Genocidal War Versus Ethnic Cleansing War

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There are two wars taking place in Gaza: one is a textbook definition of a genocidal war while the other is a reluctant war of ethnic cleansing.

While critics of the Jewish State hurl the term “genocide” as a weapon, a blood libel designed to strip Israel of its legitimacy, it is an inversion: it is Hamas and only Hamas that is engaged in a genocide.

Hamas’s 1988 foundational charter is not a vague political platform. It is an open call to murder Jews. Article 7 quotes an Islamic hadith that urges Muslims to kill Jews wherever they find them. Article 13 states that “initiatives and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement.” Peace is forbidden. Coexistence is a crime.

And the Palestinian people did not reject this vision; they embraced it. In 2005, they elected Mahmoud Abbas as president — a man who wrote his doctoral thesis denying the Holocaust. In 2006, they voted Hamas into power, giving the genocidal group 58% of the parliament. These were not fringe votes. These were popular, democratic choices made in full view of Hamas’s open ideology.

Then came October 7, 2023.

In the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, Hamas — the ruling government of Gaza — unleashed its long-promised war of annihilation. They murdered 1,200 people, from babies in cribs to elderly women in wheelchairs. They burned families alive, filmed their atrocities, and broadcast their bloodlust to the world. The Palestinian street erupted in celebration. Polls showed 75% of Palestinian Arabs supporting the massacre of Jews.

This was not a surprise. This was fulfillment. A generation raised on genocidal propaganda in schools, mosques, and television carried out what they had been taught. They were not rebelling against Hamas — they were Hamas. Thousands of Gazans participated in the October 7 slaughter.

Polls from Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research

Israel, faced with an existential threat, responded. It had tried the diplomatic route. It had withdrawn from Gaza in 2005. It had allowed billions of dollars in humanitarian aid to flow into the Strip. It had mostly tolerated rocket fire and bus bombings and flaming kites with modest responses. But after October 7, there was no possibility of a tepid response with a group with an increasing capacity to carry out its genocidal intent.

Israel launched a war of necessity — a war to end the Hamas threat once and for all. The goal was not genocide, but defense. Not extermination, but eradication of a terrorist force.

But the nature of this war is highly complex. Hamas does not engage Israel’s army on an open battlefield but underneath hospitals, mosques and homes. It warehouses missiles in schools and launches them from playgrounds. There is no ability to eliminate the terrorists without severe destruction to dual-use civilian-military infrastructure and significant collateral damage.

And that looks a lot like ethnic cleansing.

Gaza ruins

Ethnic cleansing refers to the forced removal of an ethnic or religious group from a territory. And yes, it is possible that the outcome of Israel’s war will be a Gaza without many Palestinian Arabs. Gaza cannot be rebuilt atop terrorist tunnels and booby traps. The terrorist enclave that Gazans built since 2007 cannot remain nor be replicated.

It has long been a sign of instilled antisemitism that the United Nations has accused Israel of genocide, at least as far back as 2013, as a mask for Palestinian Arabs genocidal intentions. It is a classic form of the adage “the best defense is a good offense,” accusing Israel of the crimes of Palestinian Arabs, forcing Israel into a defensive posture, both militarily and politically.

But it is another level of tragic irony that in this defensive war, Israel is open to the accusation of ethnic cleansing.

No nation on earth has faced the choices Israel faces. No other country is expected to coexist with a neighbor whose elected leaders seek its annihilation. No one wants to see civilian suffering but Israel has tried every alternative — and the price has always been paid in Jewish blood.

The world is watching a premeditated war of genocide – which it enabled and encouraged through the United Nations’ statements and actions – be defeated by a small, determined country. The contours of that victory may appear to the casual viewer as ethnic cleansing, and will certainly be marketed as such by Israel haters, as a cruel collective punishment against civilians and so-called “refugees.”

The Global North will consider “ethnic cleansing” as the lesser charge relative to the smear of “genocide” long advanced by the Global South. Will the resulting actions encourage and enable the next genocidal war against the Jewish State remains to be seen.

Related:

There Is No ‘Genocide’ Against Infrastructure (January 2024)

Palestinian Mothers Engage In Grotesque Prostitution Of Their Children (August 2023)

The Blessing of Jewish Distinctiveness

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In the book of Numbers, the Moabite king Balak summons the non-Jewish prophet Bilaam to curse the Israelite nation which was traveling near Moab. What unfolds, is one of the most mysterious blessings in the Bible.

As Bilaam gazes upon the people of Israel, he declares:

“How can I damn whom God has not damned, How doom when God has not doomed? As I see them from the mountain tops, Gaze on them from the heights, There is a people that dwells apart, Not reckoned among the nations,” “הֶן־עָם֙ לְבָדָ֣ד יִשְׁכֹּ֔ן וּבַגּוֹיִ֖ם לֹ֥א יִתְחַשָּֽׁב“(Numbers 23:8–9)

The statement is peculiar – a nation which dwells alone – has befuddled rabbis for centuries. Is it a curse? A blessing? A prophecy?

At first glance, the idea of being alone evokes discomfort. In Genesis, God explicitly declares, “It is not good for man to be alone” “לֹא־ט֛וֹב הֱי֥וֹת הָֽאָדָ֖ם לְבַדּ֑וֹ” (Genesis 2:18). From this verse, Jewish tradition emphasizes the centrality of community, companionship, and connection. So why would Bilaam say something seemingly negative—and continue with a positive blessing in Numbers 23:10 “Who can count the dust of Jacob, Number the dust-cloud of Israel? May I die the death of the upright, May my fate be like theirs!”

Jan Jansson (1588-1664) map of the Holy Land (c. 1630) showing the life of Moses in vignettes and the organization and route of the Israelites through the desert and then Moab above the Dead Sea on the map on their way to the Promised Land

The answer may lie in context of the event and the deeper meaning of distinctiveness. Bilaam was not commenting on mere social isolation. He was marveling at the singularity of an entire people traveling together through the desert, in unison, yet set apart in character and destiny. He was struck by the sight of an entire nation—young and old, rich and poor—not scattered as refugees or as imperial conquerors, but moving as one, under a divine mission. This was a nation on a journey, and yet already a people. They were not defined by geography, wealth, or military might—but by a relationship with God.

close up of Jansson map

In Jewish tradition, blessings are tied to recognition and distinction. Consider the rules of berachot (blessings): when a person eats an apple, it receives the blessing “borei pri ha’etz”—a specific blessing for fruit of the tree. If the apple is altered, like mashed into applesauce or mixed with other foods, the blessing remains the same ONLY if the fruit can still be identified. But if the fruit is so blended or processed that its original form can no longer be distinguished, it receives the general blessing of “shehakol“. The highest form of blessing is given to that which is most clearly recognizable.

In this light, Bilaam’s words take on added meaning. The Jewish people, by dwelling alone, are not to be pitied but admired. They are not a mashed mixture indistinguishable from general society but a clearly defined people, worthy of the highest blessing. Their uniqueness—religiously, culturally, and morally—is their spiritual signature.

Moreover, Bilaam wasn’t simply remarking on ethnic isolation. He noted the nation’s relationship with the Divine. Even when they seemed to be isolated, they were never truly alone—they were accompanied by God. The camp of Israel may have appeared vulnerable in the wilderness, but it was surrounded by divine presence, protected by a covenant older and stronger than any human alliance. As a prophet, he could not help but shout “How can I damn whom God has not damned” and “May my fate be like theirs!”

close up of Jansson map

This point is emphasized by commentators like Rashi (1040-1105), who notes that Bilaam’s phrase can be read as prophetic: “They do not come under the same reckoning (לא יתחשב) with other nations. — Another explanation is: When they rejoice, no other nation rejoices with them.”

This is certainly the case today, as Israel defeats one enemy after another. Each – Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran – armed with both weaponry and genocidal intent, have been neutralized. The Jewish world is relieved and gives thanks, while the United Nations runs to condemn the Jewish State for its defensive war.

The aloneness feels like isolation but is it? Is the success – and “aloneness” – to be read as a glory to God? Bilaam’s blessing isn’t merely poetic—it is theological. He sees a people whose separation from other nations isn’t a curse but a connection to God – for those, like him, who can appreciate the holy tie.

For those who recognize this divine connection, the Jewish people become a source of blessing. As Bilaam says later, “Blessed are those who bless you, and cursed are those who curse you” (Numbers 24:9). But for those who fail to see the holiness of that distinction and connection to God—who seek to blend, suppress, or erase it—the reading is a curse. The uniqueness is condemned as outside societal standards.

In the end, Bilaam’s words are not a curse in disguise. They are a prophetic blessing that reveals a truth that many overlook: there is holiness in standing apart when one stands with God. The Jewish people, though often alone among the nations, are never alone in essence. They are accompanied by the Divine, distinguished by faith, memory, and mission.

Related:

Judaism’s Blessings and Curses (June 2021)

The Karma of the Children of Israel (January 2021)

Who’s Afraid Of Superman?

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The newest Superman movie incarnation is out and critics and journalists have grabbed a pen even before a seat. Their reflections on modern society will inform how they view the characters and plot more than the cinematic quality of the film.

An interesting take was made in The New York Times opinion section called “My Problem With Superman.” The guest essay was written Junot Diaz, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic who teaches creative writing at MIT. One would imagine the story of Superman would resonate with this first generation immigrant but Diaz makes clear that he never liked Superman as originally presented to the world.

He recognizes that Superman was brought into the world as a story of a foreign refugee who escaped his dying world, something with which he should be able to relate. Diaz is well versed in the storyline in which Superman’s powers were used to fight for good in a mad world.

Yet it does not resonate for him. Not through his eyes when he was young, nor in looking at society today.

Because for Diaz – and possibly (presumably?) many immigrants like him, Superman is a force unlike any around him, a body of permanent power inequality. He might be a refugee but the dynamic is irrelevant in a progressive worldview obsessed with inequalities and power.

In today’s environment, Superman is internalized not as an individual but a nation. For Democratic-Socialists, the United States is not a “shining city on a hill,” but a monstrous force convinced of exceptionalism which wreaks havoc on the Global South.

Diaz article in The NY Times “My Problem With Superman”

In this mindset, the “annihilating exceptionalism” of power IS the evil. It is neither a force for good nor an aspiration or inspiration. It is an unnatural entity in a society intoxicated by a mission of massive redistribution of wealth and power.

Diaz makes his point clear, quoting Frederick Douglass in a call for a revolution of “fire, thunder and earthquake” to mobilize a nation of people to combat the “world in peril” from a sick governmental order.

Diaz article in The NY Times “My Problem With Superman”

The citizens of Metropolis are voting for Democratic Socialists like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Zohran Mamdani who believe that “billionaires shouldn’t exist.” Exceptionalism is viewed as inherently racist and/or enabled by a society which is deeply corrupt. Capitalism is tarred as deeply unfair. All of the power structures are fair game for targeted assassination – whether political, financial or moral.

Superman – and many of the superheroes of the era like Spiderman, Captain America and Batman – were created by young Jews before the start of the World War II and the Holocaust of European Jewry. They were young immigrants who wanted to survive in a world which had cast them out and marked them as forever different. The creators of these superheroes wrote stories of good defeating evil in a world which saw little support for the underdog. Evil was everywhere, and the only way of balancing the world between sparks of good and an inferno of evil was to oversize the good. Good needed to be extra – extra-powerful, extra-moral, and yes, extraterrestrial – to gain the upperhand.

That narrative spoke to Americans watching Nazi Germany incinerate Europe. It continued to capture the West’s attention in the following decades.

But now?

Much of the world is not looking at morality in the plain sense of the last generation. It is defined first – no, only – by equity. In this framework, without a balancing of power and wealth there can never be a good society. DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) for progressives is the only solution, and a nation which strips those initiatives is attempting to install a permanent dynamic of inequalities. Democratic-socialists are seeking to dismantle such America via a revolution of the masses.

The two Jewish writers and illustrators who created Superman – Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster – might be amazed that their creation finally has a Jewish actor, David Corenswet, playing the part in a major movie. If alive today, they might imagine that such milestone would mark a blessed society which finally welcomed the stranger, the immigrant, the survivor of the destruction of his old world. Embraced him as someone kind and noble who fought for justice for all.

David Corenswet as Superman

Alas. Imagine their amazement, the horror, if they could time travel to today, to see the target audience for their stories – immigrants in America – turn on Superman as a grotesque to be liquidated. Not because of White nationalism of Nazism that they faced a hundred years ago, but for the sin of exceptionalism in a society hell-bent on equity.

Related:

The Disappearing Jew (July 2024)

Now Is The Time For Sabra, An Israeli Superhero, To Join Captain America (October 2022)

Antisemitism at CUNY, UC Berkeley, and Georgetown

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The October 7 Hamas-led massacre by thousands of Gazans did not spark antisemitism on American campuses. It merely exposed how deeply embedded it already was. At CUNY, UC Berkeley, and Georgetown, students and professors came out to celebrate the torture and murder of Israeli victims of terror — with institutional protection, foreign funding, and a growing network of terror-affiliated faculty and student activists.

UC Berkeley protestors come for Jews

Organizations like Canary Mission have tracked and documented the alarming volume of antisemitic activity from students and professors — revealing how extremism isn’t on the fringe anymore. The Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and StandWithUs have brought lawsuits against the universities. Now, the House Education & Workforce Committee is bringing the presidents of these three universities to Washington, D.C. on July 9.

CUNY: A Campus Captured by Hate

Canary Mission has documented dozens of CUNY students and professors who:

  • Featured speakers from U.S-designated foreign terrorist groups like Samidoun
  • Praised Hamas and Islamic Jihad
  • Supported Intifada
  • Called for the extermination of Zionists and Israelis
  • Calls Zionists “White Supremacists”

One notable example is Nerdeen Kiswani, a CUNY law graduate and founder of Within Our Lifetime (WOL), a group which openly calls for “globalizing the intifada” and “confront Zionists” wherever they are, including their homes and workplaces. Despite – or because of – this, she was chosen as the keynote speaker for the 2022 CUNY Law commencement — a decision defended by the law school.

Professors at CUNY have supported Hamas terrorism and protect antisemitic groups like Students for Justice in Palestine. They include Saadia Toor, Eve Tuck, Danny Shaw and Lucien Baskin. They have:

  • Called Israelis “Nazis”
  • Called to “Globalize the intifada”
  • Posted on social media the desire for destruction of Israel

They proudly teach this in their classrooms in departments that include “Center for the Humanities,” rebranding their noxious antisemitism as a component in the fight for human rights. This isn’t just tucked into a comment during a class; there are literally classes on globalizing the intifada.

UC Berkeley: The Legalization of Hate

Influence Watch has tracked Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FLP) which was founded in the 2023-4 school year. It is a network of professors which is associated with the U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI) and “advocates that universities end study abroad programs with Israeli universities, and advocates that universities end disciplinary action against students involved in pro-Palestinian campus protests.” There are chapters at UC Berkeley and Georgetown, among others.

Professors and students at Berkeley have:

In December 2022 – before the October 7, 2023 massacre – the Office of Civil Rights for the U.S. Department of Education (OCR) launched a formal investigation into UC Berkeley Law School over a controversial anti-Zionist bylaw adopted by several student groups in August. The groups sought to ban Zionists – individuals and groups – from campus.

Professors like Hatem Bazian are affiliated with several antisemitic and anti-Israel groups. He regularly calls out Jews and pro-Israel advocates as the leading spreaders of “Islamophobia” who are evil manipulators of Congress. He teaches courses at Berkeley on “Islam in America: Communities and Institutions” and “De-Constructing Islamophobia and Othering of Islam.” He addresses audiences and asks why there hasn’t been an intifada in the United States.

The school has been sued over its “unchecked antisemitism.”

Georgetown: Foreign Funds, Foreign Values

Georgetown – located in the nation’s capital of Washington, D.C. – is one of the most bought universities in America. It has received roughly $1.3 billion from foreign actors, with over $1 billion coming from Qatar, one of the leading sponsors of the U.S.-designated terrorist group Hamas.

Robert Groves, the interim president of Georgetown, is a regular in Qatar. Georgetown opened a campus in the sheikhdom and Groves interacts regularly with the royal family, seemingly as a conduit for influence in the nation’s capital.

Though Georgetown has a more diplomatic tone, Canary Mission has documented:

  • Students and guest speakers who supported Hamas and BDS
  • Faculty like Jonathan Brown, who have repeatedly called Israel practicing “apartheid” and “ethnic cleansing.” He said Jews and Christians view the Middle East through an anti-Muslim lens but Muslims do not think of the conflict as stemming from antisemitism. It’s a remarkable dynamic considering Brown is a director of the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding in the School of Foreign Service and the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies in the College of Arts & Sciences. The prince is a Saudi billionaire.

Georgetown has hosted a number of people with links to jihadi terrorism:

Georgetown professor Badar Khan Suri with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh as covered by CAMERA

Unsurprisingly, Georgetown students have rallied to the terrorist group Hamas and its supporters in the aftermath of October 7, joining in the Global Intifada against Jews.

The Middle East Forum did a 30 minute video about Georgetown’s ties to Hamas sympathizers. It is worth watching:

Conclusion: Universities Incubate And Spread Antisemitism

The picture is clear. Professors promote terror. Students celebrate slaughter. Hostile governments fund it, and administrations on the take allow it to fester.

If these universities continue to protect hate under the banner of “academic freedom,” they will soon graduate leaders who believe murder is resistance, and Jewish life is expendable.

“We are going to have an intifada on every college campus! We are going to shut down all the Zionist events!”

  • Husam Kaid, YouTube, Nov 15 2019
People from CUNY in Times Square in 2019 calling for an intifada in every classroom and the destruction of Israel

This is not a free speech issue. It’s a moral emergency.

ACTION ITEM

Call Rep. Tim Walberg’s office at (202) 225-6276 to thank him for holding the session on campus antisemitism.

Call your senator to support the DETERRENT Act and call Sen. Thom Tillis’s office at (202) 224-6342 to thank him for sponsoring it.

Related:

Preview of July 9, 2025 House Education Committee Session On University Antisemitism: Foreign Funding (July 2025)

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

CUNY’s New Anti-Education Professor Of Intimidation (February 2025)

Hamas At Hunter College (May 2024)

Considering Campus Antisemitism (November 2023)

Charges of “Weaponizing Antisemitism” Versus Actual Violent Antisemitism

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In May 2024, Time Magazine ran a story decrying “How Weaponizing Antisemitism Puts Jews at Risk.” This idea has become fashionable among progressives, Islamists, and campus radicals. According to this twisted narrative, the real threat isn’t antisemitism—it’s the accusation of antisemitism, supposedly being used to “silence” criticism of Israel. They cite the House Education Committee’s task force on antisemitism as proof, calling it a vehicle to crack down on “pro-Palestinian” protests rather than protect Jewish students. They lobby to prevent the IHRA definition of antisemitism to be accepted in government cases, because Jews shouldn’t be allowed to decide for themselves what defines antisemitism.

Who gave them such privilege?

The charge against Jews is explicit and comes from Jews and non-Jews. UC Berkeley associate professor of history and Jewish studies Ethan Katz was part of the Nexus Project which put words like “Intifada” into various buckets and grades of antisemitism, in an attempt to jettison IHRA’s widely adopted definition. Katz took aim at the House Education Task Force and said “the overarching motivation for many of these people [Republicans on the committee] is to use this as a way of attacking higher education. This means that they are using Jews as a kind of pawn to play a political game.” It’s as though antisemitism doesn’t exist or politicians (read THOSE politicians) couldn’t possibly care about Jews.

We are being reeducated: Jews aren’t victims; they’re tools. Republicans don’t care; their racists using Jews to attack minorities and liberal institutions.

Worse, Jews are no longer victims in this reading but complicit in attacks on progressive causes. The expectation (read demand) from the socialist-jihadi alliance is therefore for Jews to accept the indignities, harassment, intimidation and discrimination lest they speak up, and victims of preference possibly be held responsible or pay a price.

This inversion of reality is extreme – and deadly.

The true weaponization of antisemitism is not rhetorical; it is literal. It is found in the chants of mobs in Western capitals calling to “Globalize the Intifada“—code for bringing the murder of Jews from Israel to the streets of New York, London, and Toronto. It is etched in graffiti that reads “Gas the Jews” in Paris and Melbourne. It is breathed into masked agitators who storm Jewish neighborhoods, businesses, and houses of worship.

Car in Australia with antisemitic graffiti

It is not new. For over a century, Arab leaders have worked to deny the Jewish people their rights. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, incited riots in the 1920s and 1930s to prevent Jews from praying at their holiest site, the Temple Mount. In 1929, that incitement culminated in the massacre of 67 Jews in Hebron. His riots from 1936 to 1939 kept hundreds of thousands of Jews in Europe to die in the Holocaust.

Fast forward to 2023 to Hamas’s October 7 pogrom—an antisemitic massacre that was a direct descendant of that same ideology. Jews, in the Hamas worldview, are not simply an occupying force—they are an infestation. Hamas’s 1988 charter calls for Muslims to fight and kill Jews wherever they may be. The 2006 Palestinian elections, in which Hamas won a majority, validated and empowered that genocidal ethos.

A majority of Gazans have always supported killing Jewish civilians in Israel, according to every Palestinian poll taken since 2000

This hatred has never been about borders or policy. It is about Jewish existence. Jewish presence.

Palestinian Arabs are almost uniformly antisemitic according to Antidefamation League (ADL) polls. They have weaponized their antisemitism and come to ethnically cleanse the land of Jews.

For calling out Muslim antisemitism, the three million-member powerful National Education Association (NEA) teacher union voted on July 6 to cut ties with the ADL. In rejecting using any materials from the ADL, the NEA stated that “despite its reputation as a civil rights organization, the ADL is not the social justice educational partner it claims to be.” NEA delegate Stephen Siegel said “allowing the ADL to determine what constitutes antisemitism would be like allowing the fossil fuel industry to determine what constitutes climate change.”

Only comrades of the socialist-jihadi alliance should be allowed to define antisemitism.

So when House Republicans call a hearing to investigate antisemitism on college campuses after mobs trap Jewish students in libraries and bar entry to Hillel buildings, outlets like Time spin it as a crackdown on speech. When Jewish students file Title VI complaints because professors and deans dismiss their fears and excuse calls for a new Holocaust as “political expression,” activists call it censorship.

Jewish students hide from mob at Cooper Union in New York City

The charge that “antisemitism is being weaponized” is not a defense of speech—it’s a shield for Jew hatred. It inverts the aggressor and victim and gaslights the world into thinking that Jews are too powerful, too organized, and too vocal in defending themselves.

It is not only in the Jewish Diaspora. The Islamic Republic of Iran – sworn to the destruction of the Jewish State which it calls a “cancer” – has literally weaponized its nuclear program. Not willing to be exterminated, Israel preemptively took out the infrastructure of the weapons of mass destruction. And the world came after Israel as if it were the aggressor.

Because there is a corrupt belief that Jews must accept their fate silently.

UN claims that Israel cannot defend itself from the political-terrorist group Hamas which rules Gaza and has 58% of the seats in parliament

The world has been trained that Jews have too much – whether power, money, land, rights – even pride. People believe that Jews should be stripped of those items and absorb the abuse. To demand basic human rights, dignity or protection is not considered defense but an assault on the attackers.

Are Jews hunting Palestinians on Western campuses or are Palestinian flag-wavers cornering Jewish students? Did Israel issue a fatwa against Arabs and Muslims, or was it Osama bin Laden who said that Jews will never be safe, Hamas that declared in its charter that it is an obligation for every Muslim to kill Jews, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas who demanded a land ethnically cleansed of every Jew?

The world knows that antisemitism has been weaponized but not by Jewish students or congressional investigators. It has been weaponized by Hamas with bullets, knives, and fire. By “anti-Zionists” who shout genocidal slogans and assault Jews in the the streets of the Global North. By media figures who gaslight Jews to stay silent to protect the indefensible in the name of free expression.

Antisemitism has been weaponized and Jews are dying. Hamas’s willing executioners are telling you to move along.

Related:

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

The Diaspora Intifada (September 2024)

United Nations Declares Jews May Not Judge (November 2023)

Antisemitism Is A Tool For Ethnic Cleansing (October 2023)

Anti-Semitism Spikes Because Israel-Palestine is a Religious Battle (June 2021)

The Re-Introduction of the ‘Powerful’ Jew Smear (March 2021)

Active and Reactive Provocations: Charlie Hebdo and the Temple Mount (October 2015)

Preview of July 9, 2025 House Education Committee Session On University Antisemitism: Foreign Funding

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On July 9, 2025, the House Education & Workforce Taskforce Committee will hold a session on “Antisemitism in Higher Education: Examining the Role of Faculty, Funding, and Ideology.” This is another meeting about ongoing Jew hatred on American campuses and the factors that drive it.

Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI), the chairman of the 45-person committee, said the “hearing will focus on the underlying factors instigating antisemitic upheaval and hatred on campus. Until these factors — such as foreign funding and antisemitic student and faculty groups — are addressed, antisemitism will persist on college campuses. Our committee is building on its promise to protect Jewish students and faculty while many university leaders refuse to hold agitators of this bigotry, hatred, and discrimination accountable.”

This Republican-led hearing will have the following witnesses:

  • Dr. Robert M. Groves, Interim President, Georgetown University
  • Dr. Félix V. Matos Rodríguez, Chancellor, The City University of New York
  • Dr. Rich Lyons, Chancellor, University of California, Berkeley

Here we will review foreign funding of universities.

Foreign Funding

Americans for Public Trust (APT) produced a report in March 2025 focused on foreign funding to universities. It found that “$60 billion in foreign gifts and contracts have been funneled into American colleges and universities over decades.” In particular, $20 billion went to ten elite schools with transparency laws being “lightly enforced” leading many universities to not report. Alarmingly, “many of the countries that top the list of foreign gifts… are long-standing adversaries and enemies of the U.S..”

The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) noted in February 2025 that “a key culprit [for so much foreign money coming into universities] is universities’ failure to comply with the provisions of Section 117 of the Higher Education Act, which requires US institutions of higher education to report income from foreign countries valued at over $250,000, such as gifts or research contracts. But American universities have failed to report billions in foreign funding, which drove the first Trump administration to launch several investigations into Section 117 noncompliance.”

The databases from the Education Department Office of Federal Student Aid Section 117 compliance can be found here.

AEI found “US schools reported over $4 billion in Qatari funding, making it easily the largest foreign donor to American universities. Looking at Qatari money together with China and Saudi Arabia further highlights how entangled these sources are with US higher education—seven of the universities investigated under Section 117 received most of their foreign funding from these three countries alone.”

APT reported that several “foreign adversaries” have donated to U.S. education, with “China, Russia, Iran, Qatar, Venezuela and Yemen have collectively syphoned billions into American schools.”

APT raised a red flag on the number of university researchers who have been arrested for illegally collaborating with China, including the chair of Harvard’s chemistry department. AEI was alarmed by the association of these foreign funders to universities doing work in artificial intelligence (AI). The COVID pandemic and risks from AI to society are reasons enough to clamp down on this funding, before even approaching foreign money stoking antisemitism.

University Antisemitism

The Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) produced a 135-page report in June 2025 called “FOREIGN INFILTRATION: GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY, QATAR, AND THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD.” The study concluded that Qatar’s huge donations – to Georgetown in particular:

  • “influenced… the academic environment, research priorities, and faculty recruitment, particularly within the School of Foreign Service (SFS), the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS), and the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU).”
  • created centers that mainstreamed “political Islam, minimizing the threat of Islamist extremism, and advancing anti-Israel narratives.”

Georgetown, based in the nation’s capital of Washington, D.C., thereby produced a large cohort of alumni who “occupy prominent positions in the U.S. State Department, intelligence
agencies, media, and NGOs, effectively introducing and reinforcing these
ideological perspectives within American foreign policy-making processes.” It has also led to a spike of anti-Jewish actions on campus.

The ISGAP report specifically called out Qatar, “from being a major funder of the Muslim
Brotherhood’s global operations to providing resources to Hamas—the Palestinian
branch of the Muslim Brotherhood—and harboring the remnants of its leadership,
Qatar has consistently positioned itself as both an ideological incubator and
logistical facilitator of Islamist extremism. The Muslim Brotherhood is committed
to destroying democracies, including the United States and Israel, and to replacing
them with a distorted version of an Islamist caliphate.”

The funding works two ways – monies flowing onto American campuses as well as building campuses of American schools in foreign countries. Six American universities maintain campuses in Doha’s Education City: Georgetown, Carnegie Mellon, Virginia Commonwealth, Cornell, Northwestern, and Texas A&M, although Texas A&M is scheduled to close in 2028 (bolded countries in top 10 receiving foreign money). The state-run Qatar Foundation finances the campuses and personnel in Doha.

There have been numerous studies which analyze whether funding from foreign institutions – and those from countries which might be viewed as hostile to the U.S. – have an increased level of anti-American and antisemitic activity. A comprehensive statistical study showed “consistently strong evidence that institutions that received Section 117 funding from OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) member countries or authoritarian countries had much higher levels of antisemitic/anti-Zionist activity.” Interestingly – and counter to the argument of liberals – the study added “that there is minimal evidence here that foreign funding, per se, is associated with erosion of liberal democratic norms around campus speech.”

The Jew hatred was not confined to the universities’ campuses. In additional analyses, the study found “that as campus antisemitism goes up or down, so does antisemitism in the surrounding communities.”

While the study cautioned about drawing direct conclusions about the direction of antisemitism (perhaps society has caused antisemitism to spike in schools rather than vice versa), it was clear with its conclusion:

“The present research highlights two troubling possibilities that deserve further investigation. The first is that receipt of Section 117 funding from foreign sources, especially authoritarian ones, has contributed to these [antisemitic] developments. The second is that providing massive financial support to campuses with ascendant illiberalism serves the interests of foreign actors hostile to the U.S. in particular or liberal democracy in general.”

These are profound concerns not just for American Jews but America.

Biased Think Tank Fig Leaves: Brookings Institute

There are a number of “think tanks” that offer opinions and research papers about a variety of issues, including antisemitism at universities and the impact from foreign funding. Many are deeply conflicted. For example, the Brookings Institute had a center in Doha for 14 years, until it was closed in 2021. It often works in partnership with Georgetown University which takes significant money from Qatar. It is therefore not surprising that Brookings publishes defensive reports on Qatar which paint the sponsor of terrorist groups as a partner for the United States against bad actors in the Middle East, rather than a fountain of funding for evil: “a window may still be apparent whereby Qatari policymakers would welcome inventive U.S. suggestions as to ways that they could make themselves useful to American counterparts, all in the name of firming up their U.S. partnership in the face of hostile local states.”

Considering the Brookings-Qatar-Georgetown dynamic, it is not surprising that the group published a study that the Trump administration’s efforts to root out antisemitism at universities was really about Trump attacking his critics, not combatting Jew hatred.

Recommendations

AEI recommended that the government “move the enforcement of Section 117 out of the Office of Federal Student Aid (the office that gave us the FAFSA debacle) and return it to the Office of the General Counsel, which is better equipped to investigate and address non-compliance with federal statutes. The Education Department should also audit far more universities to ensure adequate reporting of foreign funds. Finally, department investigators should work closely with their counterparts in the Department of Justice and FBI to tackle this issue—especially when foreign funding could be linked to influence campaigns, technological espionage, or other efforts to undermine national security.”

The Senate should pass the DETERRENT Act (Defending Education Transparency and Ending Rogue Regimes Engaging in Nefarious Transactions Act) which seeks greater transparency of foreign funding in universities, especially from a “foreign country of concern.” It was passed by the House on March 27, 2025 with a vote of 241 to 169 (with 20 abstentions). Nearly 97% of Republicans voted for the measure while fewer than 15% of Democrats voted for the bill. It is before the Senate as S. 1296, sponsored by Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) with 13 Republican co-sponsors.

Conclusion

Billions of dollars are seeping into American universities from countries which are undermining American society and values. Qatar and China are particular actors which deserve heightened scrutiny regarding their potential nefarious efforts in artificial intelligence, biochemical research and promoting antisemitism.

ACTION ITEM

Call Rep. Tim Walberg’s office at (202) 225-6276 to thank him for holding the session on this important matter.

Call your senator to support the DETERRENT Act and call Sen. Thom Tillis’s office at (202) 224-6342 to thank him for sponsoring the bill.

Related:

A Fever Called Antisemitism Hatched In Schools (June 2025)

Ignoring Columbia’s – And The Education Industry’s – Systemic Antisemitism (July 2024)

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

Saudi Students In United States (September 2023)

Hamas And Harvard Proudly Declare Their Anti-Semitism And Anti-Zionism (May 2022)

Follow the Money: Democrats and the Education Industry (November 2020)

On Accepting and Rejecting Donations (September 2019)

Recite Psalms Of Victory

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Since the horrific attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, Jews around the world have recited Tehillim, Psalms. These were composed by King David as prayers to God which continue to be read by people around the world. People have recited them in WhatsApp groups on behalf of injured soldiers and civilians. They have said them in synagogues on behalf of the hostages.

King David Playing the Harp, ca. 1616 by Peter Paul Rubens

The WhatsApp groups tend to say all of the 150 psalms, with people volunteering to say one or a couple of chapters before another person steps in to read the next ones.

In synagogues, the congregations typically recite Psalm 121 and Psalm 130 which pray for salvation and redemption.

With the recent victories over Hezbollah in Lebanon, in Iran and soon over Hamas in Gaza, it is time for synagogues to recite songs of celebration during or at the end of services. Consider:

Psalm 129

שִׁ֗יר הַֽמַּ֫עֲל֥וֹת רַ֭בַּת צְרָר֣וּנִי מִנְּעוּרַ֑י יֹאמַר־נָ֝֗א יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃

A song of ascents. Since my youth they have often assailed me, let Israel now declare,

רַ֭בַּת צְרָר֣וּנִי מִנְּעוּרָ֑י גַּ֝֗ם לֹא־יָ֥כְלוּ לִֽי׃

since my youth they have often assailed me, but they have never overcome me.

עַל־גַּ֭בִּי חָרְשׁ֣וּ חֹרְשִׁ֑ים הֶ֝אֱרִ֗יכוּ (למענותם) [לְמַעֲנִיתָֽם]׃

Plowmen plowed across my back; they made long furrows.

יְהֹוָ֥ה צַדִּ֑יק קִ֝צֵּ֗ץ עֲב֣וֹת רְשָׁעִֽים׃

The LORD, the righteous one, has snapped the cords of the wicked.

יֵ֭בֹשׁוּ וְיִסֹּ֣גוּ אָח֑וֹר כֹּ֝֗ל שֹׂנְאֵ֥י צִיּֽוֹן׃

Let all who hate Zion fall back in disgrace.

יִ֭הְיוּ כַּחֲצִ֣יר גַּגּ֑וֹת שֶׁקַּדְמַ֖ת שָׁלַ֣ף יָבֵֽשׁ׃

Let them be like grass on roofs that fades before it can be pulled up,

שֶׁלֹּ֤א מִלֵּ֖א כַפּ֥וֹ קוֹצֵ֗ר וְחִצְנ֥וֹ מְעַמֵּֽר׃

that affords no handful for the reaper, no armful for the gatherer of sheaves,

וְלֹ֤א אָמְר֨וּ ׀ הָעֹבְרִ֗ים בִּרְכַּֽת־יְהֹוָ֥ה אֲלֵיכֶ֑ם בֵּרַ֥כְנוּ אֶ֝תְכֶ֗ם בְּשֵׁ֣ם יְהֹוָֽה׃ {פ}

no exchange with passersby: “The blessing of the LORD be upon you.”
“We bless you by the name of the LORD.”

And then recite sections of Psalm 118: 5-21, which are well known as they feature prominently during Jewish festivals in Hallel and the Passover Haggadah:

מִֽן־הַ֭מֵּצַר קָרָ֣אתִי יָּ֑הּ עָנָ֖נִי בַמֶּרְחָ֣ב יָֽהּ׃

In distress I called on the LORD; the Lord answered me and brought me relief.

יְהֹוָ֣ה לִ֭י לֹ֣א אִירָ֑א מַה־יַּעֲשֶׂ֖ה לִ֣י אָדָֽם׃

The LORD is on my side, I have no fear; what can man do to me?

יְהֹוָ֣ה לִ֭י בְּעֹזְרָ֑י וַ֝אֲנִ֗י אֶרְאֶ֥ה בְשֹׂנְאָֽי׃

With the LORD on my side as my helper, I will see the downfall of my foes.

ט֗וֹב לַחֲס֥וֹת בַּיהֹוָ֑ה מִ֝בְּטֹ֗חַ בָּאָדָֽם׃

It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in mortals;

ט֗וֹב לַחֲס֥וֹת בַּיהֹוָ֑ה מִ֝בְּטֹ֗חַ בִּנְדִיבִֽים׃

it is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in the great.

כׇּל־גּוֹיִ֥ם סְבָב֑וּנִי בְּשֵׁ֥ם יְ֝הֹוָ֗ה כִּ֣י אֲמִילַֽם׃

All nations have beset me; by the name of the LORD I will surely cut them down.

סַבּ֥וּנִי גַם־סְבָב֑וּנִי בְּשֵׁ֥ם יְ֝הֹוָ֗ה כִּ֣י אֲמִילַֽם׃

They beset me, they surround me; by the name of the LORD I will surely cut them down.

סַבּ֤וּנִי כִדְבוֹרִ֗ים דֹּ֭עֲכוּ כְּאֵ֣שׁ קוֹצִ֑ים בְּשֵׁ֥ם יְ֝הֹוָ֗ה כִּ֣י אֲמִילַֽם׃

They have beset me like bees; they shall be extinguished like burning thorns;
by the name of the LORD I will surely cut them down.

דַּחֹ֣ה דְחִיתַ֣נִי לִנְפֹּ֑ל וַ֖יהֹוָ֣ה עֲזָרָֽנִי׃

You pressed me hard, I nearly fell; but the LORD helped me.

עׇזִּ֣י וְזִמְרָ֣ת יָ֑הּ וַֽיְהִי־לִ֝֗י לִישׁוּעָֽה׃

The LORD is my strength and might; He has become my deliverance.

ק֤וֹל ׀ רִנָּ֬ה וִישׁוּעָ֗ה בְּאׇהֳלֵ֥י צַדִּיקִ֑ים יְמִ֥ין יְ֝הֹוָ֗ה עֹ֣שָׂה חָֽיִל׃

The tents of the victorious resound with joyous shouts of deliverance,
“The right hand of the LORD is triumphant!

יְמִ֣ין יְ֭הֹוָה רוֹמֵמָ֑ה יְמִ֥ין יְ֝הֹוָ֗ה עֹ֣שָׂה חָֽיִל׃

The right hand of the LORD is exalted! The right hand of the LORD is triumphant!”

לֹא־אָמ֥וּת כִּֽי־אֶחְיֶ֑ה וַ֝אֲסַפֵּ֗ר מַעֲשֵׂ֥י יָֽהּ׃

I shall not die but live and proclaim the works of the LORD.

יַסֹּ֣ר יִסְּרַ֣נִּי יָּ֑הּ וְ֝לַמָּ֗וֶת לֹ֣א נְתָנָֽנִי׃

The LORD punished me severely, but did not hand me over to death.

פִּתְחוּ־לִ֥י שַׁעֲרֵי־צֶ֑דֶק אָבֹא־בָ֝֗ם אוֹדֶ֥ה יָֽהּ׃

Open the gates of victory for me that I may enter them and praise the LORD.

זֶה־הַשַּׁ֥עַר לַיהֹוָ֑ה צַ֝דִּיקִ֗ים יָבֹ֥אוּ בֽוֹ׃

This is the gateway to the LORD— the victorious shall enter through it.

א֭וֹדְךָ כִּ֣י עֲנִיתָ֑נִי וַתְּהִי־לִ֝֗י לִישׁוּעָֽה׃

I praise You, for You have answered me, and have become my deliverance.

The Jewish people are securing great victories over genocidal antisemitic foes. The world should include Psalms of thanks alongside prayers for the hostages and injured.

The West Has Joined The Jihad

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The situation for Jews in Australia is rapidly becoming intolerable. Much of it is because of violence directed at Jews. And much of it because of the reactions that rally to the attackers.

In the immediate aftermath of the genocidal jihad of Gazans against Israelis in October 2023, a mob assembled at Australia’s Sydney Opera House shouting what sounded like “Gas the Jews”, “F*ck the Jews”, and “Allahu Akhbar.” The local police concluded that the mob only wanted to know where the Jews were and did not pursue charges against anyone.

Riot of people in Australia carrying Palestinian, Lebanese and ISIS flags calling for a jihad in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023 massacre in Israel by thousands of Gazans.

In response, the Muslim community said the incident “caused significant damage and distress to Arab and Muslim communities in Australia,” inverting victims and perpetrators.

Attacks and intimidation of the Jewish community have continued including burning down kosher eateries and childcare centers, antisemitic and anti-Israel graffiti on cars and buildings, and torching cars in Sydney.

This week, Australians looked to England for new inspiration.

After a music festival in England featured a band leading the audience in chants of “death, death to the I.D.F.,” the Israeli Defense Forces, scores of people echoed the call on the streets of Melbourne, Australia. A few days later, as Jews began their Sabbath, a man set fire to the front door of a synagogue in Melbourne with people inside. At the same time, around 20 people ransacked an Israeli restaurant, throwing tables and food while screaming the death chant and that they don’t want Zionists in Australia.

Australian news reports discussed the Jew hatred… while adding that Muslims have also faced hate lately.

Australian news reporting on antisemitic attacks from July4, adding comment that “anti-Arab hate” (3:25) also has spiked

The New York Times also felt compelled to add several paragraphs about “Islamophobia” in an article about the two antisemitic attacks. As it did, it recharacterized the antisemitic chants of the mob after the October 7 attack at the Sydney Opera House as simply “accusations of hate speech” and “new laws restricting protestors rights and criminalizing certain types of statements,” seemingly rallying around the haters.

Jews are under direct attack yet the public is attempting to misdirect and rationalize the situation to their Victims of Preference.  Somehow, concerns for 2 billion Muslims who market themselves as “minorities” in the West, overshadow 15 million Jews under violent assault.

In February 1998, Osama Bin Laden called for a “Jihad Against Jews And Crusaders.” In it, he issued a ruling to “kill the Americans and their allies — civilians and military — is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it.” It is an echo of Hamas’s 1988 foundational charter which calls to “raise the banner of Jihad in the face of the oppressors, so that they would rid the land and the people of their uncleanliness, vileness and evils, (Article 3)” and “It is necessary to instill the spirit of Jihad in the heart of the nation so that they would confront the enemies and join the ranks of the fighters. (Article 15)” Hamas doesn’t demand that everyone kill Jews; fostering fertile ground is also a key part of the jihad: “Jihad is not confined to the carrying of arms and the confrontation of the enemy. The effective word, the good article, the useful book, support and solidarity – together with the presence of sincere purpose for the hoisting of Allah’s banner higher and higher – all these are elements of the Jihad for Allah’s sake. (Article 30)”

Yes, the news is part of the jihad.

Years after his death, Bin Laden – together with Hamas – are conducting western music festivals and choirs outside opera houses to come for “the Jews and Crusaders.” The infidels love the energy and are screaming the chorus as they incinerate their own societies.

The West has enlisted in the jihad upon itself, starting with Jews.

Related:

From Lee Rigby to The I.D.F.: UK’s Conversion To Jihadism (June 2025)

It’s Jerusalem Stupid. Duping The Christian World To Join The Jihad Against The Jews (November 2024)

The UN Has Joined The Jihadi Fray (February 2024)

Jihadi Coexistence (October 2023)

While Over A Million Muslims Visit Al Aqsa Mosque Over Ramadan, Hamas Claims Palestinians Banned And Calls For Global Jihad (May 2023)

Neo Nazis’ Day Of Hate; Radical Jihadists’ Day Of Rage (February 2023)

The Symbol and Sanctification Of Words

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In a time when smooth talking politicians win elections despite questionable morals and policies, it is an appropriate time to consider the greatest Jewish prophet, Moses, whose life was a constant struggle of public speaking.

At The Burning Bush: Fear of the Task

In Moses’ first encounter with God, Moses pushes back on taking the mission that God has commanded to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. His protest is not about the scale or danger of the mission but his own inadequacy – as a speaker:

“Please, my Lord, I have never been a man of words… I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” (Exodus 4:10)

God responds with reassurance, promising divine assistance:

“Who gives man speech?… Now go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.” (Exodus 4:11-12)

Still, Moses persists in his reluctance, and God tells Moses that he should partner with his brother Aaron to be joint spokespeople before Pharaoh. From that moment on, Aaron is often the mouthpiece, and Moses leads more through presence. This foundational moment sets the reader considering the role of Moses for the rest of the Torah: if Aaron is doing the talking and God is providing the words, what exactly is Moses doing?

With The Spies: Adding Words, Shaping Minds

Years later, after the Jews receive the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, Moses gives instructions to twelve tribal leaders to inspect the land of Israel. God’s original command was simple:

“Send men to scout the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites.” (Numbers 13:2)

But when Moses relays the mission, he adds additional language which was not stated by God:

“See what the land is like. Are the people who dwell in it strong or weak? Few or many? Is the land good or bad?” (Numbers 13:18-19)

These added questions introduce the possibility of negative reports. Moses frames the land not as a divine gift to be received with confidence, but as an object of evaluation and skepticism. This subtle addition tilts the mission toward doubt. The spies return not with faith but fear, and the people’s panic results in a devastating punishment of forty years of wandering.

The Rock: Silence When Only Words are Needed

Fast forward to Parshat Chukat. The Israelites are again without water and God instructs Moses and Aaron:

“take the rod and assemble the community, and before their very eyes order the rock to yield its water.” (Numbers 20:8)

But Moses, perhaps frustrated and weary with his flock, or not understanding why he was tasked with talking to an inanimate object, or confused with the purpose of taking his staff, strikes the rock instead—twice. Crucially, he does not speak. He bypasses the command and replaces it with physical action:

“And Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod.” (Numbers 20:11)

The water comes forth, but God is displeased and informs Moses that he will not get to go to the Promised Land:

“Because you did not trust Me enough to affirm My sanctity in the sight of the Israelite people, therefore you shall not lead this congregation into the land that I have given them.” (Numbers 20:12)

Moses Striking the Rock, Joachim Anthonisz Wtewael (1566 – 1638)

After years of faithful service, it is this moment of silence—a refusal to speak as commanded—that costs Moses entry into the Promised Land.

Symbols and Sanctity

At the rock, Moses used the staff as a TOOL in which he was the active agent in bringing forth the water. The Jews were thereby given the impression that Moses delivered the outcome they sought. Moses did not appreciate that the staff was a SYMBOL and that Moses was only a vehicle for God’s actions.

From the very beginning, God used Moses as his emissary, “I will be your mouth.” Ignoring the speech that God gave to Moses to bring forth water, denigrated words in favor of action. God created the world and separated water and land on the third day with words; He could certainly make water come from a rock with a few words.

The episode of Moses hitting the rock recalls when the Jews were trapped at the sea when Pharaoh’s chariots were descending upon them. Without prompting from God, Moses offered that God will battle the Egyptians:

“But Moses said to the people, “Have no fear! Stand by, and witness the deliverance which יהוה will work for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you will never see again. God will battle for you; you hold your peace!” (Exodus 14:12-13)

But God never told Moses to say any of those things. He is upset and tells Moses:

““Why do you cry out to Me? Tell the Israelites to go forward. And you lift up your rod and hold out your arm over the sea and split it, so that the Israelites may march into the sea on dry ground. And I will stiffen the hearts of the Egyptians so that they go in after them; and I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his warriors, his chariots, and his riders. Let the Egyptians know that I am God, when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots, and his riders.” (Exodus 14: 15-18)

The stories are a mirrored echo of each other:

  • In Exodus, God doesn’t instruct Moses to say anything, just to act; in Numbers, God asks Moses to speak and not act
  • In Exodus, God has Moses lift his staff and splits the sea to reveal dry land; in Numbers, God tasks Moses with lifting his rod to split the rock to deliver water
  • In Exodus, God gains glory through the obstinance of the defeated Egyptians; in Numbers, God seeks to attain sanctification in the sight of Jews
  • In Exodus, Moses listens, the Jewish people are saved, and the story of the splitting of the sea is recited daily by Jews to this very day; in Numbers, Moses doesn’t listen, he is condemned to never make it to the Promised Land and have a burial spot which remains unknown

The staff is a symbol, not a tool. It conveys that Moses is God’s conduit for words and action. Through them, God becomes sanctified and holy to Jews, while glorified by the world.

Understanding this, it is worth considering why Moses was chosen to lead the Jewish people: his lack of confidence in speaking would make him more likely to stay close to his brother and not speak extemporaneously. An overly confident person might not follow direction or the script God has for saving the Jewish people.

Moses’ speech journey is a case study of people’s personal struggles. At first, he doesn’t trust his voice. Then he misuses it. Then he avoids it entirely. People who are unsure of certain skills might go through a similar lifecycle. And that’s without God talking in your ear.

Conclusion: A Prophet’s Voice and a People’s Path

Moses’ fear of speech is central to his leadership story. It colors his interaction with God, with the people, and with destiny. His silence at the rock seals his fate just as his earlier distortions redirected Israel’s path.

God’s desire wasn’t just for obedience, but for faith expressed in words. The gift of speech—of prophecy, persuasion, prayer—was not to be avoided or altered. Moses’ story reminds us that voice is sacred. To lead is not just to act, but to speak with clarity, fidelity, and trust in the One who gives speech.

The Jewish people have succeeded when speech was measured and divinely inspired. It is a lesson in the power of words – that the right words – can have a longer and more sustainable impact than even repetitive actions.

Related:

Elevation From God’s Gifts (June 2025)

Bitter Waters and The Jerusalem Flag Parade (June 2021)

Jews “In Any Part Of Palestine”

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On February 18, 1947, senior members of the British Kingdom’s government assembled to discuss the Palestine Mandate. By this point, the British had already separated the area east of the Jordan River and handed it to the small Hashemite tribe who created the Kingdom of Trans-Jordan. The people assembled at this meeting were at an impasse of how to handle the remaining portion of Palestine in regards to the roughly 1,200,000 Arabs and 600,000 Jews.

It is worth reading the discussion in full, but I will only highlight a few points here.

By way of background, the British had assumed the Palestine Mandate as well as for Iraq in 1922, while France had mandates for Syria and Lebanon. Due to Arab revolts in Palestine which started in 1936, the British – contrary to their mandate – limited Jewish immigration to Palestine to only 75,000 during the European Holocaust; they placed no limits on Arab migration into Palestine, allowing the Arab population to grow rapidly (more than doubling from 1918, whereas Syria only grew by 50% over the period).

An interesting observation is that the word “Palestinian” appears nowhere in the discussion, as the current notion that it only means Arabs would not be concocted for decades. At this point in time, the idea of a possible “Palestinian State” would incorporate both Palestinian Arabs and Palestinian Jews, a term without meaning today.

Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Ernest Bevin (1881-1951) led the discussion about the difficulty squaring the demands of both the Arabs and Jews. He was against the establishment of a Jewish State and even sent the Jewish refugee ship Exodus back to Germany. He had mocked the United States proposal to allow 100,000 Jews into Palestine immediately “because they do not want too many of them [Jews] in New York.” As a member of Winston Churchill’s war cabinet, he had prioritized friendly relations with the Arab world and with Muslims worldwide, as the UK still controlled India.

In discussing the desire of the local Arab population in Palestine, Bevin said that the Arabs were “unwilling to contemplate further Jewish immigration into Palestine,” even when survivors of the European Holocaust were desperate to come to the Jewish homeland. He added that the Arabs “are equally opposed to the creation of a Jewish State in any part of Palestine.“

Remarks by FM Ernest Bevin on February 18, 1947 about the Palestine Mandate

Bevin would go on to state the position of Zionists who wanted an independent state, in line with the mandate which called for Jews “reconstituting their national home in that country.”

Again, he made the position clear that “for the Arabs, the essential point of principle is to resist to the last the establishment of Jewish sovereignty in any part of Palestine.” He saw “no prospect of resolving this conflict by [negotiated] settlement,” consequentially leading to persistent violence. The competing demands of the Arabs and Jews made the situation “irreconcilable.”

Remarks by FM Ernest Bevin on February 18, 1947 about the Palestine Mandate

Willie Gallacher (1881-1965), a communist who had opposed Britain’s involvement in WWII asked during the back-and-forth whether the UK’s “Balfour Declaration is recognised to be utterly unrealistic,” giving priority to Arab claims. He failed to comprehend that the declaration served as the very basis for which Britain had been handed the mandate for Palestine. The members therefore concluded that the matter should go to the United Nations General Assembly to decide how to reconcile the irreconcilable.

The discussion proved prophetic. Even today (“to the last”), the majority of the Stateless Arabs from Palestine (SAPs) refuse to accept a Jewish State “in any part of Palestine.” They continue to fight it by any means at their disposal, including war, terrorism and boycotts. Their actions do not only make life difficult for Jews in Israel but for Americans. The US embassy in Israel issued “travel advisories” suggesting people reconsider travel to Israel and the West Bank and to not go to Gaza because of the activities of various Palestinian Arab terrorist groups.

US embassy in Israel travel advisory of July 1, 2025

The SAPs are fighting Jews on two fronts, via the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas. The PA is fighting for a Palestinian State without a single Jew living in it. It has the United Nations endorsement, with the passing of UN Security Council Resolution 2334 in December 2016. Hamas and other terrorist groups are fighting to ensure no Jewish State exists “in any part of Palestine.”

Other jihadists – countries and groups – also rallied to fight a Jewish State “in any part of Palestine.” From 1948 to the 1970s, the Arab world routed 850,000 Jews from their nations. Most still refuse to recognize Israel. Many boycott Israel and do not allow Israelis to enter their country. Islamic countries which are not Arab – foremost Iran and Turkey – actively support Hamas. Turkish President Recep Erdogan said right after the October 7 massacre that “Hamas is not a terrorist organization, it is a liberation group, ‘mujahideen’ waging a battle to protect its lands and people.”

Jihadi groups like al Qaeda rally radical Muslims to attack “Americans and Jews” around the world because of Israel, and attack tourists and fellow Muslims in Egypt and Jordan because those countries struck peace agreements with the Jewish State. The presence of Jewish sovereignty in Palestine has generated a call to history of 1,000 years ago, with the “World Islamic Front for the Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders.“

The conflict is cast in western circles as a local conflict over land between Jews and Arabs which can find compromise, but radical Islamists see it as a global religious matter between Muslims and Jews. The violent extremists cannot accept Jewish sovereignty “in any part of Palestine” as an “essential point of principle.” Current efforts to “Globalize the Intifada” is their rallying call to end the Jewish State in its entirety, with Jews and Christians (“Crusaders”) fair marks for attack.

Related:

Globalize The Intifada With Socialists (May 2024)

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

Hamas’s Willing Executioners (July 2021)

Losing Rights (October 2017)

The Original Nakba: The Division of “TransJordan” (August 2017)