During Jordanian rule, Jewish communities were ethnically cleansed, including from the Old City of Jerusalem and Gush Etzion.

Jews had lived in these places long before 1948. Hebron, Bethlehem, Shiloh and Beit El are central to Jewish history and religion. The Jewish connection to these places predates Morocco, Spain and the United Nations. In modern times, the lands were central to the international Palestine Mandate establishing a Jewish homeland.

Today, more than half a million Jews live in Judea and Samaria. They have built communities, schools, synagogues and businesses. Their children and grandchildren have grown up knowing no other home.

Israel has not formally annexed Judea and Samaria, although some Israeli leaders advocate doing so. Yet the UN continues to demand an end to Jewish construction, including natural growth, and declares Jewish communities established since 1967 to have no legal validity.

The UN is now prepared to negotiate a solution in which Sahrawis could govern their own affairs without requiring Moroccan families to abandon their homes. Why should the same possibility be excluded for Palestinian Arabs and Jews?

A Morocco Plan for Israel would begin with the people who actually live there. Palestinian Arabs would govern their own affairs, with meaningful political and civil rights. Jewish communities would remain. Sovereignty and security would be negotiated without making the removal of Jewish families a prerequisite.

For decades, the UN has condemned Israel for changing the demographic realities of Judea and Samaria. In Western Sahara, it has now made those same realities the starting point for negotiations.

Perhaps the UN has learned something from Morocco. It is time to apply that lesson to Israel.

A Fresh Start on Immigration

Posted on by
Reply

The November elections offer an opportunity to reconsider how governments should treat people who have lived for decades in communities where their legal right to remain is challenged.

Hundreds of thousands have built their lives in these communities. They work, pay taxes, own homes, establish businesses and raise families. They have become part of the social and economic fabric of the places they call home.

Many were born there. Their parents and grandparents established roots decades ago. They attend local schools, speak the language and know no other home. Why should children bear the consequences of decisions made before they were born?

Critics argue that their presence violates the law and that granting legal recognition would reward unlawful behavior. But laws can change, and governments must weigh legal obligations against the human consequences of uprooting established communities.

Mass removal would separate families from their homes, destroy businesses and empty neighborhoods. Decades of peaceful residence create human interests that cannot simply be dismissed.

These are familiar arguments in the American debate over immigration enforcement and the treatment of undocumented immigrants.

Those same humanitarian considerations arise in another debate involving more than half a million Jews living in Judea and Samaria.

An ancient doorway in Herodium in Judea, sealed with rocks until it can be secured (photo: First One Through)

Those advocating changes to ICE’s enforcement policies emphasize family unity and the human costs of removal. Those principles can also inform discussions about Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.

Imagine French Leftists Opposing a Tibetan Real Estate Fair

Posted on by
Reply

Imagine Tibetan Buddhist monks helping organize a private real estate fair in Paris for Tibetan families interested in buying homes in their ancestral homeland.

As a matter of politics, China governs Tibet and considers it an integral part of its territory and rejects Tibetan independence. As a matter of religion, history and heritage, Tibetans have maintained their connections to their homeland for centuries.

The real estate event is a test between these viewpoints.

The fair brings together developers, real estate agents, lawyers and families considering where to live, raise children and rebuild their communities. But against this personal desire, imagine French left-wing politicians and activists calling for the fair to be prohibited, accusing organizers of facilitating international crimes and questioning whether French citizens relocating there should continue receiving consular services.

There would undoubtedly be questions about why a private gathering of families and property professionals had become the subject of such political scrutiny.

Now replace the Tibetan families with Jewish families, and Tibet with Israel.

On November 15, the privately organized Icube Israeli real estate fair is scheduled to hold its 95th edition in Paris. Established in 1990, the fair brings together developers, brokers, lawyers, financial advisers and families interested in purchasing homes in Israel. It has enflamed anti-Israel agitators and politicians.

Aymeric Caron called for authorities to prohibit an October aliyah fair, alleging that it promoted immigration to what he described as illegal Israeli settlements.

Ersilia Soudais reportedly sought cancellation of similar events in Paris, Marseille and Lyon.

Andrée Taurinya accused French authorities of “complicit silence” for allowing aliyah fairs and raised allegations of complicity in war crimes. She also proposed restrictions on consular services for French citizens living in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.

Sylvie Ferrer, in a November 3 parliamentary question, specifically raised concerns about the upcoming November 15 Icube event, citing its previous exhibitors and alleged connections to settlement-related projects.

The controversy has also reached the media. TRT Français has published critical coverage of Israeli real estate fairs in Paris, highlighting allegations about properties in disputed territories and reporting calls for demonstrations against the events.

All this is unfolding in France, where antisemitic incidents have increased sharply and many Jewish families are reconsidering their future.

If there would be no outcry of Tibetan monks holding a real estate fair to buy property in Tibet, there should be no cause célèbre for Jews buying property in the Jewish holy land.

They Rebranded The Jihad And Joined It

Posted on by
2

Hamas called its October 7, 2023 war “Al-Aqsa Flood”. The name announced its ambition to ignite a religious war that would mobilize the Muslim world against Israel and ultimately destroy the Jewish state.

The attack began in southern Israel, far from Jerusalem. Hamas terrorists invaded Jewish communities, murdered families, raped and slaughtered young people at a music festival, and dragged 251 hostages into Gaza. Yet the operation was named for Al-Aqsa Mosque, on the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site.

Al Aqsa Mosque
Al Aqsa Mosque (photo: First One Through)

Jerusalem was the rallying cry. The destruction of Israel was the objective.

Hamas’s 1988 founding charter called for Israel’s destruction via jihad, invoked religious teachings about killing Jews, and envisioned an Islamic Palestine encompassing the entire land.

On October 7, Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif called on Muslims throughout the region to join the battle. He summoned armed organizations in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen and appealed to Arabs in Jerusalem, the Negev, the Galilee, and across Israel to rise up. Al-Aqsa, located on the site of the ancient Jewish Temples, provided the religious banner under which Hamas hoped to unite Muslims across national borders.

“Today, the people are bringing back the revolution and reviving the March of return.” [Arabs in Jerusalem and inside Israel, in the Negev, the Galilee and the Triangle area:] “set the earth on fire under the feet of the occupiers.” – Mohammed Deif on October 7, 2023

Hezbollah answered the following day, attacking Israel from Lebanon. The Houthis subsequently launched missiles and drones from Yemen and attacked commercial shipping in the Red Sea. Iranian-backed militias joined the fighting from Iraq and Syria. Iran, which had spent decades arming and financing organizations dedicated to Israel’s destruction, eventually attacked Israel directly.

The war spread across the region, drawing in Iran’s network of armed allies. The broader Muslim uprising Hamas sought, however, never materialized. Egypt and Jordan maintained their peace treaties with Israel. Saudi Arabia stayed out of the fighting. Muslim-majority countries across Asia and Africa condemned Israel’s military campaign but kept their armies at home.

Most revealing was the response of Israeli Arabs, whom Deif had specifically called upon to rise against Israel, hoping they would further their war against the Jews they had started in May 2021.

Yet they overwhelmingly stayed out of the fighting. A December 2023 Israel Democracy Institute survey found that 56% agreed the October 7 attack did not reflect the values of Arab society, the Palestinian people, or Islam. Nearly two-thirds felt part of Israel and its problems, while 86.5% supported civilian volunteering during the war. [Note that the Israeli Arab response about feeling part of Israel varied by religion: Druze (80%), Christians (73%) and Muslims (62%)].

Israeli Muslims had access to Al-Aqsa. They could judge Hamas’s claims about the mosque against their own experience.

Israeli Muslim women descend from the Temple Mount (photo: First One Through)

While Hamas’s appeal for a mass Muslim uprising went largely unanswered, a very different movement was taking shape thousands of miles away.

On October 12, five days after the massacre, National Students for Justice in Palestine organized a “Day of Resistance” on American college campuses. Its organizing materials celebrated October 7 massacre as a historic victory for Palestinian resistance and called for the dismantling of Zionism.

“Long live October 7th” banner in New York City

The language spread through campuses, demonstrations, and activist networks. Some Western radicals celebrated the attack on Israeli civilians as resistance against colonialism. Hamas’s religious struggle acquired the vocabulary of progressive politics that had been promoted on campuses over the prior decade.

As the war continued, international attention increasingly centered on Israel’s military campaign, Palestinian civilian suffering, and smears of apartheid, colonialism, and genocide. Within activist narratives celebrating October 7, Hamas’s original declaration of a religious war and its eliminationist objectives disappeared behind the language of so-called “liberation.”

Hamas declared a jihad against the Jewish state but Israeli Arabs overwhelmingly declined the call. Yet Western radicals thousands of miles away celebrated the massacre as “liberation,” volunteering to become the political instruments of a jihad they mistook for social justice.