Before the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City, The New York Times editorial board wrote that Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani was “uniquely unsuited to the city’s challenges” due to his complete lack of experience in running organizations, negotiating contracts and impractical solutions for the largest city in the country. After Mamdani won the primary, the paper quickly churned out articles casting him in a positive light.
First the Times posted puff pieces about “Zohran Mamdani’s Winning Style,” followed a few hours later by “The Parents Who Helped Shape Zohran Mamdani’s Politics.”
Just a few hours later there was an article on “The Age-Old Question Behind the New York Mayor’s Race,” followed ten minutes later by an opinion piece “Plenty of Jews Love Zohran Mamdani.”
The next day, the paper continued its posting frenzy. First it posted about unions switching to support Mamdani and the alt-left politician’s courting Black voters. Then it posted twice about the Mamdani’s social media campaign and success with young voters.
The paper seemed to have an artificial intelligence blogger on autopilot, trying to familiarize the world with this inexperienced 33-year old extremist, and cast him in a positive light.
Why the sudden flip? Why did the Times choose to ignore the millions of New Yorkers who loathe the politics and economic plan of the far-left socialist and fear his hatred for the Jewish State fighting a multifront war? Why pretend that the paper had never recommended that voters stay away from Mamdani?
It’s a terrifying reality of today’s world where party loyalty is paramount over anything else.
And it’s not just the Times. Jewish New York politicians like Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Jerry Nadler ran to support Mamdani after his win, abandoning the majority of the 1.4 million Jews in the city who think of Mamdani the way those two politicians think of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. #AnyoneButMamdani. #MadManny
In an embarassing – and more frequent – dynamic, non-Jewish New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand had no issue calling out Mamdani for his hateful rhetoric. While Schumer and Nadler have become the WOAT, “Worst Of All Time,” non-Jews are proving themselves better allies than fellow Jews.
While millions of New Yorkers are attempting to figure out how to keep a radical socialist out of Gracie Mansion, leaders of the Democratic party are rallying around the primary winner whom they know is unfit and dangerous, whom they had shunned. Such is politics today: an ugly circus in which loyalty is in the center ring and the ringmasters sacrifice innocent heads in the mouths of tigers.
For years, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas spared no insult for U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration. He called Trump’s peace plan the “slap of the century.” He labeled U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman a “son of a dog.” Abbas publicly refused to meet with any Trump envoy after the U.S. recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in 2017, cutting off nearly all formal ties with Washington. He refused to stop paying salaries to the families of terrorists despite Trump’s demand that he do so.
PA President Abbas issues prayer that President Trump’s “house be destroyed” in 2018
But now, in a stunning reversal, Abbas is praising Trump following America’s attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities, hoping to reengage with the man he once vilified. The about-face reveals not only Abbas’s desperation but also a familiar tactic in Middle Eastern politics: appealing to the ego of strongmen to gain leverage in diplomacy.
Just two weeks ago, Abbas condemned Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, in a letter to French President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Abbas had never done so before. He is seemingly attempting to distance himself from the dominant Palestinian political party which is struggling to stay alive.
Somehow, Abbas wants to bury reality and history. Just one year before the October 7, 2023 massacre, Palestinian factions agreed to a reconciliation in Algiers, Tunisia. Hamas, Fatah (Abbas’s political party), the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and eleven other movements signed an agreement to “get rid of this [political] split and cancer that has entered the Palestinian body.” This move was an attempt to unify the Palestinian people under new elections with a single unified government representing all groups. The United Nations celebrated the integration of Hamas and PFLP – which the U.S. designates as terrorist groups – into a unity government.
A total of 14 Palestinian factions signed reconciliation agreement in Algiers to end their 15-year-long division. (photo: Xinhua)
But Abbas now recognizes the endgame of the current battle: Iran, Hezbollah, Houthis and Hamas have failed in their attempt to destroy the Jewish State. Abbas would have welcomed such outcome, so stayed quiet for over 600 days. Now, while his decimated fellow Muslims sort through the rubble, Abbas is attempting to distance himself from the losing side, of which he was a silently cheering member.
Appealing to Trump’s Vanity
As he throws Hamas under the bus, the nearly-90 year old unpopular Abbas is looking for a lifeboat. Imagine his dismay to realize that even after Hamas led Gaza to a war of destruction, Palestinian polls still show Hamas to be more popular than his Fatah party, and over 80% of Palestinians want Abbas to resign.
In Abbas’s worldview, perhaps aligning himself with a winner will salvage some dignity and allow a few more years of relevancy. Despite spitting on Trump’s Abraham Accords and vilifying Trump & Co., Abbas is replacing his vitriol with flattery.
This is not just a change in tone; it’s a strategic pivot. Abbas’s flattery is designed to appeal directly to Trump’s vanity. Trump craves recognition and praise, particularly when it comes from those who previously doubted him. Abbas is betting that Trump, flattered by the turnabout, might seek to craft a renewed deal between Israel and the Palestinians, this one closer to the Arab Initiative crafted by Saudi Arabia in 2002, rather than Trump’s “deal of the century.”
The logic is simple: Trump, the dealmaker, might relish the chance to win the Nobel Peace Prize by securing an Israeli-Palestinian Peace Agreement, alongside a broad opening of the Abraham Accords with Saudi Arabia and other nations whom would likely follow.
There is little indication that Abbas has changed his position on any of the core issues — recognition of Israel as a Jewish state and the so-called “right of return” principal among them. His newfound praise for Trump is not based on ideological alignment or shared values but on the simple belief that stroking Trump’s ego might yield results.
Israel’s View
From Israel’s perspective, Abbas’s pivot will likely be met with skepticism. Israeli officials have long regarded the Palestinian Authority as duplicitous — speaking the language of peace in English while praising and funding terrorists in Arabic. Abbas’s credibility is further diminished by years of internal repression, a stagnant economy, and a populace which despises him.
Still, Israeli leaders will watch closely. If Trump signals willingness to broker another deal — one perhaps based on regional normalization and security guarantees rather than the moribund Oslo framework — Abbas’s outreach could become a diplomatic variable worth tracking.
Conclusion: Desperation Dressed as Diplomacy
Mahmoud Abbas’s pivot from name-calling to praise is more than political theater. It’s a sign of deep weakness — a recognition that time, allies, and leverage are all slipping away. By appealing to Trump’s vanity, Abbas is hoping for a personal reprieve and a political lifeline.
But Trump will likely recall the years of insults and rejection. Whether he’s willing to forgive and forget — and whether Abbas is willing to concede more than just compliments — remains to be seen.
What is clear is that Abbas, who once derided Trump as a destroyer of peace, now sees him as his best hope to remain relevant.
Zohran Mamdani, a radical socialist won the New York City Democratic primary for mayor. He did it on the strength of young voters who turned out to vote in Brooklyn and Queens. It was not solely about race or income level as commonly thought (Bronx is poorest and went +18 for Cuomo and Manhattan has the greatest percentage of Whites and went for Mamdani). The young people in liberal districts who came out in droves and secured his victory.
Poor Hispanics generally preferred Cuomo; Asians preferred Mamdani. But the real divide was in age: both in candidate preference and coming out to vote
America’s young people – especially in urban areas like New York City – are much more likely to be non-White than older Americans. They are more likely to get their news from social media influencers than credible news outlets, know little about the Holocaust, don’t remember the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and have been indoctrinated in a public school system that has advanced an “oppressor/oppressed” narrative in which “White privilege” has not only intentionally placed young non-White people at a disadvantage, but stolen their wealth and power in a racist generational kleptocracy.
Today’s youth have been indoctrinated by a socialist public school system which has compulsory attendance. Powerful teacher unions block alternatives like new charter schools and fight any monies going to private schools, thereby making them out-of-reach for many and frequently non-viable. Further, the teacher unions demand that they have total control of the education and block parental involvement.
This forced indoctrination of youth into a divisive ideology has a historic parallel: Nazi Germany.
When people think of black-and-white images of Hitler Youth, they instinctively recoil. The idea of a government-run school system indoctrinating children with a twisted dogma, demonizing whole groups of people, and eliminating parental rights is rightfully condemned. But the problem of the real world modern incarnation is ignored. Western democracies employ the same mechanisms, just with different terminology and new targets.
Germany’s National Socialist Party Educational System
In Nazi Germany, schools were not really about education—they were about indoctrination. From an early age, children were taught racial supremacy, loyalty to the Führer, and hatred of Jews, communists, and other so-called “enemies of the state.” Textbooks were rewritten to glorify White Aryans and dehumanize others. History was a fable of German victimhood and revenge. Biology became eugenics.
Parents were sidelined and teachers were party enforcers. Loyalty was not to truth or family, but to ideology.
America’s Democratic Socialist Party Indoctrination
Today, we do not see classrooms preaching eugenics or worshipping a dictator. But we do see a disturbing echo of the same approach: children are being indoctrinated to hate fellow classmates and members of society.
Public schools across the United States and other Western democracies increasingly push a worldview centered around oppressor and oppressed—not in terms of deeds or choices, but by skin color and gender. Critical Race Theory, once an obscure legal theory, has bled into K–12 education in the form of “equity-based learning,” and “antiracism,” approaches that specifically elevate non-White and low income students, and sideline Whites and Jews.
White children are taught they benefit from “privilege,” regardless of their life experience. Minority children are taught that their struggle is rooted in systemic bias. And the lesson is rarely a call for unity or shared values—it is a call for reordering society through grievance and power struggle.
History is reframed as nothing more than a record of Western oppression. Heroes like Washington, Lincoln, and Churchill are minimized or vilified. Meanwhile, activists are lionized regardless of method or truth. There is no longer a shared civic narrative—only the mantra of “deconstructing power structures.” The language of “revolution” and “liberation” are instilled in America’s youth.
And the teachers – and only the teachers – are in charge. Parents and politicians who push back against the curricula are demonized under a banner of “disguised censorship” who are “trying to dictate what teachers say and block kids from learning about our shared history.”
But it’s not shared history; it’s divisive history.
Teachers as Activists
During the Nazi regime, teachers were required to join the National Socialist Teachers’ League and toe the ideological line. They encouraged teachers to intimidate and harass perceived enemies: Jews. Today, public school teachers are forced to join powerful teacher unions. It promotes teachers becoming open activists that feast on current enemies, such as attacking “Zionist” Jews.
Holocaust Museum review of education in Nazi Germany
These teacher unions aggressively fight against charter schools and school vouchers, keeping millions of students trapped in underperforming, politically biased and morally deformed systems. Parents who speak up at school board meetings could be tarred as “domestic terrorists” by the National School Boards Association (NSBA), as happened in September 2021.
In Nazi Germany, dissent was criminal. In the modern West, dissent is canceled.
Michael Mukasey reviewed attempt by NSBA to shut down parental involvement in classrooms, vilifying parents who “disrupt” school board meetings as engaged in “domestic terrorism.”
Compulsory Attendance, Controlled Curriculum
In both Nazi Germany and America today, attendance was (and is) compulsory. Children cannot simply walk away and parents are similarly held captive. And in most school districts, there is no alternative—no charter school, no voucher for private education, no support for homeschooling. The state dictates the curriculum. The unions staff the classrooms. And the ideology is enforced, not debated.
Then and Now
Feature
Nazi Germany
Modern Public Schools
Curriculum
Racial supremacy, hatred of Jews
Oppressor vs. oppressed, white guilt, DEI focus
Control
Total state monopoly
Union-dominated, resistance to school choice
Teachers
Nazi enforcers
Ideological activists protected by unions
Enemies
Jews, Slavs, Communists
“Whiteness,” traditional values, parents who dissent
Dissent
Criminalized
Canceled, ignored, or labeled extremist
Outcome
Fanatical loyalty to regime
Cultural division and civic unraveling
Indoctrination by Any Other Name
Today’s teachers are not training students to become SS officers but they are shaping how children see their country, their history, their families, themselves – and their neighbors. And when a government-backed education system insists that children adopt one political ideology, demonize dissent, and question parental authority, we are no longer talking about education—we are talking about indoctrination.
ACTION ITEM
Get involved in your local school board. There are elections every year and public fora held throughout the year.
When President Donald Trump tore up the 2015 Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA) during his first term and launched a maximum pressure campaign against Tehran, critics on the far-left, alt-right and in the media howled that this was a break from his self-proclaimed “America First” isolationist stance. They called it the “Israel Exception” — the idea that Trump’s supposed non-interventionist worldview had one glaring carve-out: protecting Israel. They repeat that claim today after Trump bombed Iran’s nuclear installations.
But this narrative ignores the obvious. The real story is not an “Israel Exception” but the “Iran Exception.” The Islamic Republic is the single most destabilizing force in the Middle East and the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. Trump’s decision to confront Iran wasn’t about changing ideology; it was about confronting the reality of a regime that posed a unique and escalating threat.
A Nuclear Red Line
In his first year in office, Trump pursued diplomacy with one of America’s long-standing nuclear antagonists: North Korea. He met Kim Jong-un in a historic summit, issued warm statements, and flirted with détente. Critics scoffed, but Trump’s logic was simple — North Korea already had nuclear weapons. Any confrontation risked an immediate global catastrophe.
Iran, by contrast, was racing toward the bomb but wasn’t there yet. Trump saw a closing window and chose to act, not only to prevent Tehran from crossing the nuclear threshold but to counter years of American accommodation that had only emboldened the regime. It wasn’t about pleasing Israel — it was about containing an implacable enemy of the West.
Iran’s Unique Threat
Unlike any other adversary, Iran is a transnational menace. It does not merely govern a repressive theocracy at home. It exports its revolution abroad through a network of terror proxies, militias, and insurgents:
Hezbollah in Lebanon
Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza
Shiite militias in Iraq
The Houthis in Yemen
Assad’s brutal regime in Syria
These groups have not only targeted Israel but have attacked American forces, embassies, and interests in the region. The drone and missile attacks by Iranian-backed groups on U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria are only the latest proof that Tehran’s tentacles reach far beyond its borders.
Iran is not France. If Israel went to war with an American ally — the United States would not enter the conflict. It is Iran that makes this different.
Iran has plotted terror attacks on U.S. soil, such as the 2011 plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington, D.C. Its Quds Force and IRGC have been sanctioned for targeting American soldiers and orchestrating killings throughout the region. Trump’s authorized strike on Qassem Soleimani in 2020 was not done at Israel’s urging — it was in response to direct threats to American personnel and the storming of the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.
“If the United States and Iran are engaged in international armed conflict, then there is no requirement for the threat of an imminent attack, and the use of force is not limited to self-defense.”
What Trump inherited from the Obama administration was a nuclear deal that put Iran on a glide path to the bomb, enriched the regime with sanctions relief, and gave international legitimacy to a regime that chants “Death to America” and funds global terror. Obama had essentially outsourced regional stabilization to Iran and hoped the Islamic Republic would become a responsible stakeholder.
Instead, Iran took the cash and accelerated its malign activities against the region and American interests.
Trump reversed course. Far from being an anomaly in an “America First” framework, his stance on Iran was the clearest extension of that doctrine: protect American lives, punish America’s enemies, and stop subsidizing the world’s worst actors under the false banner of diplomacy.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) tried to cast America and Israel as racist, and invert the reality of the fight against genocidal jihadists
The Double Standard
The claim that Trump’s Iran policy was driven by Israel’s interests alone is a cynical deflection — a smear that erases Iran’s long record of bloodshed and global subversion. Even the European Union, which tried to salvage the JCPOA, has acknowledged Iran’s role in terror plots on European soil.
Far left anti-Israel group Justice Democrats attempts to use noxious blood libels that Jews are puppetmasters controlling the U.S. government
Iran’s ideology is expansionist, messianic, and apocalyptic. It seeks not just regional dominance but the destruction of its enemies — America, the “Great Satan,” chief among them.
Conclusion
The Iran Exception is not a flaw in U.S. foreign policy logic — it’s a recognition of Iran’s unique place at the epicenter of global jihadist terrorism and nuclear blackmail. Trump didn’t go after Iran because of Israel. He went after Iran because of Iran. Those calling an “Israel Exception” are hawking dangerous antisemitic smears meant to strip Israel of earned appreciation for taking on the global menace and stoke a modern blood libel.
ACTION ITEM
Donate to JewBelong to place billboards like these around the United States.
History has a funny way of repeating itself—especially when bad ideas are recycled with new branding. Today, a new crop of political figures like Zohran Mamdani and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are trying to sell New York City the same failed product that turned Venezuela from one of Latin America’s wealthiest nations into a humanitarian catastrophe: 21st century socialism.
Under this model, punitive taxes, price controls, and ideological purity take precedence over economic reality. In Venezuela, Hugo Chávez’s promise of wealth redistribution and justice led to runaway inflation, widespread shortages, and the exodus of the country’s professional class. In Cuba, the same story played out decades earlier. Today, both nations are global case studies in how socialism destroys wealth, opportunity, and individual liberty.
Now that same ideology is creeping into American cities, and nowhere is it more potent than in New York. With Mamdani eyeing the mayor’s office, the parallels to California’s decline are alarming. Like Los Angeles and San Francisco, New York is already suffering from the early symptoms of the disease: wealthy residents fleeing the city, a stagnating middle class, and neighborhoods burdened by crime and decay. The situation became so bad in California that the state tried imposing wealth taxes and exit taxes of anyone leaving the state.
Rampant theft due to police not enforcing the law made stores close and leave California cities in San Francisco and Los AngelesLeftward California is losing its population to conservative states of Arizona and Texas according to Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research
Immigrants—especially those from Latin America—see through the facade. They’ve lived the reality of socialist populism. They know what it looks like when government promises everything and delivers ruin. And it’s no surprise that Mamdani’s support is concentrated among young, white, college-educated progressives. According to polls cited by the socialist Jacobin, he’s significantly behind Andrew Cuomo among Black and Hispanic voters—communities that understand firsthand the cost of broken systems.
If Mamdani’s vision becomes reality, New York may return to the bad old days of the 1970s: crime-ridden streets, garbage-lined sidewalks, fiscal insolvency, and a paralyzed government. But unlike the past, this isn’t just urban mismanagement—it’s ideological. The goal isn’t to fix the system. It’s to remake it in the image of a failed dream.
New York City almost went bankrupt in the 1970s. Crime was rampant. It can happen again.
The antisemitic New York City Democratic Socialists of America endorsed Mamdani. So has Linda Sarsour. Do you think Jews will remain in the city while antisemitism spikes throughout the United States and the mayor is bought by Jew haters?
Jews were 4.5 times more likely to suffer a hate crime than a Black person and 22 times more likely than a Hispanic person in 2023. The antisemitic incidents have risen considerably since then.Anti-Israel and its supporters Linda Sarsour is actively pushing the vote for Mamdani
21st century socialism is not progress. It’s financial and moral regression. And unless voters wake up, New York may once again become the national symbol of urban collapse—this time by choice, not chance.
Orthodox Jews grabbed their phones after Shabbat ended to see what happened in Israel over the prior day. There was mixed news which had already been absorbed by the rest of the planet.
Europe and the United States held firm that the Global North cannot allow Iran to get nuclear weapons.
At the United Nations Security Council – and on X – western nations affirmed that Iran, the leading state sponsor of terrorism, cannot be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons. The UK, France, Denmark, Slovenia and Greece stated that Iran’s level of uranium enrichment is inconsistent with a peaceful civilian program, and that Israel has a right to defend itself from a regime which has stoked a war to eradicate the only Jewish State.
This support for Israel was far from given, considering the strident tones taken by some of these governments about Israel’s prosecution of the war from Gaza.
2. The Global South – including China, Algeria and Pakistan – rallied to Iran and called Israel the aggressor.
Russia went so far as to claim that Israel coordinated with the UK on the attack and used bases in Cyprus to support the Jewish State, seemingly trying to widen the aperture of the war. The UK strongly denied the allegation and condemned Russia for “spreading disinformation”.
3. Palestinians stayed bizarrely mum on the conflict.
Wafa, the Palestinian Authority news agency, said virtually nothing about the latest escalation between Israel and Iran. While it normally cheered attacks by Houthis and Hezbollah over the past 600+ days, it would appear that the PA is focused on separating itself from the Iranian axis of evil which includes Hamas, to position itself as a credible government for the day after the Hamas War.
4. Iranian nuclear capabilities remain intact.
From initial reports, it appears that only surface facilities were destroyed and that much of the hardened below ground nuclear infrastructure is still functional. It means that the war effort is unlikely to end soon, and Israel may turn to the United States to either supply the weapons to destroy the underground infrastructure or to compel Iran to dismantle it.
5. Iranian missiles kill Israeli civilians.
While Israel targeted Iranian military commanders and infrastructure, Iran fired over 100 missiles and drones at Israel, hitting apartment buildings and killing several people. The country remains locked down as the battle with Iran continues.
6. U.S. politicians gunned down.
In an ongoing disgraceful trend of targeted attacks, local politicians in Minnesota were shot and killed by a man who seems to have had a targeted list of people who supported abortion. On both the right and left, people with opposing views have come to view the other side as existential threats for which they are willing to kill and be killed.
7. Affable Democratic Socialist extremist closes on winning New York City Democratic primary.
Zohran Mamdani, a smiling radical backed by the antisemitic fringe group Democratic Socialist of America, is rallying far-left progressives as early voting commenced in NYC. His appeal to make busing and childcare free and freezing rent on rent-controlled apartments is too enticing for many to even consider the destruction he will do to the city.
DSA arguing that all Israeli Jews are fair game for annihilation, backed Mamdani for mayor of NYC
New York Jews are forced to consider multiple layers of threats. The furthest away and most violent is the antisemitic Islamic Republic of Iran which still has the means to kill millions in Israel, Europe and the North America. A step closer, around the U.S., left-wing and right-wing radicals are using guns and Molotov cocktails to kill people with whom they disagree, and Jews are often the favored target. In the immediate backyard, the city with the greatest number of Jews is set to have a mayor backed by modern day non-White Nazis, just as lethal to Jews as the White Nazis of Europe in the 1930s and 1940s.
Disgraced former Congressman Jamaal Bowman hugs his DSA comrade, Zohran Mamdani, as he tries to rally New Yorkers to vote for the fellow extremist
American Jews are buying guns. They are demanding that the government provide funds to harden Jewish centers and combat domestic terrorism. They are urging fellow Americans to prioritize law enforcement and peace over unsustainable giveaways.
And they are being forced to consider their own priorities: sending monies to organizations in Israel which are exhausted in fighting a multifront war, or to focus efforts here on electing centrist politicians, fighting toxic ideologies being instilled in schools, and preparing their community for a life lived in fear.
The violence is getting closer and Jewish trifocals are attempting to simultaneously assess the levels of threat and proximity. Two thousand years of collective trauma have often proven insufficient for the challenge.
The human body always has a temperature but no one talks about it unless it spikes. At a perfect 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, no one even uses the word “temperature.” Jump a few degrees, and suddenly it’s sirens and sick days.
Antisemitism works the same way.
Jews have long been the most targeted religious group per capita in the United States. Attacks, slurs, defacements, discrimination were normalized and ignored. Society treated Jew hatred like a low-grade temp: just part of the day-to-day hum of our civic immune system.
Then came October 7, 2023.
The massacre of Israeli civilians by Gazan terrorists ignited something far beyond protests thousands of miles away — it was an outbreak of unmasked hatred. Jewish students were chased off college campuses. Synagogues were vandalized. Civilians were gunned down in Washington, D.C. Jews were burned alive in Boulder, Colorado.
The low-grade temperature turned into a public health emergency.
The presidents of leading universities were like first year medical school students, offering cooling words while feeding the fever. They were mum as professors glorified the slaughter of Jewish children. They discussed free speech while student groups blamed the victims. The campuses didn’t just incubate antisemitism — they made it a fashionable teaching moment of civic engagement.
The pandemic of antisemitism chased Jews indoors and to their homes while the fever set up camp in quads. President Biden fumbled the vaccine, creating task forces that dealt with antisemitism – and Islamophobia. Biden couldn’t figure out whether to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism or not, while it invited the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR) – which glorified the October 7 slaughter – onto the task force meant to address Jew hatred. (To no one’s surprise, no Jewish groups were placed on the Islamophobia task force.)
Enter President Trump with an ice bath.
His administration is moving to dismantle the academic machinery that has enabled the plague, including revoking visas for foreign students at institutions like Harvard. Those students tend to come from the Global South where antisemitism is endemic. It’s not a gentle response. It’s designed to be a fever-breaker.
And it’s not just the universities which are infected.
California’s public schools – the Santa Ana Unified School District in particular – have become the Wuhan labof American antisemitism — unleashing a virus of hate that targets the young and vulnerable. Unlike COVID-19, this disease travels faster through idealism than droplets, and to the young more than seniors. It spreads through TikTok videos and campus chants. It thrives in “social justice” syllabi soaked in Hamas talking points.
At SAUSD, Jews were not just excluded from ethnic studies; they were labeled “oppressors” and “racists.” Those who dared to push back opposing the antisemitism were accused of suffering a “colonized Jewish mind.”
The school board intentionally set a fire in the California desert: it condemned Jews as heretics in absentia, to be burned at the stake. While a lawsuit shut down the SAUSD ethnic studies and social justice courses, the virus had already spread.
Antisemitism is highly contagious when the populous is reeducated with lies and slander. Schools and woke media spread a narrative that Jews are “powerful” who stole their wealth and land in a capitalist and racist fashion from noble people of color. The blood libel – always there at the comfortable 98.6 degrees – became elevated after pro-Palestinian activists attached their cause to Black Lives Matter, and politicians fanned the flames during the pandemic. Marc Lamont Hill’s 2015 “from Ferguson to Palestine” and Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s 2021 “from Gaza to Detroit” and 2024 “from Detroit to Cleveland to Gaza” were an incubation continuum, turning global Jewry into a virus to be vanquished. October 7, 2023 was the breakout moment.
We have been led to believe that antisemitism is a sickness that infects non-Jews which can be healed via education. The consequential thought is that reeducating people that Jews are neither powerful nor racist will somehow break the fever. Teaching people about the Holocaust and the frequency of antisemitic attacks are marketed as cures for the ailments.
But those approaches inherently keep Jews distinct; it leaves them as foreign entities in the body which will sooner or later be attacked by white blood cells. It is best to get blood cells to view Jews as normal, healthy cells like others, not unnatural tumors.
There are abundant opportunities to do so. A significant percentage of people from Latin America are descendants of conversos, Jews who were forced to convert by the Church during the Inquisition. Does the Hispanic community know they share common ancestry with Jews? The United States was founded on Judeo-Christian values. Are schools teaching the humble faith of America’s founding fathers which looked to build a “government for the people by the people”?
Yes, Jews are distinct, but a healthy and functioning part of the body like a heart or lung. The antisemitic and anti-Israel movements which characterize Jews as a dangerous alien mass – strangers to be attacked by both White supremacists and the majority-minorities pushing DEI – places global Jewry perpetually in the crosshairs.
Jews should not hide in the manner President Biden’s Jewish Engagement Director Aaron Keyak posted on X in May 2021 that “It pains me to say this, but if you fear for your life or physical safety take off your kippah and hide your magen david (Jewish star),” in response to growing antisemitic attacks. Quite the opposite. Schools must showcase Jews as an integral part of a healthy and functioning society.
It is for the safety of American Jewry and betterment of America.
Westchester County has three neighboring towns which act very differently when it comes to their public schools. White Plains stands out relative to neighboring Scarsdale and similarly sized New Rochelle: it spends more and gets worse student performance.
White Plains has a staggering 2025-2026 budget of $277,965,500 for 6,836 students. That amounts to $40,662 per student. That is 13% more than Scarsdale spends, which is one of the best school districts in the entire country. It is also significantly more than New Rochelle which is a similarly sized city with comparable demographics.
And White Plains performs much worse than both despite its massive budget.
Almost all of the Hispanic and Black students in Scarsdale perform well in math, with both groups having over 80% proficiency. In New Rochelle, proficiency in mathematics is 57% each for the groups. Yet in White Plains, only 38% of Hispanics and 42% of Black students have proficiency in math.
Where does the money go in White Plains if not into educating students?
Ten years ago, the White Plains school budget was $208,750,0000 in 2016-2017 when it had 7,091 students, spending $29,439 per student. White Plains is now spending 38% more per student. Much of the cost is NOT GOING FOR THE STUDENTS but to facilities and teacher benefits.
Facilities
The school district has 1.4 million square feet of buildings, not including the new $33 million high school building going up now. New York State generally guides schools to have 85 to 125 square feet per child, depending on the grade. White Plains has 199 square feet per student, 60% more than the high-end recommendation.
And the White Plains school district is planning on spending much more on facilities despite a declining enrollment.
The city already has $88 million of debt and an $11 million capital lease (page 26). The capital lease and $38 million in notes are coming due in 2026. Presumably this is going to be refinanced in a higher interest rate environment which will add expenses into the school budget.
Fewer kids, worse performance and state-of-the-art buildings.
Teacher Salaries and Benefits
The budget lays out teacher salaries (page 39), with school principals making just under $200,000 per year and the school superintendent making over $300,000.
Employee benefits account for $68.6 million (page 10), or 25% of the budget. This is a 10% jump from the previous year, and accounts for OVER HALF OF THE INCREASE from last year’s budget. So while curriculum development went down this year, teacher benefits rose by $6.25 million.
And this is going to continue according to the long-term plan (page 25). Contributions to the teachers retirement and employee retirement systems are going to keep going up while the number of students declines.
Student Performance
There is a lot of data on student performance (pages 43 onward). There are a few take-aways:
The school is 70% Latino and Black and those groups are not reaching proficiency in English or math
Roughly 19% of the students are English language learners, 17% have disabilities and 56% are economically disadvantaged. The English learners and those with disabilities are doing terribly. It is unclear how the school can continue to keep these children in the school system when they are clearly unable to service them. The government should do a full review of the situation.
School Board
The school board will tell you that your taxes are not going up and that the school district is an incredibly open and caring environment with state-of-the-art facilities. What they are not telling you is that they have been over-taxing you for years to fund capital projects, have $50 million of looming debt coming due in 2026, are spending incredible sums on teacher benefits while allowing a significant percentage of the student body to flounder.
That is the sad reality.
ACTION PLAN
Vote on May 20. Polls are open from 12:00PM to 9:00PM. Find your voting location here.
Vote ‘No” on the school budget to reduce it by $3.4 million.
Vote for Julia Oliva, a parent of a second grader who wants to put money into services instead of football fields. It is time to phase out the old school board which has spent your money on shiny buildings instead of our youth.
If you thought the fight for our values ended with Jamaal Bowman’s defeat in last year’s Congressional Democratic primary, think again. That victory—fueled by a coalition of Jewish voters, moderates, and outraged citizens—was just one front in a much larger war. The next battleground? Our local school boards.
Yes, school boards—those often-overlooked panels of elected volunteers who decide how to spend hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, what our children are taught, and what values our public institutions promote. Voting to approve school budgets and new school boards will take around New York State on May 20. In Westchester County, two city school board races —in New Rochelle and White Plains—are shaping up to be ideological flashpoints, and the Jewish community cannot afford to sit them out.
Because what’s happening in these school districts mirrors the dynamics that led to Bowman’s rise—and fall. And unless we show up, the same extremist playbook will continue to take root, just under a different banner.
From Bowman to the Board: The Same Movement, New Target
In 2020, former public school principal Bowman’s ascent was cheered by radical groups like the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) as he defeated Eliot Engel in New York’s 16th Congressional District, one of several “progressive” victories. The DSA’s 2023 convention called on its members to build on those victories and get people elected not only in Congress but on local school boards.
The strategy was simple: infiltrate local systems—schools, unions, and boards—with activists trained not in pedagogy or finance, but in ideology. These organizations view school boards as soft targets: low-turnout races that are easy to win with grassroots organization, with enormous power over curriculum, staffing, budget and even political culture.
Nowhere is this strategy more visible than in the New Rochelle school board election, where Dr. Rosa Rivera-McCutchen is aligned with the same progressive, anti-Israel networks like WESPAC that propelled Bowman into Congress. Rivera-McCutchen has been outspoken in her support of “radical care” models, a euphemism for politicized curricula that blur the line between education and activism. Her book on “Radical Care” has a foreword by Bowman and he has endorsed her in the race, which should alarm every Jewish and moderate voter.
Remember: Bowman didn’t fall because his opponents suddenly outspent him, despite what radical socialists scream. He fell because our community turned out. In Westchester, especially in places like New Rochelle, Scarsdale, and White Plains, Jewish voters made the difference. And we must do it again on May 20.
The Stakes in New Rochelle
New Rochelle’s school district is large—9,700 students and over $360 million in spending—and politically volatile. While minority student outcomes have improved, the district is on shaky fiscal ground, and ideological activism is increasingly overt.
Two candidates—Elana Jacob and Jessica Klein—are running to restore balance. Both are active members of the Jewish community and parents. Both are running because they believe in education, not indoctrination. They are not interested in scoring political points—they’re interested in ensuring that students can read, write, think critically, and treat others with respect.
They are up against a well-organized, highly motivated bloc that views school boards as the next front in a larger ideological war. If we don’t match that energy, we lose the ground we worked so hard to win when we sent Bowman packing.
What’s Going On in White Plains?
White Plains is not immune. There, a two-seat school board race has drawn four candidates—two incumbents and two challengers. Sheryl Brady and Charlie Norris have each served for over 15 years. They are status quo guardians who toe the superintendent’s line, not particularly concerned about antisemitism indoctrination in the district, favor “age-appropriate” instruction on gender identity to even the youngest students in kindergarten, and are giddy about the city’s capital program that has professional-grade football fields. Their governance has led to skyrocketing costs—over $40,000 per student, among the highest in the state—while academic outcomes for minority students, especially Black and Hispanic students, have remained poor. That astronomical cost is funded 78% with local taxes, also a high in the state where the normal local tax burden for public schools is around 50%.
Enter Julia Oliva, a new candidate who is running on a platform of fiscal discipline, academic excellence, and common sense. She has a child in the public elementary school and believes in redirecting funds from flashy capital projects toward things that actually benefit students: vocational training, classroom instruction, and teacher development.
While it is unclear how she will do in a board setting, Oliva deserves our support. She would bring a fresh, needed voice to a board that desperately needs one.
The fourth candidate, Dr. Mohammed S Chowdhury, has no children in the school, is unfamiliar about the weak performance of minority students and the enormous budget, and not a serious invested candidate.
The Broader Trend: Silence Is Not Neutrality
Some in our community may ask, “Why get involved in school board politics?” Here’s why:
School boards set the tone for everything: what’s taught, how it’s taught, and whether bias—subtle or overt—is allowed to fester. They help set the budget for the public schools and influence whether charter schools or transportation for students at private schools will get funded.
These elections are winnable. Most school board races are decided by just a few hundred votes. In districts like New Rochelle and White Plains, the Jewish vote is not only significant—it is decisive.
The opposition is not sleeping. Progressive networks have identified these races as key footholds. They are training, funding, and running candidates who align with their views. If we stay home, we hand them the keys.
Remember: the same activist energy that got Bowman elected now animates many of these local candidates. They may not use his name—but they are advancing his ideology.
What You Can Do
Vote on May 20. Put it in your calendar. Bring a friend. Tell your synagogue or community group. You do not need to have students in public school to vote. You pay taxes and fund the future.
Support Jacob and Klein in New Rochelle. Support Julia Oliva in White Plains.
Vote on the school budget: Reject the White Plains budget to lower the expenses by $3.4 million.
Prepare to run in 2026: There is an election every year, and all that is needed is 100 signatures from the district.
Speak up: Attend board meetings, write letters, post on social media. White Plains Superintendent is Dr. Joseph Ricca (Josephricca@wpcsd.k12.ny.us 914-422-2019)
Volunteer: Local races are won with word-of-mouth and turning out.
These are low-turnout races. Your vote isn’t one in a million—it might be the one that tips the balance.
Final Word: This Is Where the Fight Is Now
We can’t let down our guard. The battle against Bowman was just the beginning. The activists who filled his rallies are now aiming for school board seats. And they are counting on your apathy.
Don’t give it to them.
Vote on May 20.
Stand up—for our children, our community, and our values.
RESOURCES
If you are out of town or unable to vote on May 20, you can pick up absentee ballots and drop them off before May 20.
Qatar has been buying its way into the heart of American power. Not metaphorically—literally. The small Gulf state has dumped billions of dollars into American universities, co-opted think tanks, and inserted itself into political circles on both sides of the aisle. It’s not just about soft power anymore. This is strategic infiltration.
According to Middle East Forum, Qatar pumped “$33.4 billion into businesses and real estate; $6.25 billion to universities; $72 million to lobbyists. Qatar purchases access to our corridors of power while simultaneously funding Hamas terrorists who seek our destruction. The pattern is clear: Qatar targets critical infrastructure, including our energy grid. It bankrolls academic departments that foment campus unrest, buys Manhattan skyscrapers, and infiltrates Silicon Valley. Its capital flows to Washington insiders who shape Middle East policy.”
And now, in the latest display of quiet power, Qatar gifted the President of the United States a brand-new plane.
This isn’t a gift. It’s a transaction. And we don’t know what was sold.
Experts Sound The Alarm
Jonathan Conricus, a former Israel Defense Forces spokesperson and now senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), has made it clear that Qatar is not neutral. He describes the Gulf emirate as an “active nefarious actor,” using its wealth to export ideological influence and to shield organizations like Hamas. He’s seen what this money funds—from underground terror tunnels in Gaza to misinformation and antisemitic narratives in the West.
Others, like Michael Doran of the Hudson Institute, argue Qatar is just playing defense—just a tiny monarchy with a population of 300,000 surrounded by giants like Saudi Arabia and Iran. But here’s the flaw: Qatar already hosts the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East, the Al Udeid Air Base, just outside Doha. With thousands of American troops stationed there, Qatar doesn’t need more protection. What it IS doing is leveraging that partnership as cover for its far-reaching agenda.
Buying The American Narrative And Minds Of The Youth
Qatar’s influence isn’t just in think tanks and campuses—it’s also in your living room.
In 2013, Qatar’s state media arm Al Jazeera bought Al Gore’s cable network, Current TV, for a staggering $500 million. The rebranded Al Jazeera America failed commercially, but its goal wasn’t ratings. It was presence in 40 million American households.
The acquisition gave Qatar the ability to market propaganda under the guise of serious journalism. It continues to do so under the AJ+ brand on social media, pushing anti-Israel, anti-Western, and often antisemitic narratives to audiences across the globe. It doesn’t aim to inform—it aims to manipulate.
The monarchy’s influence extends into elementary public schools.The Qatar Foundation provides materials for New York City’s “Arab Culture Arts” program which has a map of the Middle East with Israel removed. Tova Plaut, a New York City public school instructional coordinator for pre-K through fifth grade classrooms, said “It’s not just that we’re experiencing Jewish hate in NYC public schools, we’re actually experiencing Jewish erasure.”
A report by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) uncovered extensive foreign influence and anti-Israel bias infiltrating as many as 8,000 K-12 classrooms, reaching one million students. Qatar is mentioned 48 times in the report.
Congressional Sleepwalking
Disgracefully, few members of Congress have called out Qatar for their support of Hamas and fueling antisemitism in American schools.
Rep. Carol Miller (R-WV) did so in November 2023 noting “the influence of foreign governments on tax-exempt college campuses, [specifically] Qatari funding for Northwestern University. It is no coincidence that it now has a campus in the Gulf country and has become a pipeline for reporters for the Qatari state-owned media Al Jazeera and their youth-focused subsidiary, AJ+.”
Rep. Ann Wagner (R-MO), Vice Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee said in May 2024, “It’s simple: if Qatar can’t pressure Hamas to make a deal with Israel, they must expel these terrorists so they can be brought to justice and punished for their horrific crimes against humanity. If they won’t do either, then the United States should seriously examine whether Qatar still deserves the privileges of its status as a major non-NATO ally.”
Yet it’s taken the public gift of an airplane to President Trump to finally make everyone in Congress wake up to the evils of Qatari influence.
Conclusion: Start The Audit And Pressure Campaign
President Trump has no qualms bankrupting Iran’s oil business if it continues to pursue a nuclear weapons program. It is time to threaten the Qatari regime to reverse its nefarious connections to state sponsors of terrorism and vicious antisemitism, or face actions similar to those inflicted on the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Congress should use the airplane gift as an opportunity to open a wide ranging probe into Qatari influence everywhere in the USA.
First One Through 