Category Archives: Jews

Unpacking The Ignored “Jerusalem Program”

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The World Zionist Organization amended its Jerusalem Program in February 2024, not long after the horrible massacre of around 1,200 people in Israel by thousands of Gazans. The original WZO platform was the “Basel Program” of 1897, adopted at the First Zionist Congress convened by Theodor Herzl. It has been amended through the years, including in 1951 (after Israel was established), 1968 (after Jerusalem was unified) and 2004 (amidst the “Second Intifada”).

The current Jerusalem Program states:

  • The unity of the Jewish people, its bond to its historic homeland Eretz Yisrael, and the centrality of the State of Israel and Jerusalem, its capital, in the life of the nation;
  • Aliyah to Israel from all countries and the effective integration of all immigrants into Israeli society.
  • Strengthening Israel as a Jewish, Zionist and democratic state and shaping it as an exemplary society with a unique moral and spiritual character, marked by mutual respect for the multi-faceted Jewish people, rooted in the vision of the prophets, striving for peace and contributing to the betterment of the world.
  • Ensuring the future and the distinctiveness of the Jewish people by furthering Jewish, Hebrew and Zionist education, fostering spiritual and cultural values and teaching Hebrew as the national language;
  • Nurturing mutual Jewish responsibility, defending the rights of Jews as individuals and as a nation, representing the national Zionist interests of the Jewish people, and struggling against all manifestations of anti-Semitism;
  • Settling the country as an expression of practical Zionism.
  • Encouraging recruitment and service in the Israel Defense Forces and the security forces and strengthening them as the protective force of the Jewish people living in Zion, as well as encouraging full National Service for anyone exempted in law from service in the IDF.

The various statements above can be unpacked into three general categories: Global Jewry; the Land of Israel; and the State of Israel. It echoes Gil Troy’s definition of Zionism: Jews are a nation; Jews have ties to their particular homeland in the land of Israel; and that Jews have a right to establish a state in that homeland.

Global Jewry

“The unity of the Jewish people”: Global Jewry likely appreciates and believes in the concept of unity, whatever that term means.

“Aliyah to Israel from all countries and the effective integration of all immigrants into Israeli society.”: The statement lacks an introduction – is this encouraging and supporting aliyah or physically making aliyah? Whether they move to Israel or not, diaspora Jewry likely wants to see new immigrants absorbed into Israel effectively.

“Ensuring the future and the distinctiveness of the Jewish people by furthering Jewish, Hebrew … education,”: Most of diaspora Jewry attends public school and has assimilated into the local culture. In the United States, this is particularly true of Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism. While many diaspora Jews may appreciate Jewish and Hebrew education, they do not necessarily want to be viewed as “distinct” from their fellow countrymen. “Zionist education,” is perhaps even more foreign to Reform and Reconstructionist diaspora Jews. Using Zionist education as a tool for “distinctiveness” likely rings hollow for many, especially if “Zionism” relates more to a country or government, rather than the land.

“Nurturing mutual Jewish responsibility, defending the rights of Jews as individuals and as a nation” and “struggling against all manifestations of anti-Semitism”: Antisemitism in the diaspora is against Jews as a people, while antisemitism in Israel is against Jews as both a country and a people.

Land of Israel

“bond to its historic homeland Eretz Yisrael”: The land of Israel is the Jewish homeland. It is part of what binds Jewish people together, the common inheritance from our forefathers.

“Aliyah to Israel from all countries and the effective integration of all immigrants into Israeli society.”: As above, making “aliyah” is about the holiness of the land. Jews have made aliyah for thousands of years before there was the modern State of Israel.

“Ensuring the future and the distinctiveness of the Jewish people by furthering Jewish, Hebrew and Zionist education”: Zionism, as it relates to the land of Israel would not be controversial to even unaffiliated Jews.

“Settling the country as an expression of practical Zionism”: The phrasing here is interesting. It refers to settling the “country,” not the land. Does that mean only within the internationally recognized borders rather than the entirety of the land of Israel which would include east of the 1949 Armistice Lines (E49AL / Judea and Samaria / West Bank)? The clause describes “practical Zionism.” Does that limit where Jews move or does it encourage Jews moving to certain parts of the land? This clause is very open to interpretation.

State of Israel

The statements in the Jerusalem Program as they relate to the State of Israel are arguably difficult for a few slates in the 2025 World Zionist Congress (WZC) election in the United States run by the American Zionist Movement (AZM), based on public statements to date. This is true of the Hatikvah slate which includes Reconstructionist and Renewal branches of Judaism, and progressive groups like New Jewish Narrative (merger of Americans for Peace Now and Ameinu), T’ruah and J Street, as well as Vote REFORM.

“centrality of the State of Israel and Jerusalem, its capital, in the life of the nation”: Several members on the slates mentioned above have openly stated that they believe that Jerusalem is NOT the capital of Israel and not central to Judaism or the Jewish nation.

“Strengthening Israel as a Jewish, Zionist and democratic state”: There is arguably little for diaspora Jews to do regarding the internal workings of the state of Israel. How and why should Jews from around the world get involved with Israel’s political dynamics and rules put in place to strengthen or weaken its democratic character. People would not want Israeli Jews messing with their own government structure.

“representing the national Zionist interests of the Jewish people”: It makes sense for Israel to represent “Zionist interests” as it is the embodiment of the Zionist goal. The statement seems self-evident, unless there is a movement to create a second Jewish state somewhere else.

“Encouraging recruitment and service in the Israel Defense Forces and the security forces and strengthening them as the protective force of the Jewish people living in Zion, as well as encouraging full National Service for anyone exempted in law from service in the IDF.”: This sentence was added in the latest 2024 Jerusalem Program as a reaction to the October 7, 2023 massacre. The military conscription policies of the sovereign State of Israel are only matters for the government of Israel and its citizens, and should not be a matter of diaspora Jewry influence. Therefore, this language must be a call to encourage diaspora Jews to join the IDF. While many people do volunteer service even if not a dual-citizen, the statement is problematic. While it is not inherently illegal to serve in a foreign armed service, it could be construed as a step to relinquishing citizenship in the home country, and particularly problematic as governments and situations change.

One must be amazed that there are many current members of the Israeli Knesset who could not affirm this Jerusalem Program which is being demanded of American Jewry to participate in the WZC elections.

AZM rules for eligibility in the 2025 WZC elections

As detailed above, the Jerusalem Program has continued to evolve with pivotal changes to the State of Israel. It suggests that Zionism has morphed with and for the State of Israel, while it may or may not have changed for diaspora Jewry.

Consider Troy’s definition of Zionism referred to above: that Jews are a nation with ties to the land of Israel and have a right to sovereignty in that land. The current Jerusalem Program extends Zionism to encourage diaspora Jews to join the Israeli army to fight for that country. That is a long way from believing in the right of a Jewish State.

The calls for Jewish unity have been consistent and not controversial. The statements related to the Land of Israel get a tad more thorny as the text is ambiguous about the borders of the land, and whether they reflect the full holy land or just internationally recognized borders. Lastly, the State of Israel text is the most difficult for many diaspora Jews.

Many Jews participate in the WZC election who do not believe in the Jerusalem Program. Rabbi Alissa Wise, co-founder of the Rabbinical Council of the anti-Zionist Jewish Voice for Peace ran on a progressive slate some years ago as did Peter Beinart. Today, the Reform Movement is attempting to get out the vote deliberately not telling people about the Jerusalem Program. It does this to funnel monies – over $1 billion per year – to advocate for THEIR causes, not the causes outlined in the Jerusalem Program.

The Vote Reform site makes no mention of affirming the Jerusalem Program as a condition to vote

Voting for the World Zionist Congress runs from March 10 until May 4, 2025 and people are lobbying to get people to vote for their slates without knowing the incorporated affirmation. People should read the Jerusalem Program before they vote, and see whether they are comfortable with the 2024 amended language, and believe that people on the slates really endorse such program as well.

Related articles:

Judaism Is Uniquely Tied To The Land Of Israel (December 2023)

A Core Tenet of Zionism Is Combatting Anti-Semitism (January 2022)

American Jewry is Right on Israel (March 2020)

Members of Knesset and the Jerusalem Program (March 2020)

A Review of the Fifteen US Slates for the World Zionist Congress (February 2020)

Facts and Stats about the World Zionist Congress Elections (February 2020)

Losing the Temples, Knowledge and Caring (July 2015)

The New York Times Is Halal

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The barbaric October 7 massacre was the largest slaughter of Jews in the Jewish holy land in almost 2,000 years. Gazans perpetrated the attack on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, when Jews celebrate finishing and restarting reading the Pentateuch each year. The pogrom was on Saturday, the Jewish holy day of rest. It was also on the fiftieth anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, when Islamic Arab armies invaded Israel in 1973, on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.

In covering the war in various articles on that dark day, The New York Times did not mention that thousands of Gazans decided to invade Israel during the joyful holiday of Simchat Torah. Whether deliberate or not, the large media company headquartered in the city with the largest number of Jews in the Jewish diaspora did not add color that the Palestinian jihadists murdered Jews while the Jewish State celebrated an important religious holiday.

Not so for the woke paper’s coverage of the Gazan-initiated war regarding Islamic holidays.

The Times made a point of telling its readers that the latest fighting in the War From Gaza happened during the month-long Islamic holiday of Ramadan. The insertion of the fact had nothing to do with recounting the military timeline in the sentence or paragraph. It had nothing to do with the entire article. Unless it was the Times’ intent to tell its readers that “the Israeli assault” happened while the parties were “negotiating the next steps in the truce” while Muslims in Gaza were celebrating a religious holiday, to make the Israelis out to be particularly heartless.

New York Times article on March 18, 2025

Perhaps it was just trying to inform its increasing Muslim readership that it the paper is halal.

The Times has long proved its anti-Israel and antisemitic bona fides. It is seemingly looking to promote its pro-Islamic credentials at this time.

Related articles:

NYTimes Says Nasrallah Was Paragon Of Coexistence (September 2024)

NYTimes Said Israel Killed Man Of Peace In Assassination Of Leader Of Hamas (July 2024)

The New York Times Lies About Ben-Gvir And Muslim Arabs Regarding Temple Mount Visit (January 2023)

New York Times’ Muslim Anti-Semitism Washing (October 2022)

New York Times Active Reduction of The Jewish Temple Mount (May 2022)

New York Times Mum on Muslim Anti-Semitism (January 2022)

For The New York Times, “From the River to the Sea” Is The Chant of Jewish and Christian Zealots (May 2020)

The New York Times All Out Assault on Jewish Jerusalem (September 2019)

New York Times Whitewashes Grotesque Antisemitism At Columbia In Wave Of Articles This Weekend

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Columbia University had a horrific record of antisemitism on campus in the years preceding the October 7, 2023 massacre in Israel that ramped up even more Jew-hatred on campus. In 2019, Alums For Campus Fairness produced a 33-page report documenting dozens of incidents including swastikas drawn on walls, mezuzahs ripped from doors and Jewish history denial from Columbia professors.

Office of Jewish professor at Columbia University covered with swastikas in November 2018

After the October 7 Gazan massacre of Israelis, it became open season on Jews at the formerly esteemed school grounds.

The Jew hatred was so intense that a rabbi at the school advised Jewish students to leave campus because the administration had abandoned them. The school president was forced to resign as anti-Israel agitators broke into buildings and blocked access for Jewish students repeatedly, and the school took little to no action to protect Jewish students despite government warnings.

In light of the school administration’s inaction, the US government began to step in. It sent a letter to Columbia’s interim president Katrina Armstrong on February 13, 2025 listing many of the antisemitic activities at the school, writing it was distressed that “Columbia has allowed these activities to continue.” It demanded that the school produce files related to eleven incidents which took place on campus from April 2024 through January 2025, within two weeks.

In March, the Trump administration began taking action, including suspending grants to the university and taking a leader of the anti-Israel horde into custody. The Trump Administration sent another letter to Columbia on March 13, 2025 demanding action because the university “has fundamentally failed to protect American students and faculty from antisemitic violence and harassment.” (emphasis added)

These are all plain facts. Yet in news article after article, and opinion article after opinion over the weekend of March 15, the New York Times would not refer to antisemitism at Columbia. The preferred – and only – narrative was that President Trump was waging war on free speech and opinions he didn’t like.

Somehow, there was no anti-Jewish conduct anywhere at Columbia and Barnard, just a suppression of “pro-Palestinian” speech that created a “volatile and dangerous” atmosphere FOR THE PROTESTORS.

This was clearly deliberate. The Times was seeking to both inflame the public against the Trump Administration as well as to lay a foundational defense for foreign students on American campuses. Framing the situation as free speech versus systemic anti-Jewish conduct is a get-out-of-jail card that Hamas Defenders hope to play.

Jew hatred on college campuses is not just prevalent but systemic and buttressed by a progressive media. It is part of a socialist-jihadi alliance which aims to remove the beleaguered minority-minority from positions of power and influence and replace them with people from the Global South.

Those positions include the physical presence on college campuses as well as in their Jewish homeland.

To whitewash the blatant antisemitism at universities, the socialist-jihadi media avoids mentioning the Jew hatred and attempts to rally the world to save higher education.

The New York Times has attempted to reframe the antisemitic actions at Columbia as a confrontation between an authoritarian Trump Administration and free speech and higher education. In such worldview, the Jewish victims are omitted from the narrative, a nuisance in the progressives’ war for their victims of preference.

Related articles:

Columbia University Sets New Standards For Free Speech (December 2024)

The “N-word” And “Free Palestine” (September 2024)

Peacefully Calling For The Annihilation Of Jews (May 2024)

Columbia University Completely Fails Mission. And Jews (October 2023)

“An anti-Semitic Tinge” (July 2014)

“Tinge” Two. Idioms for Idiots (July 2014)

The Global South Is Coming For The UN Security Council

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The United Nations has 193 countries in the General Assembly, and 134, roughly 70%, are located in what is generally called the “Global South”, a term that has emerged to replace “third world” and “developing economies.” The region accounts for about 80% of the global population, with the difference in figures mostly due to the two largest populations – India and China – being located in the region.

The UN has many committees and agencies. Of all of them, the UN Security Council is the most significant, being the sole entity that can pass international laws. It has five permanent members – China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the USA – and ten non-permanent members which serve two year terms. More than 50 members of the UN have never served on the UNSC, including Israel.

The current UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, thinks that the current UNSC needs to be refashioned for the modern world. He bemoans the fact that no African country has a permanent seat on the council, and the ability for the five permanent members to veto resolutions has allowed some wars – like in Ukraine and Gaza – to continue for too long. He also believes that capitalism as dictated by the Global North has kept the Global South in poverty by charging higher rates of interest and not forgiving debt.

US President Joe Biden favored allowing two African countries to become permanent members of the UNSC but objected to their obtaining veto powers. He thought that the current system of veto rights already made the committee unproductive and adding more members with such rights would impede it further. Others countered that it was time to remove all veto rights. Still others like India, the world’s most populous country, demanded a seat on the committee as well. Arab countries took the opportunity to demand the same.

Negotiations will play out over 2025, with a new US administration under Donald Trump who is much more weary of multilateralism and the United Nations generally. The discussions will mainly focus on Africa, where most of the global growth in population is occurring.

China has invested heavily in Africa, accounting for roughly one-third of the infrastructure projects, and now has global trade of $282 billion with the continent. Its actions helped it surpass the United States in terms of popularity (58% to 56%). The US must consider how it interacts with the African continent directly and what steps it takes at the UN as it fights its shadow war with China.

Those who spend their lives focused on the UN and global politics have been debating which two countries should join the UNSC. If the seats go to the countries with the largest economies, it would favor South Africa ($373 billion) and Egypt ($347 billion). If it is awarded based on population, it would go to Nigeria (232 million) and Ethiopia (132 million). Others consider the Democratic Republic of Congo (109 million and one of the fastest growing population at +3.3% in 2024) which has been decimated by ongoing violence. Including a country which has longed for peace might make sense at the Security Council.

For people who focus on another country which has dreamed of calm – the Jewish State of Israel – the changes to the UNSC are extremely important.

Overall, the Global South is much more anti-Israel than the Global North. All 28 countries that refuse to recognize the State of Israel are located there. Almost every country in the Global South recognizes Palestine while a minority of the Global North recognizes such entity.

Since the Iranian Proxies War on Israel, South Africa has led the charge against Israel at the International Court of Justice, claiming Israel’s defensive war was a “genocide.” Those joining South Africa were almost all from the Global South, with the exceptions of Belgium, Ireland and Spain from Europe.

The dynamic of a change at the UNSC will not only impact Israel but possibly Jews around the world as witnessed by the spike of global antisemitic attacks since the October 7 massacre. In the United States, the majority of international students at universities come from the Global South, and an empowerment of their voices at the Security Council may exacerbate Jew hatred everywhere.

While people are focused on the genocidal jihad that brought violence against Jews in Israel and the United States watching movies like October 8, attention must include the impending harm that may come to Jews everywhere with changes at the United Nations Security Council.

ACTION ITEM

Write the White House to share your concerns of changes to the United Nations Security Council

Related articles:

Global South’s Beachhead On American Universities (March 2025)

Van Hollen Is Grossly Ignorant About Zionism And The Indignity Of UNSC 2334 (January 2025)

Jews Are A Minority-Minority (November 2023)

Context For “Intifada”

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Hamas Defenders (like the Arab world and universities) and their defenders (politicians and progressive Jews) – HDDs – have tried to reeducate the West about both the English and Arabic languages.

At congressional hearings, HDDs told senators that “Intifada” just means “shaking off” and did not mean the slaughter of Jews, despite the Second Intifada killing 1,000 Jews – almost all civilians – and resulting in more restrictions on Palestinians, like the Security Barrier which ended that intifada.

Those hearings had the head of the Arab American Institute also share that “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free,” is not a call for killing Jews but just the liberation of local Arabs.

That same speaker said that “Glory to our martyrs” plastered on buildings might only be interpreted as antisemitic if the buildings were synagogues or Jewish centers, but simply free speech if it was in public where Jews would see it going to school.

WESPAC-backed Palestine Youth Movement masked members plastering “Glory To Our Martyrs” on top of the map of Israel, at train stations in New York

HDDs said there was no hate crime when professors said the massive slaughter of Jews on October 7 was “exhilarating” to a crowd, or when students held signs pointing at Jews that read “al Qassam next targets.” Not just not a crime, but not even hate.

Masked Columbia student calling for Hamas missile strike on Jewish students

They accuse Jews of being too sensitive.

When HDDs accuse Israel of committing “genocide” and behaving like “Nazis” committing “ethnic cleansing” while engaged in “apartheid,” they attempt to strip the victims of European and Arab countries’ atrocities of their history and memory and desecrate the memories of 6 million Jews.

As HDDs refer to the raping of Jewish women, burning families alive and kidnapping Holocaust survivors a form of “justified resistance,” they seek to insult the memories of the Jewish dead and have the world condemn the innocent as evil “occupiers.”

NYC mob waving flags of Palestinian terrorist groups including Hamas and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine chanting for “Intifada revolution” in front of exhibit about the Gazan slaughter of innocents at the Nova Music Festival in Israel on October 7, 2023

It is an attempted institutional gaslighting of Jews.

When HDDs testify that chants like “there is only one solution, Intifada Revolution,” require “context” and must be “targeted and pervasive” in order for school administrations to even consider taking action, they don’t pause to consider Jews being locked in rooms for their safety or fleeing campus because schools won’t protect them. FOR MONTHS.

Jewish students in downtown NYC barricade themselves in a library from a horde

They believe that Jews are too powerful to be at risk and are crying wolf.

The Democratic Socialists have declared every White person and Israeli part of the colonialist regime and are therefore all guilty and thereby legitimate targets for violence. Even babies.

Democratic Socialists of America siding with Hamas arguing that all forms of violence are legitimate in an effort of “liberation”

Jewish HDDs (they are mostly in the second ‘D’ in HDD) accuse their fellow Jews of being tools of antisemitic Republicans who are using them to dismantle the education system and suppress free speech. They add that those Jews who complain about antisemitism are right-wing racists who are putting international and minority groups at risk by complaining to authorities.

These Jewish members of the socialist-jihadi alliance don’t fret acting as fig leaves for genocidal antisemitic comrades.

That has become the American landscape into which Jews step out of their front doors every day. Walking the streets, quietly wearing a yellow ribbon for the hostages held by Gazans and members of the United Nations, they are accosted with accusations that Jews and Zionists are evil and deserve neither dignity nor empathy. Even more, that Jews must relinquish their history and rights or face the firing squad before a cheering crowd.

Diaspora Jews are being groomed for slaughter. The operators of the slaughterhouses are in the awkward early days of learning how to keep the human cattle from acting up as they get processed. For the moment, they are playing with language and attempting to invert victim and assailant to enlist sympathy from the masses to join in the massacre.

Watching their growing ranks including progressive and anti-Zionist Jews as well as politicians, empowers the HDD movement that it is on the right track.

Members of Jewish Voice for Peace take over Trump Tower on March 13, 2025

The context of the Global Intifada is that Jews and the Jewish State are considered part of the White Imperialist and Capitalist world. All are inherently guilty and therefore should not be allowed to defend themselves. HDDs are telling you that to be on the right side of history, everyone has to take up the cause and confront Zionists and White people wherever they are.

The pathetic joke is that the mantra is being stoked principally by foreign actors of the Global South on American soil under our own noses.

Gaza’s Defenders Condemn It (February 2025)

The Quantitative Shield For A Qualitative Problem (March 2024)

Jordan’s King Abdullah Excuses Palestinian Barbarity (October 2023)

Palestinian Inversion Of Facts Based On Refusal To Coexist (July 2022)

Hamas’s Willing Executioners (July 2021)

Names and Narrative: Zionist Entity and Colonial Occupier (May 2019)

The Palestinians aren’t “Resorting to Violence”; They are Murdering and Waging War (November 2014)

Eyal Gilad Naftali Klinghoffer. The new Blood Libel. (June 2014)

Global South’s Beachhead On American Universities

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American universities are in trouble.

Fewer people are going to college and graduate schools. Some of the drop-off relates to people having fewer children so the absolute number of people going to school has been declining. But the percentage of students going from high school to advanced degrees has also fallen considerably. Even in the years before the pandemic, the decline in high schoolers going to college dropped from 70% in 2016 to 63% in 2020. The figure dropped to 61.4% in 2023, with men being the most likely to skip college with only 57.6% opting for that education. The rates for Whites and Blacks were roughly the same at 59.9% and 59.6%, respectively, with Hispanics being lower at 51.8% and Asians surpassing every group at 84.7%. The overall impact can be seen in 2010 college enrollment of 10.2 million women and 7.8 million men, dropping to 8.9 million (-12.7%) and 6.5 million (-16.7%), respectively in 2021.

The reasons that most Americans are skipping college include a strong job market paying good wages, the desire to avoid college debt, people pursuing jobs that don’t require advanced degrees, and the ability to learn many skills online.

To address the declining enrollment, universities are taking many more international students. In the 2023/24 academic year, U.S. universities had over 1.1 million foreign students, a record. These students mostly came from the “Global South,” the emerging, principally non-White economies. The majority of students came from southeast Asia including India (331k), China (277k), Nepal, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Taiwan. No European country was in the top ten. The only countries in the top ten which are part of the Global North were South Korea and Canada. The countries with the largest spike in students over the past year were all from the Global South including Ghana (+45%), Bangladesh (+26%), India (+23%), Iran (+15%) and Nigeria (+13%).

Global North in blue and Global South in red

The student exchange is not reciprocal. Only 280,000 Americans studied abroad and the majority (64%) went to Europe, with Italy, the United Kingdom, Spain, and France dominating the destinations. Two-thirds of those students identified as White.

The Americans abroad tended to go during their undergraduate years, spending just a few months away (only 2.4% went for a year). They tended to be women (67%), and studied business and management (20%) and social sciences (18%). This is in sharp contrast to international students coming to the United States who were typically graduate students pursuing a degree in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) at 56%.

The international students are older and come for longer periods of time. They often marry and have kids while pursuing their degrees, establishing a foothold in America, while Americans-in-Europe simply have a quick experience away from home.

The universities are very happy to have these paying students fill their classrooms which are being abandoned by Americans. In 2019 and 2020, 49% of all STEM master’s degrees and 57% of all STEM doctorate degrees were conferred to international students. The economics of running courses and an institution without half the students would have required eliminating courses and teachers, and perhaps shutting whole departments.

Technology companies want and need these skilled students as future employees. Google, Apple and Microsoft count on new STEM graduates to fill their ranks each year and lobby the government accordingly. Open Doors estimates that these international students contribute roughly $50 billion to the U.S. economy, or about $5,000 per student.

The U.S. government plays a heavy hand in all of this, not only seeking to salvage American university programs and building feeders to the American technology landscape, but on a political level as well.

Two situations highlight U.S. politics driving international students to these shores: Saudi Arabia and Israel.

As the United States ramped up pressure on the Islamic Republic of Iran regarding its nuclear program from 2007 to 2015, the U.S. sought to reassure its ally, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia which is a foe of Iran. During those years, the number of Saudi students in American universities climbed from just a few thousand to over 61,000. The Saudi students learned courses like petroleum engineering to better extract and process oil, as well as nuclear physics to be able to build nuclear power on their own. Just after the nuclear agreement was signed, the number of Saudi students dropped significantly, down to under 15,000 in the 2023/24 academic year.

To highlight the insanity of the figures above, consider that there are roughly 5.5 million Saudis between the ages of 15 and 24. That means that the 61,287 Saudi students in American colleges in 2015/6 equalled one out of every 90 young Saudis studying in America. By comparison, the same calculation yields one out of 4,400 young people from Bangladesh and one out of 700 young Vietnamese studying in the U.S. Clearly the U.S. was trying to allay Saudi fears by delivering American technological know-how.

American politics playing out for international students from Israel is more explicit, and targets high school students, as long as they are Arabs.

On September 12, 2023, the U.S. embassy in Israel posted an advertisement that the U.S. State Department “is seeking a group of Arab citizens of Israel secondary school students to participate in a Study- in-the-USA initiative for high school students during the 2024-2025 school year.” (bold in original) It is backed by the YES Program Scholarship which gives “many countries with significant Muslim population an opportunity to study at American high schools and live with American host families for one academic year,” funding “all expenses in connection with the study tour including airfare, room and board, pocket money and most other costs.” It is part of the broad U.S. policy to make amends for the “War on Terror,” and selected only non-Jews from the Jewish State to learn in America.

The cherry-picking of certain types of international students demands a deeper exploration of the segments of the Global South that are in American schools.

The Global South has two principal regions as it relates to American immigrants: Latin America and everywhere else.

The United States was primarily populated by European migration from 1840 to 1920. World War I, the Great Depression and World War II stemmed immigration for several decades before it picked up with the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act. Since that time, 49% of immigrants have come from Latin America and 27% from Asia. These groups are very different. The typical immigrant from Latin America had little formalized education (only 9% of Mexicans in the US in 2022 had a college degree). That compared to those from South Asia where 72% had a college degree, 55% from Central Asia and 49% from East and Southeast Asia.

Those coming from Latin America typically came for jobs not requiring a college degree while those coming from Asia came with degrees or obtained them at American universities.

The demographics between Latin America and Asia are also very different regarding religion.

About 50 million Muslims live in the Global North which has a population of roughly 1.6 billion, or about 3% of the population. It is even lower in Latin America which has roughly 4 million Muslims out of a population of 665 million, or about 0.6%. That is is sharp contrast to roughly 1.8 billion Muslims living in the Global South with a population of 6.4 billion, or roughly 28%, or 31% x-Latin America. If one were to exclude China as well which has around 25 million Muslims, the Global South is over 41% Muslim (x-China and x-Latin America).

While China does not resemble much of the Global South in both religious demographics and not having a history of European countries on its soil, it is now in an aggressive competitive battle against the Global North for power. As such, China is leveraging its regional position alongside the Global South to wage a cultural and economic war against the West.

China and the Global South have advanced efforts to promote anarchy in the United States alongside far-left non-White movements like Justice Democrats. The calls to Defund the Police and Abolish ICE were designed to tear down walls of protection and flood the United States with people from the Global South. The chants to “Globalize the Intifada” on American campuses and streets are calls to dismantle Western civilization’s capitalism and support for the Jewish State, with a broad redistribution of wealth and power to the preferred people in the Global South.

“Intifada” protest at Columbia University streets

When people in the Global North hear the chants of “Intifada,” they recognize the vile terrorism of Palestinian Arabs blowing up buses and pizza stores in the Second Intifada. However, the Global South considers it an Arabic term meaning “shaking off” the colonialism and imperialism of the West. The South’s overriding desire of taking on western civilization overwhelms the facts that Jews are indigenous to the land of Israel and that the Intifada is a premeditated violent attack on civilians. The Islamist Global South rallies to its coreligionists.

Banner with “Intifada” hung outside Columbia University

The population on America’s campuses does not resemble the rest of America. The disproportionate number of Asians and Muslims enrolled at America’s universities come from regions which are in active competition with the West, and embrace the Stateless Arabs from Palestine’s (SAPs) jihadi war against the Jews. The universities which enroll the international students of the Global South, attempt to tie them with American minority groups whose ancestors originated from those regions. Remarkably, a cause like Black Lives Matter which has nothing to do with the Global South, becomes hitched to the Israeli Defense Forces.

These international students principally come to a few states led by California, New York, Texas, Massachusetts, Illinois and Pennsylvania. It is not a coincidence that Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is launching an investigation against 60 colleges and universities which principally are located in those states.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) on hearing about antisemitism at universities showcasing “Intifada”

The declining enrollment at American universities has led to them being taken over by international students from Asia and Africa. This has led directly to antisemitism on campuses and in the streets. It was true before the October 7 massacre and has only accelerated since then.

New York City march to “Globalize the Intifada” in September 2021, two years before the October 7 massacre by Gazans

Americans and the Global North are watching the initial battles of the Global South on the beachheads of American universities and are dumbstruck. The West would be well served to reevaluate those international students admitted to study here, and use this time to prepare for the battles to come.

ACTION ITEM

Contact the White House to vet international students coming to study at American universities, trimming the numbers coming from the Global South and making their visas conditional to peaceful behavior.

The Global South in downtown New York City taunting Jews and Israelis attending an exhibition about music lovers slaughtered by Gazans on October 7, 2023

Related articles:

Globalize The Intifada With Socialists (May 2024)

Hamas, CAIR, DSA, Within Our Lifetime, SJP Are All Gunning For Jews (May 2024)

The Normalization Deformity: No To Zionism and Peace; Yes To Massacres and Terrorism In a Global Intifada (January 2024)

Considering Campus Antisemitism (November 2023)

The Problem With Antisemitism On College Campuses Stems From Where Jews And Arabs Focused Their Donations (October 2023)

Biden Enables Anti-Semitism On College Campuses (July 2022)

The Wide Scope of Foreign Interference (November 2020)

Disgraced Jamaal Bowman Schemes In Comeback Bid

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Former Congressman Jamaal Bowman was an embarrassment to his constituents again and again.

As a member of the House of Representatives, he received a bipartisan censor for intentionally pulling a fire alarm to delay a vote, putting thousands of lives at risk. His constituents later filed a petition to have Planned Parenthood rescind their endorsement, after Bowman ranted to a crowd on the streets of Westchester, that Jewish women couldn’t be believed when they claimed rape during the October 7 massacre in Israel.

Now Bowman is starting his comeback effort after he was defeated by a fellow Democrat in last year’s primary, in a similar disgraceful manner.

First Bowman announced on February 20 that he is joining Zeteo, a media platform started by Mehdi Hasan, a former MSNBC commentator who has been charged with Jew hatred and justifying violence against Jews by various watchdog groups and individuals.

Now he announced the formation of a PAC (Political Action Committee) called Built to Win PAC. According to its website, its mission is to get non-Whites (“Black, Arab, Asian, and Latino communities”) to vote. It’s basically a sister clone of Justice Democrats, a PAC to get non-Whites into office with the backing of those communities.

So why start another PAC that does the same thing? It’s not as though Bowman’s PAC is going after conservative non-White voters; it’s using the same alt-left agenda as Justice Democrats, including supporting Gazans who initiated and supported a jihadi genocidal massacre against Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023.

Bowman knows he has a terrible record. His brand is so tainted that he needed to go around the country including California and Virginia with other members of Congress to try to raise money during his failed primary run.

A new congressional run – perhaps this time for Rep. Ritchie Torres’s seat in NY-15 if Torres decides to run for governor against the unpopular Kathy Hochul – would require money that may not be so forthcoming to a censored former politician. As such, creating a new PAC BEFORE he announces his intention to enter a race, could give him several advantages:

  • He may be able to market the cause more successfully if it isn’t about him personally
  • He gets practice stumping and meeting donors without being forced to disclose his numerous failings
  • Bowman can use the Zeteo platform with Mehdi to go even more viciously anti-Israel than Justice Democrats may be willing to go, perhaps unlocking deep jihadi pockets
  • Disclosure rules are more lax for PACs. Pro-terrorist groups have easier times giving money to blind pools than individual candidates. Bowman can court antisemitic donors with greater ease

Should Bowman enter the race, he may attempt to repurpose this PAC to himself. This is a tactic that was used by Rick Scott who took over the New Republican PAC in 2016. Scott’s moves in this regard brought multiple investigations. As the non-partisan group OpenSecrets stated about the issue, “Federal law would prohibit an announced federal candidate or campaign from coordinating with either state-level committees or federal super PACs, which can take unlimited corporate money that federal candidates are not permitted to receive.” Campaign Legal Center wrote at that time “Campaign finance laws are in place to prevent schemes like this one that hide information from voters about which wealthy special interests are spending big money to secretly influence our votes and our government.” Imagine these aren’t “wealthy special interests” seeking profit but groups out to destroy America and its allies.

Built to Win PAC may become the alt-left anti-Israel piggybank for Bowman and his co-host on Zeteo, Cori Bush, who made their losses all about the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC rather than their own failings.

Bowman’s reemergence on two platforms: Zeteo to engage the public in race-baiting, and with a PAC to draw in unlimited monies, is potentially a cause for serious alarm for the country, especially Jews in the midst of a horrifying spike in antisemitism.

Rep. Jamaal Bowman throwing tantrum in profanity-laced rant on stage about AIPAC

As Ritchie Torres Runs For Governor, Who Will Protect NY-15 From Jamaal Bowman? (November 2024)

Jamaal Bowman Is The Complete Package No One Wants (April 2024)

AIPAC’s Open Tent Versus Justice Democrats Niche Extremism (April 2024)

This Purim’s Only Costume Is Bibas Batman

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The latest Batman movie franchise focused on his arch-villain Joker. The deranged psychopath had a restless fan club who relished Joker’s “resistance” and rejection of societal norms. The masses donned their own clown masks to feel empowered alongside their hero who took on authority in an attempt to unleash anarchy to redistribute wealth and power to the horde on the streets. Their affiliate masks also enabled themselves to remain anonymous to carry out mayhem without consequences.

The comic world is playing out in the real world as the genocidal jihadists of Hamas are celebrated in the West Bank and Gaza as well as several cities around the world. The depraved slaughtering of Jewish civilians inside Israel on October 7, 2023 was greeted with wide support in Gaza and east of the 1949 Armistice Lines (E49AL). Hamas enthusiasts outside the Middle East have likewise donned masks and attack and harass Jews and Jewish institutions around the world in support of a “global intifada” against Jews and their supporters.

Masked pro-Hamas people at Columbia University

Batman also wore a mask but for different reasons. He sought to protect society from the dark underbelly of man’s worst tendencies. He chose to remain anonymous so that he could work for society as a businessman, as well as to protect the people he loves from attack. He wanted his anonymity to be a motivator for the public, that anyone you saw on the street could be the secreted protector of peace.

Bruce Wayne explains why he wears a mask during The Dark Knight Rises

Jews have a tradition of wearing costumes during the holiday of Purim which commemorates when a genocidal lunatic sought to kill the Jews in Persia (modern Iran) 2,400 years ago but failed to do so. The Persian Jews were able to turn the genocide on its head, first killing the evil instigator, his family and 500 associates, before wiping out 75,000 enemies in the provinces. These days, some Jews dress up like characters from the story as conveyed in the Scroll of Esther, while others dress in costumes to comment on current events.

For Purim 2025, I suggest that people honor the memory of the Bibas children, Ariel and Kfir, who were four years old and nine months, respectively, when they were seized by members of the political-terrorist group Hamas and other Gazans on October 7, 2023. The children’s bodies were returned in coffins to Israel this week.

The Bibas boys loved Batman. Many pictures have circulated online of the two redheads wearing Batman masks as well as their parents wearing Batman attire when they enjoyed a peaceful life in their small kibbutz in Israel.

Putting on a Batman mask with a bright red wig for Purim will not just show solidarity with the murdered small innocent boys, but declare that one stands for justice, peace, family and civility. It also highlights our determination to eradicate evil and those who wish to destroy the world behind the masks of madmen.

Related articles:

Palestinians Publicly Go Full Genocidal Jihadi (August 2024)

Palestinians And Their Supporters Hate America (August 2024)

Hamas Is The Very Definition Of A Genocidal Group (November 2023)

Deformity Of Palestinian Culture In America’s Youth (October 2023)

Standing Divided

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J.D. Vance’s 2016 book Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, began with a short story of how everyone in his small town would come to the street and stand when a funeral hearse passed by. When he asked his grandmother the reason for the tradition she replied “because honey, we’re hill people. And we respect our dead.”

It was an interesting device to educate readers that they were about to be introduced to a subset of society. They may know Americans and people from Kentucky, but the “hill people” in Vance’s life had a special bond. Whether living or dead, old or young, they stood together and apart from others, even while a casual eye might miss the divide.

Rabbi Scott Kahn, a Jewish American-Israeli podcaster of a show called Orthodox Conundrum, posed a similar story as a question while he was on a tour in the U.S. from his home in Israel, in the fall of 2024. He provocatively asked a gathering of Orthodox Jews whether a cleft had opened between the American and Israeli Orthodox communities over the current war from Gaza. He observed that while U.S. Orthodox Jews remained the most committed to Israel in terms of visiting, moving and supporting Israel, he felt that support waning as the latest war extended past one year.

When some from the audience protested that many of the people present had children who volunteered for the Israeli army, Kahn paused to admit that while true, American Jews simply no longer understood the pain of Israeli Jews who get up and go to funerals and shiva houses week after week, for so long.

The global modern Orthodox community in which Kahn felt completely at home for so long seemingly was fracturing before him into distinct Israeli and diaspora communities.

Some weeks later, Kahn shared the story on his podcast with three panelists – Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz, Dr. Logan Levkoff, and Shira Katz Shaulov – the first two from the U.S. and last from Israel. Halfway into the talk (38:30) he shared the conversation above to get reactions from the panel. Shaulov observed that the gap was more of a distinction between expecting sympathy and empathy. While the American Orthodox community may continue to have sympathy with their brothers and sisters in Israel, the local toll of the war made empathy virtually impossible.

The panel noted that Israelis often go to a wedding and a funeral on the same day in the same community for people the same ages. It has been brutal and exhausting, and they have been doing so for over a year. Every day they fear a knock at the door or observe their neighbors getting terrible news and gather together as a shaken community for mutual support.

That huddle is physical, local, tangible. And creates lasting and specialized bonds.

And many Israeli Jews feel that Jews in the diaspora are not present in the circle, and cannot comprehend the anguish.

The fatigue and emotional strain of this war has adjusted the contours of the Orthodox community in ways Kahn may well understand and appreciate but is despondent over as well. While the values and ritual practices may remain very similar, Diaspora Jews remain thousands of miles away from Israel during this massive pivot in history.

Respecting the dead alongside the living reinforces community. It remains true after shiva.

When Hostages Square in Tel Aviv gets dismantled – hopefully sometime soon when everyone returns home – Israel cannot only be left with the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial and Har Herzl national cemetery. The country must consider how the Jewish diaspora can properly engage with the fallen and injured, as well as their families and communities in the years ahead.

Donald Trump’s Orthodox Jewish Rabbis

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President Donald Trump once again turned to the Orthodox community to give a benediction on behalf of American Jewry at his inauguration. Yesterday, it was Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman, President of Yeshiva University, a modern Orthodox institution. At his last inauguration in 2017, Trump called upon Rabbi Haskel Lookstein who had overseen the conversion of his daughter Ivanka, leader of Kehilat Jeshurun, a modern Orthodox synagogue in New York City, and Head of the Ramaz School, a modern Orthodox K-12 school. Liberal alumni of Ramaz objected to Rabbi Lookstein participating in the inauguration so the rabbi backed out, and was replaced by Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, also an Orthodox rabbi.

Trump’s selection of Orthodox rabbis stands in sharp contrast to every other president who chose non-Orthodox rabbis. In 2021, during Joe Biden’s inauguration at the height of the pandemic in a virtual ceremony, Sharon Brous of IKAR in Los Angeles and Sharon Kleinbaum of Congregation Beth Simchat Torah in New York City spoke. The two female rabbis are on the far-left of the religious and political spectrum, with the latter being married to Randi Weingarten, the powerful far-left leader of the American Federation of Teachers which only backs Democratic politicians.

The divide between Orthodox and non-Orthodox streams of Judaism is now beyond the confines of keeping kosher and Shabbat observance. There is a clear divide politically and about Israel as well.

According to a May 2021 Pew Research poll, Orthodox Jews preferences for the Republican and Democratic parties were 75% and 20%, respectively. Conservative and Reform Jews tilted towards the Democratic Party by a mirrored amount. An incredible 81% of Orthodox Jews approved of Trump’s job performance, while a similar percentage of non-Orthodox Jews disapproved of Trump’s performance.

These sentiments are echoed in the divide in the Jewish communities’ feelings about a range of issues including Israel and the treatment of American Jews. The majority of Orthodox Jews approved Trump’s handling of immigration, the environment, Israel and his treatment of Jews in the United States, while non-Orthodox Jews were much more split.

These polls were taken well before the October 7, 2023 massacre by Palestinian Arab terrorists of civilians in Israel, and the horrifying cheers of jubilation from the socialist-jihadi alliance on American campuses and in Congress. Since then, even Conservative Jews have begun to migrate towards the Republican Party (now almost one-half from just over one-quarter 3.5 years ago), while Reform and unaffiliated Jews remain entrenched with Democrats, according to an October 2024 poll by the Manhattan Institute.

It should not come as a surprise to see Trump invite an Orthodox rabbi to Washington, D.C., even while they make up a small percentage of Jews in America. It will be interesting to see if the Jewish Conservative movement continues to shift away from the Democratic Party and become a fixture in Washington during the Trump Administration.

Related articles:

Jewish Vote For President Broke Important Threshold (November 2024)

Will Jews Pivot To Law, Order And Self-Interest? (November 2024)

Trump Secures Lowest Tally of Israeli Deaths From Palestinian Terrorism (November 2020)