Many people and writers for mainstream and social media use terms like “pro-Palestinian” to describe protests like those held at Columbia University.
The New York Times writing about “pro-Palestinian” demonstrations on April 17, 2024 which were actually pro-Hamas and anti-Israel
The New York Times published an article that made it sound like young adults at Columbia University were respectfully and peacefully advocating for Palestinian Arabs. That “many Jewish people” found the protests to be antisemitic would therefore seem strange, as Jews would likely not view pro-Israel protests as being anti-Muslim. Arguably, anyone advocating for a two-state solution to the conflict is both pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli. It begs a reader to ponder whether Jews are way too sensitive or the term “pro-Palestinian” is simply incorrect.
What was happening at these “pro-Palestinian protests?”
The chant on Columbia’s main campus of “long live the intifada” is a jihadi genocial chant to kill Jews. It is not “pro-Palestinian” but both anti-Israel and antisemitic.
Covered in a kaffiyeh, it’s surreal to watch an anti-Zionist shout at someone to not “”show your face here again.” But intimidation and illogic are cornerstones of haters hating.
Standing on the street alongside Columbia and shouting at a Jew “keep on moving you Zionist pig” and “we are all Hamas”, swearing allegiance to the antisemitic genocial group that has directly and indirectly caused the deaths of tens of thousands of people is both anti-Israel and antisemitic. It should also be viewed as full-throated support for a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization and a criminal act, especially when yelled at an individual with the intent to intimidate and terrorize.
Violence against someone normally carries a misdemeanor charge of assault or battery. When a group of people surround a single individual and taunt him with “kill yourself” and rip an Israeli flag, the action may be a felony. It certainly is not simply taking part in a “boisterous pro-Palestinian demonstration.”
Calling for a violent jihadi “intifada revolution” on the streets outside and on the main campus of Columbia is both antisemitic, anti-Israel and vocal support for killing Jews and expelling them from their homeland. How is that a form of “pro-Palestinian protest?”
Cheering the Hamas military wing, a designated a terrorist organization by multiple countries, is anti-Israel and pro-terrorism, as is showing off a Hamas flag. It does not mark a pro-Palestinian protest.
Marching outside Columbia’s gates shouting for the destruction of Israel and replacing it with a new country of Palestine, which didn’t even exist in 1948, is anti-Israel.
Yelling at two Jewish students standing outside of Columbia University’s gates that the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust will be “every day for you” is either a wish or threat. Either way, it is profoundly anti-Israel and antisemitic.
Columbia students chant that raping Jewish women, killing Jewish children, shooting elderly Jews, burning Jewish families alive, is moral, legal and appreciated. Civil society knows it to be deeply immoral, anti-Israel and antisemitic. The least one can do is clearly label it.
Demonstrators rally at an “All out for Gaza” protest at Columbia University in New York in November, 2023 (photo: Bryan R. Smith)
If people were engaged in peaceful “pro-Palestinian protests,” 80% of them wouldn’t be hiding behind masks. They know they are part of an antisemitic jihadi cabal that supports destroying the Jewish State, so why is the media soft-selling their antisemitism and genocidal intentions?
The situation for Jews on American college campuses is terrible. While Jews have always been much more likely to suffer a hate crime than any other group including Blacks, gays, Muslims or people with handicaps, the spike in harassment since the jihadi Palestinian attacks on October 7 have been terrifying everywhere, and especially on college campuses.
Congress took notice and held a hearing about antisemitism on campuses with the heads of MIT, Harvard and University of Pennsylvania, and brought in Columbia University on April 17, 2024 for its own hearing. The incidents at Columbia have been plentiful, including from professors glorifying the barbarous attacks on Jewish civilians on October 7, student groups calling to “globalize the intifada (terrorism against Jews)”, “F**k Jews”, swastikas drawn on college property, Jewish mezuzahs torn off student housing and more.
The chair of the committee, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) showed a video (12:22) of some of the recent events to help frame the discussion, including showing masked people in keffiyehs threatening to make life for Jews “a nightmare.”
While the issue of antisemitism is immediate, horrible and indisputable, three members of congress decided that Jews really didn’t need protection or a special review. They included Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY16), Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN5) and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA3).
Jamaal Bowman
Bowman spoke after a short recess and his remarks can be seen in the video at 2:23:22. He asked three questions of the panel, starting with Columbia’s president Minouche Shafik, none of which related to the terrible situation of Jews being targeted on college campuses. The first question asked whether all discussions regarding the Gaza War were necessarily antisemitic. The second was asking about Islamophobia on campus. The last was whether there was action taken for a “chemical attack” against pro-Palestinian person on campus.
Zero questions about the welfare of Jews.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman, representing one of the most heavily Jewish districts in the country, would not ask a single question about the welfare of Jews on a panel specifically on the issue of antisemitism at Columbia University
Ilhan Omar
Omar spoke at 2:34:20 and rattled off a series of quick questions to Shafik about the welfare of Muslims, Arabs and Palestinians. When she asked whether Shafik had seen protests against Jews, she incorrectly stated that she had not seen any, and later modified her remarks upon cross-examination (2:54:00) that while protests were not specifically about Jews, there were many antisemitic comments made at various protests.
Omar continued to pepper the panel about a supposed “toxic chemical substance” against pro-Palestinian students which was actually a foul odor skunk spray. She pushed for what actions were taken about doxxing of students and Israeli professor Shai Davidi complaining about the administration, professors and students.
When Columbia’s president said that six pro-Palestinian students were suspended for the “very serious case” of those students “inviting people inciting violence” against Jews, Omar shut down the response and moved on to the well-being of the suspended students and said absolutely nothing about students threatening violence against Jews.
She did not ask anything about the welfare of Jewish students under threat of attack.
Bobby Scott
As a ranking chair of the education committee, Scott got to speak twice on the panel, at the opening and the close. To start (4:35) and close (3:19:50) Scott devoted his time to the antisemitic incidents at the University of Virginia in 2017 from the alt-right, making it sound like antisemitism is solely a far-right phenomenon, a theme falsely aired by the left. He then said that all students need protection including Muslims and gays so there was no real reason to have this specialized investigation for antisemitism.
Rep. Foxx reacted to Scott’s comments (10:11) that the UVA incident did not involve university students or faculty, while the persistent matters of Jew-hatred are systemic in Columbia from the student groups, to professors, to the administration.
Scott was concerned for Jews but only in the general context of being worried about the welfare of all students, even though Jews are by far the most targeted.
While this was happening in Washington, people at Columbia University were shouting “we are all Hamas,” the genocidal maniacs who commited the October 7 massacre of 1,200 people and sworn to killing of Jews and destroying the Jewish state.
The far-left squad again showed that it cannot find any empathy for American Jews suffering attacks and threats of violence, even young Jewish adults on college campuses just seeking an education. That is a lesson for all Americans to internalize.
ACTION ITEM
In NY-16, extremist Rep. Jamaal Bowman is being challenged by Westchester County Executive George Latimer. Donate to Latimer here.
In MN-05, extremist Rep. Ilhan Omar is being challenged by Minneapolis City Council member Don Samuels. Donate to Samuels here.
The famous legal scholar Alan Dershowitz came to speak to a group of roughly 40 people in New York City on April 16, 2024, to address the horrifying rise in antisemitism and anti-Zionism. Dershowitz led his remarks with dark humor, that he’s an optimist- when people tell him that the situation cannot get worse, he responds “I think they can!”
Alan Dershowitz speaking to group about rise in antisemitism and anti-Zionism
Dershowitz spoke about many underlying reasons for Jews being persecuted which included the push for DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) promoted on college campuses and large corporations, which specifically excludes Jews and Asians in an effort to promote Blacks and Latinos. He noted that any system that opposes meritocracy is bad for Jews. Being a small minority, a set of rules that demanded proportionality of positions according to overall population would leave few spots for Jews.
Dershowitz spoke of a letter that Albert Einstein wrote about the people of Germany who elected the Nazis, and parallels that can be drawn for Palestinian Arabs and the United States today. Einstein wrote “The Germans as an entire people are responsible for the mass murders and must be punished as a people if there is justice in the world and if the consciousness of collective responsibility in the nations is not to perish from the earth entirely. Behind the Nazi party stands the German people, who elected Hitler after he had in his book [Mein Kampf] and in his speeches made his shameful [genocidal] intentions clear beyond the possibility of misunderstanding.” Similarly, Palestinians elected Hamas to 58% of its parliament with its antisemitic genocidal charter and continue to support the group and its heinous brutal slaughter committed on October 7. While children are inherently innocent, are the women who support Hamas and the 16-year old with a rifle truly innocent?
And what about for us as Americans today? How do we allow terrorist supporters and antisemites to get elected and issue threats on the streets and college campuses?
The liberal Democrat shared that he had always voted for Democrats but no more. He said that “it’s time for the Democratic Party to stop taking the Jewish vote for granted.” He suggested that every Jew consider new priorities regarding elections, as two things have changed: the current Democratic party is not your grandparents Democratic Party, and the current reality for the Jewish community is dire and poised to get worse.
Dershowitz was very clear that the economy, abortion rights and other matters remain dear to him but that he sees the writing on the walls which is compelling a complete pivot to stem the tide of Jew hatred. While he loves the opera and museums, he will shift his donations from the arts and medical institutions to Jewish and pro-Israel causes. He quoted the phrase in Ecclesiastes that “to everything there is a season,” and dark clouds have now come for the Jews. As such, every Jew must vote and donate with a priority on Jewish safety and security.
To highlight the point, the day before the Dershowitz talk, the House voted on H.R. 6408 to withhold tax-exempt status for organizations that support terror. Eleven people – including the entire alt-left “squad” – voted against the measure.
Vote on H.R. 6408 on April 15, 2024 to terminate tax-exempt status for terrorist supporting organizations passed with almost complete support – except for the far-left extremists of the “Squad” including Jamaal Bowman
Americans must prioritize ousting the eleven terrorist-supporters in congress with votes and donations to their opponents:
In NY-16, extremist Rep. Jamaal Bowman is being challenged by Westchester County Executive George Latimer. Donate to Latimer here.
In MO-1, extremist Rep. Cori Bush is being challenged by public defender Wesley Bell. Donate to Bell here.
In MN-05, extremist Rep. Ilhan Omar is being challenged by Minneapolis City Council member Don Samuels. Donate to Samuels here.
In PA-12, extremist Summer Lee is being challenged by local legislator Bhavini Patel. Donate to Patel here.
In IL-04, extremist Rep. Jesus Garcia won 69.5% of the vote in his Democratic primary
Rep. Jamaal Bowman has earned a number of nicknames over his time in Congress. Some call him ‘Fire Alarm’ Bowman for infamously pulling a fire alarm to delay a House vote. Others calls him ‘Censured’ Bowman’ for being censured by a bipartisan Congress, while others call him ‘Blowhard’ Bowman for constantly race-baiting Republicans in calling them Nazis as well as mentally and emotionally deficient to understand people of color.
The latest earned moniker is ‘Outside Money’ Bowman, as he has utterly failed to raise money from inside his district so is now focused on collecting money from extremists around the country and from radical Islamic regimes.
For the period ending December 31, 2023, Westchester County Executive George Latimer raised $1.4 million while Bowman couldn’t even raise $700,000. While Latimer raised 73% of his money from inside his district, Bowman only could muster 9 per cent.
Bowman has therefore decided to team up with the worst antisemites and far-left and jihadi radicals to raise money for his campaign.
Jamaal Bowman hugging notorious antisemite Rashida Tlaib who is funding much of his election campaign
Bowman is now actively jumping into the deep anti-Israel cesspool with a group called ‘Reject AIPAC’ that is calling Israel an ‘apartheid’ state built on ‘colonialism’ committing a ‘genocide’ of Palestinians. The group is attempting to shield the political-terrorist group Hamas and the rest of the Palestinian army from defeat so it can commit more atrocities against civilians in Israel.
The ‘Reject Israel’ supporters include the extremist fringe of anti-Zionists including Justice Democrats, Jewish Voice for Peace Action, IfNotNow, Working Families Party, Sunrise Movement, MPower Change Action Fund, Democratic Socialists of America, Our Revolution, Peace Action, National Iranian American Council, and Gen-Z for Change.
Westchester County Executive George Latimer has a long history of delivering for his constituents in NY congressional District 16 and has a grassroots campaign of locals who respect him. The incumbent has virtually no base, and is relying on radical groups from around the country and Iran to buy an election.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman has saddled up with some of the most violent anti-Israel Jew-haters in his New York district. They are now actively coming for Jews.
At the launch of Bowman’s 2024 congressional campaign, he featured Nada Khader who said before a cheering Bowman that Jews in Israel will only be safe when Palestinian Arabs “return to our homeland!” Until then, they can expect more October 7 massacres.
Nada Khader of WESPAC threatening Jews with more attacks if Palestinians do not get to move into Israel, with Rep. Jamaal Bowman cheering “Free Palestine”
Khader has taken her screed directly to Jewish schools.
On March 10, 2024, Khader and about twenty fellow anti-Israel agitators came to the Jewish Leffell School, where Jews gathered to discuss buying homes in Israel.
This seemed like an ideal time and location for Bowman’s supporters to tell Jews that they should be attacked.
Jihadist extremists carry banners in front of a Jewish Day School in Westchester County, NY on March 10, 2024
Khader and friends carried signs to “end the 75 year occupation”, meaning to destroy the Jewish State, as well as to “end Western complicity in Zionism” to rip any protections for Jews, so Muslim extremists can seek “Palestinian Liberation by any means necessary.”
Pro-Palestinian extremists are very clear what “any means necessary” means – more October 7 massacres with raping, beheadings and burning families alive.
NYC – these vile stickers are being spotted all around Union Square.
Khader’s charity, WESPAC, is somehow a tax-exempt entity despite calls for violence. It operates openly in the heart of Westchester County, home to 150,000 Jews.
Nada Khader with allies calling for the rape and slaughter of Jews in front of a Jewish day school on March 10, 2024
Imagine the danger to Westchester’s Jews if Jamaal Bowman prevails in the June 25th Democratic primary.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman and Rep. Rashida Tlaib shout “Free Palestine” before crowd after the October 7 massacre and mass rape of Israelis by Palestinian Arabs
‘The Zone Of Interest‘ is an unusual Holocaust movie. It shows the daily life of the head of the Auschwitz concentration camp inside his home abutting the vast killing factory. Living a peaceful life with his wife and children, the viewer is struck by the carefree life of the Nazi officer and his family, treating the annihilation of European Jewry as simply a normal 9-to-5 job which supports the family in the way they always desired.
Part of the funding for the movie was from the government of Poland, and its influence can be seen in directing the audience to see that the true evil actors were the German Nazis and not Poles, who were portrayed as trying to help Jews in some way, dropping apples around the camp for Jews who managed to escape. Modern Poles are shown at the end of the film, keeping today’s Holocaust museum at the site tidy for tourists who can view the Jewish possessions which were not seized by the Nazis and their families. The actual rampant Polish Jew hatred is invisible in the film.
Vile Jew-hatred continues today, as do new movies, shows and museums focused on the global scourge. Many contrast past antisemitism to modern Jew-hatred such as the remarkable play ‘Prayer for the French Republic‘ as well as ‘Leopolstadt’. Others are devoted just to the Holocaust like the new museum in Amsterdam. Some try to tie antisemitism into the Arab-Israeli conflict like the opera ‘Death of Klinghoffer.‘
Tragically, many of the works of art about noxious Jew hatred have become awash in the Arab-Israeli conflict. It would appear that Jews being cast as victims – whether with posters of kidnapped Israeli Jewish civilians, or a Holocaust museum – is too much for Palestinian Arab supporters who want to see the Jewish State crushed.
At the March 2024 opening of the new Holocaust museum in Amsterdam, hundreds of protestors gathered outside to shout “Free, free Palestine” and “Viva, viva Intifada,” screaming for the destruction of the Jewish State and murder of Jews.
Anti-Israel demonstrators at the opening of the National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam. Pic: AP
In the U.S., The New York Times published a grotesque opinion that compared Israel’s activities in trying to save its hostages and root out the perpetrators of the October 7 massacre to the Nazi family in ‘The Zone of Interest.’ Over-and-again it wrote of the “military siege of Gaza” and “Israel’s assault on Gaza” in a movie review about a Holocaust film.
NY Times lead opinion piece on March 9, 2024
The author, David Klein, could have stated his opinion about the War From Gaza without attaching his comments to a film about the systematic killing of 6 million Jews but he, and many like him, don’t want to. They want to strip Jews of any protection – offensive or defensive. The end of the article makes clear that he is against supplying Israel with weaponry to prosecute the Palestinian terrorist army of Hamas; appending his opinion to a Holocaust film is designed to also remove America’s shield for Israel at the United Nations and with resupplying the Iron Dome missile defense.
To make his refuse stink a bit less, Klein peppered the “AsAJew” line to protect himself from accusations of antisemitism.
Eli Lake penned an article in Commentary Magazine in March 2024 called “A Brief History of the ‘AsAJew’“. Lake sees this as a phenomenon of far-left diaspora Jews, as even progressives in Israel know that Hamas must be destroyed after the heinous barbarous attack which the terrorist group has threatened to repeat.
Lake described a long history of AsAJews during moments of Jewish suffering appealing to the antisemitic attackers to continue to persecute. He wrote that centuries ago, “the AsAJews of their day lobbied their hosts in the Diaspora to banish or convert the Jewish people to Christianity and to confiscate and burn the Talmud.” He details the story of a man in the 15th century named Johannes Pfefferkorn who converted from Judaism and helped fuel a mini crusade against his former co-religionists.
Times have changed some of the nouns in the anti-Semitic Mad Lib, but the story reads familiar.
Lake wrote, “In the Middle Ages, AsAJew converts were pawns the Church used to spread lies about the Talmud. In 2024, the AsAJews are not converts to Christianity. They are instead converts to the false prophecy of left-wing social-justice activism…. The anti-Semites of the Middle Ages needed AsAJews to provide credentials for the lies that justified their pogroms and expulsions. Today, Hamas and its allies in Iran need the AsAJews to persuade the Hague, European governments, and the White House to delegitimize Israel’s right to self-defense.”
I will add some observations on top of Lake’s. For centuries, antisemites including AsAJews, came for the Jews by attacking the religion itself. They concocted stories about Passover matzah in blood libels and the Talmud teaches black magic. Today’s cohort attack Jews and Jewish history, not the religion. They mock the Holocaust. They claim Jews have no history in the land of Israel and are “colonizers” who stole land from Arabs, and that Jews never had holy temples in Jerusalem so should be banned from prayer in a site that is solely holy to Muslims.
By ignoring religion, the modern day antisemites refuse to carry the antisemitic mantle because they are not attacking the religion, just bad actors who happen to be Jewish. The AsAJew allies provide a wide fig leaf for the charade, much as they’ve done for centuries.
Museums and films devoted to the heinous slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust, which would normally demonstrate the profound need for Jews to have self-determination, are being used by the alt-left and Islamic radicals to argue that Jews should be left to the wolves of Hamas. Some are not as shrill, and offer a tepid “both sides” support, blind to their echoing former President Donald Trump’s Charlottesville remarks.
‘The Zone of Interest’ Winning Best International Film on March 10, 2024, with callout to Israeli and Palestinian victims of terror
As antisemitism scales to terrifying levels around the world, the alt-left and Islamic radicals are turning works of art and remembrances of the deliberate mass butchering of Jews on October 7 and during the Holocaust into calls to attack Jews and the one Jewish State. Many progressive Jews are appalled and are abandoning their former partners-in-crime as now-revealed naked antisemites. But the AsAJews have remained steadfast and will share names and addresses of the Zionists, marking Jews as zealots who need to be punished for the good of mankind once again.
President Joe Biden addressed the nation on March 7, 2024 to discuss the state of the union. He discussed many points about situations abroad including Ukraine, Israel and China, and items on the domestic front such as immigration, abortion, education, the economy and crime.
President Joe Biden delivery State of the Union address on March 7, 2024
Biden put a very positive spin on the crime rate in the U.S. “All Americans deserve the freedom to be safe, and America is safer today than when I took office…. Last year, the murder rate saw the sharpest decrease in history, and violent crime fell to one of the lowest levels in more than 50 years.”
Sounds great.
But not for Jews.
Jews are being attacked and vilified on public streets and in schools. They watch university presidents smile when asked about calling for the genocide of Jews, and professors shout that they were exhilarated by the mass slaughter and rape of Jews in Israel.
In November 2023, Jewish Federations published a report that “70% of Jewish respondents said they feel less safe than they did a few months before [the Hamas war]…. Jews were twice as likely to say they worry very much about their personal safety compared to the general public.”
In February 2024, the American Jewish Committee released its own poll which found “63% of American Jews say the status of Jews in the U.S. is less secure compared to one year ago. In 2022, this number was 41%. In 2021, it was 31%.” The spike is found among the general public too in which “74% of U.S. adults say antisemitism is a problem in the United States today, compared to 68% who said so in 2022, and 60% in 2021.”
Biden knows about the tsunami of Jew hatred. In May 2023, five months before Palestinian jihadists butchered 1,200 people in Israel, Biden announced The U.S. Strategy To Counter Antisemitism. That document narrowly focused on the alt-right, with “Nazis” mentioned twelve times and “white supremacy” five. The more prevalent forms of Jew hatred from Islamic extremists, Blacks and the alt-left went completely unmentioned in the report.
The Biden administration was so blind to radical Islamic antisemitism that it put CAIR, the Council of American Islamic Relations, on the antisemitism committee at that time. The administration only removed CAIR after the head of the group said how pleased he was with the October 7 jihadi massacre.
The unwillingness of the Biden administration to clearly call out every manifestation of Jew hatred – not just from the alt-right – has upset many Jews. According to a February 2024 Siena College poll, the majority of Jews, who normally vote Democratic, are switching to Donald Trump for president in November 2024, buy a margin of 53% to 44%.
Joe Biden seems to be banking on math, that Jews are a minority-minority who are unlikely to tip the scales in any state. Or perhaps he just decided to “love the one your with” and cuddle up to the insidious jihad taking over America, protecting vile antisemites if the are Muslims or Blacks, who make up a much larger swatch of “minorities.”
Now in the 2024 election, Biden has informed Americans that the country is extremely safe, and is unwilling to acknowledge the tsunami of Jew hatred by his supporters in the Muslim, Black and progressive communities. Should Trump win the presidency, those left-wing and jihadi groups will surely come for the Jews in even greater numbers and ferocity than they are currently.
Some far-left extremists have taken up the cause of Palestinian Arabs under the framework of being anti-colonialist, falsely believing that Jews have no history or connection to the land of Israel.
The bold lie is just the opening problem. They also protest blanketed in hypocrisy.
While standing firmly with Hispanic immigrants coming to the United States, the alt-left radicals demand that Jews “go back” to the concentration camps in Poland. As they demand full rights for gay people, they side with Gazans who execute homosexuals.
One such gay Palestinian was Ahmad Abu Murkhiyeh. He was granted asylum in Israel – along with roughly 90 other Palestinian homosexuals – because he correctly feared for his life among Palestinian Arabs. One year before Gazans raped and massacred over 1,000 people in Israel, Palestinian Arabs decapitated Ahmad and dumped his torso on the streets of Hebron. The killers took a video of the murder and shared it on social media, much as they did with the butchering of Israelis one year later.
Ahmad Abu Murkhiyeh, 25, decapitated by Palestinian Arabs because he was gay
There is a sick evil ideology amongst Gazans who want to kill Jews, murder those who sell land to Jews, behead gay people, and stone people who convert from Islam. Yet the alt-left looks away from the Palestinians’ jihadi manifesto and shouts their support for those who despise everything in which they believe.
Well not everything. Palestinians and the alt-left both agree on death to Israel and death to America.
There used to be jokes about how to handle one’s racist uncle during the holidays. Now the question is how to deal with a person’s antisemitic niece.
While many older cisgender White men continue to be challenged by the changing nature of America, a large percentage of women aged 18-34 (and under 24 in particular) have a hatred for Jews that would make Nazis blush.
The results from the December Harvard/Harris poll about views of Israel and Hamas segmented by age were shocking. While well over 90% of people over 55 viewed the October 7, 2023 Hamas invasion and slaughter in Israel as an act of terrorism, only slightly more than 70% of the 18-34 cohort believed the killing of 1,200 people to be terrorism. An estimated 90% of people over 55 thought there was no justification for the Hamas attack, but 60% of people 18-24 thought the massacre was justified.
Young people are evenly split on supporting Hamas and Israel, while almost every older person supports Israel. After the October 7 attack, 76% of 18-24 year-olds thought Hamas is a rational actor with whom Israel can negotiate while 87% of those over 65 believe Hamas is dedicated to the destruction of Israel. Consequently, 84% of seniors oppose a ceasefire now that would leave Hamas in place while 67% of the youth think a ceasefire should happen immediately and leave Hamas intact.
In the aftermath of the worst murder of Jews since the Holocaust, a majority of 51% of 18-24 year-olds think Israel should be dissolved and handed to Hamas and the Palestinians. Only 4% of those over 65 hold such views, with 71% preferring two states and 25% supporting Palestinians moving into neighboring Arab countries.
Lastly, the poll touched on gender-related violence. Two-thirds of seniors believe that human rights groups did not adequately condemn the rape of Israeli women, while 80% of those 18-24 thought that women’s rights organizations condemned Hamas sufficiently.
These findings confirm a January 2023 ADL poll which found “Young adults have more anti-Israel sentiment than older generations.”
The age divide is much the same regarding antisemitism in the United States.
An estimated 90% of people over 65 years old think that Jews face harassment on college campuses which drops to about two-thirds for 18-34 year-olds. Much of that disparity seems to do with whether words constitute harassment, as 92% of people over 65 think that calling for the genocide of Jews should be against university rules, while 53% of people 18-24 think students should be free to call for the genocide of Jews.
In addition to penalizing particular speech, one of the drivers seems to be driven by ideology. Roughly 81% of people over 65 oppose the notion that people should be viewed through the lens of White oppressors and non-White oppressed classes of people, while 79% of 18-24 year-olds support the ideology. Among those over 65, 91% believe that Jews should not fall into the White oppressor class while 67% of 18-24 year-olds believe Jews should be in the oppressor class.
What has driven the enormous disparity of opinions in which young people side with terrorists who slaughter Jews? What drives so many 18 to 24 year-olds to be so anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist?
A few ideas to review including a post-9/11 world, indoctrination in schools, race, social media and human rights groups.
Post-9/11 World
Americans who were adults in 2000 and 2001 can easily remember the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the continued heinous killing of Israeli Jews by Palestinian Arabs from 2000 to 2004. The clarity about the jihadi extremists perpetrating the disgusting murders was apparent to all, so the support for the United States and Israel responding to the attacks was wide and deep.
For young people who do not remember the attacks but only the consequences – America’s 20-year long war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the Israeli Security Barrier which was put up to stop the flow of Palestinian Arab terrorists – the cause-and-effect is now inverted. Rather than see the Security Barrier as the effective reaction to jihadi terrorism, it is viewed as an obstacle to coexistence. Rather than appreciate the lack of mass casualty attacks in the U.S. over the past two decades, young people question why America fought wars abroad for so long.
Young people have come to believe that western powers are “imperialist” and wage wars to subjugate others. They have internalize the Iranian narrative of the US and Israel being “big Satan” and “Little Satan”, respectively, aggressively fighting Muslims and people of color for no reason.
When the 2014 Gaza War concluded around the same time as the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, the SJP chapters started to align themselves with the Black community in an effort of allyship. It created narratives of “Gaza to Detroit” and “Ferguson to Palestine” as if the two have anything remotely in common.
Muslims claimed it did – and latched onto the oppressor/oppressed narrative which has now become university doctrine over the past decade. Teacher union bosses pushed the notion into lower schools as well, that Jews should be seen as part of the elite “ownership class” who try to keep others down.
Coupled with this incorrect portrayal of American Jews as powerful is the mischaracterization of Israel as a European colonial project. In university departments focused on decolonization, Israel is being cast as a racist state which must be dismantled. There is no subtle debate about Israel/Palestine for young people; they have been taught that Jews are not indigenous to Israel and “stole” Palestinian land.
As toxic ideologies like this inevitably metastasize, the calls to actively be “anti-racist” compelled students to become vocal anti-Zionists. Elective courses on “anti-racism” in California universities soon became mandatory in high schools, infecting the minds of tens of thousands.
While older Americans were spared this indoctrination, many Americans under 30 have been schooled in antisemitism and anti-Zionism.
UN and Human Rights Groups Slander
Universities celebrated when Amnesty International published a report in February 2022 calling Israel an “apartheid” state. It gave credibility to anti-Zionists who had long defamed Israel at will – like The New York Times – using a third party’s definition rather than state personal bias.
The Obama Administration’s last middle finger to Israel as it departed was allowing United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 to pass which made it illegal for Jews to live east of the 1949 Armistice Lines with Jordan, including in Judaism’s holiest location of the Old City of Jerusalem. While older people may recall that Jews have been a majority of Jerusalem since the 1860s, younger people have grown up where Jews living in Jerusalem is an act of evil colonization.
Racial Overview of Youth
Today’s youth is much more multi-ethnic than older generations.
America’s youth has many more non-White people while older Americans are mostly White. According to Pew Research, the most common age for Whites was 58 in 2019, and a much younger 29 for Asians, 27 for Blacks and 11 for Hispanics.
Among 70 year-olds, there are about 2.5 million White people but not even 1 million non-White people. However, among 20 year-olds, there are roughly 2.3 million White people and only slightly fewer, 2.1 million non-Whites, roughly an even split.
The multi-ethnic youth have come to see their White Jewish peers as part of the “White oppressor” class. They incorrectly assume that Israeli Jews are mostly White, like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In fact, White Ashkenazi Jews make up only one-third of the Israeli population.
Race In Colleges
The race of college students varies by the type of school. Overall, 42.3% of students are White, 17.4% Hispanic, 10.6% Black, 5.8% Asian according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. The figures change dramatically when considering the type of school and degree.
At private, nonprofit four-year universities, 47% of students were white and 33% of students were Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC). A similar mix was found at public four-year schools where 46% of students were white, 38% were BIPOC. Shorter associate degrees attracted more minorities, with private two-year schools, 38% of students were white, 44% were BIPOC and public two-year schools, 29% of students were white, 42% were BIPOC.
More people are opting to not attend colleges, viewing them as expensive and not worth the time or investment. White enrollment declined the most from 2018 to 2022, dropping by 17.4%, while Black and Hispanic enrollment declined by 13.6% and 3.6%, respectively. Men are skipping universities in greater numbers than women, with women now accounting for 8.3 million students compared to 6.1 million men.
Despite women and minorities making up a greater share of college students, the professors are still mostly white, with White men making up 39% of all faculty and White women, 35%.
While White people make up a plurality of four-year degree programs, the schools have made very direct actions to change their faculty and curricula. They have implemented DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) programs, which are getting a lot of attention after the resignation of Harvard’s Black female president who failed to clearly condemn antisemitism at a congressional hearing.
Universities are not simply deploying indoctrinating students in a new socialist ideology compared to past generations; they are preaching to a more muti-ethnic population who are embracing the theology.
Social Media
The socialist antisemitic educational system deserves part of the blame but social media has fostered the toxicity as well.
While smartphones came to the world in 2008, the social media phenomenon on phones really took off from 2010 to 2015. Young people began to rely on news from influencers they followed (think sports stars, models, entertainers) rather than on professional news outlets. Young people fled to these idiots who offered opinions rather than facts, on platforms that pushed engagement via extremism rather than nuanced debate.
People like Kanye West, Kyrie Irving and Bella Hadid have many more people reading their drivel than CNN or the Wall Street Journal, especially young people. The youth get to enjoy the thrill of interacting with their stars rather than sit passively taking in boring news. Instagram became the simplest (fewest words) and most popular social media platform for young people while older Americans barely touched it.
And here also, race plays a part.
According to a May 2020 PRRI report, “young adults (ages 18-29) are notably more likely to use social media frequently than other age groups. Nearly half of young Americans (47%) report using social media sources frequently, compared to one in four (25%) Americans ages 30-49, about one in ten (11%) Americans ages 50-64, and only 3% of senior Americans (ages 65 and older).” It added that “Hispanic Americans (30%) are substantially more likely than white Americans (19%) and black Americans (19%) to be frequent social media user.”
According to Statista, Blacks are as likely as Hispanics to be active on social media, both much more than Whites. Daily use of social media is 46% for Blacks, 44% for Hispanics and only 34% for Whites. The gap in never-users shows the same contrast with only 18% of both Blacks and Hispanics never using social media and 30% of Whites never using it. So while 2.5 times as many Blacks and Hispanics use social media daily compared to never users, the numbers are almost the same for Whites.
So while over 70% of older Americans are White and not active on social media (and more inclined to use Facebook), the younger generation is almost 50/50 White/non-White and active on Instagram.
The Chinese company Tik Tok has a similar pattern. Roughly half of viewers are under 29 years old and 57% of all viewers are female. Almost no one over 55 uses the platform. Further, 80% of the content is made by people under 24 years old.
While the United States has the most viewers, it is followed immediately by Indonesia, Brazil and Russia. Almost all of the countries where the platform has the highest penetration are Muslim countries, including Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait, followed by Thailand, Qatar and Malaysia.
Antisemitism in Young People / Non-Whites
Aggregating this information leads to a real divide among older and younger Americans. Those 65 and over tend to be White, remember 9/11 and the Second Intifada, get their news from newspapers made in western countries and went to work believing in meritocracy. That’s in sharp contrast to Americans 18-24 who are are as likely to be non-White as White; have no recollection of 9/11, just the War on Terror; get their news from social media stars and very young people alongside the Muslim world and Russia; and receive an education that meritocracy is a myth and that they live under the thumb of a White patriarchy which imposes its imperialist whims on the Global South from where many of the youths’ ancestors originated.
Young people don’t comprehend that Jews were active in the 1960s Civil Rights movement and view Jews as part of the White elite. They don’t believe the FBI Hate Crime reports that Jews are the most targeted group of hate crimes, and they hold antisemitic views that Jews and Zionists are deeply racist who only care about money, power and themselves.
Older Americans are relatively homogenous and see a disappointing new generation which hates America and its ally Israel. They watch young people loudly cheering the mass slaughter of Jews in Israel, and call the young socialists and jihadists out as antisemites. For their part, the young see the older generation as impossibly out-of-touch White racists, unwilling to let the multi-ethnic future take the reigns of power.
Jews know math and their impossibly small numbers, and turn to the government and cling to law enforcement to protect them from the percolating tidal wave of hate.
For the last few hundred years, Jews inserted three lines after their penultimate prayer in their daily services. Right after Aleinu and before the final mourner’s Kaddish, a sentence from Proverbs and two from Isaiah are found:
Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh. Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us. And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.
Al-Tirah
Roots Of Al Tira Prayer
Leaving synagogue was often a traumatic affair when Jews were scattered around the world. Inside of the synagogue, Jews were both together and felt connected to God; outside was a starkly different reality. Sometimes the local non-Jews would attack the Jews with pogroms and edicts, and at other times, Jews would be fortunate to find salvation.
Today, very few congregations actually recite the prayer despite its inclusion in prayer books.
I suggest that perhaps it is now time for all congregations to begin saying it.
Israel has responded to the Palestinian barbarity. It has killed and injured roughly one-third of the political-terrorist group Hamas in Gaza and has leveled much of the terrorist enclave. Hamas has claimed that nearly 30,000 Gazans have been killed at this point, with children accounting for over one-third.
On top of the frozen state of terror of Jews from the ongoing antisemitic attacks since October 7 is the sadness of watching the destruction of Gaza. Why did Hamas do this and why does the evil group insist that Israeli forces continue to pound Gaza rather than release the hostages and surrender the terrorists?
Hamas has an evil and twisted ideology rooted in a radical interpretation of Islam that demands the destruction of the Jewish state, believing its presence is an embarrassment for Muslims. As it states in its foundational charter “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it…. Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious… There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time… In face of the Jews’ usurpation of Palestine, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised…. the Palestinian problem is a religious problem, and should be dealt with on this basis.”
For its part, Judaism has a different set of beliefs that stretches back thousands of years before the Islamic prophet Mohammed was born. It urges calm in the face of fear.
Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh. (Proverbs 3:25)
Jews are carrying both the shock of October 7 in Israel and the sickening reaction of Hamas’s fans around the world. They are simultaneously witnessing the destruction of that enemy. It’s a lot to process – the “sudden fear” and the “desolation of the wicked” – and has led many Jews and Zionists to huddle together in synagogue, and hide symbols of being Jewish when they go outside.
Jewish Calendar And Numbers
The Jewish year 5784 is a Jewish leap year which adds another month, and the year 2024 in the secular calendar is also a leap year which adds a single day. Both the Jewish calendar and the secular calendars add the time in the winter to “correct” the calendar for the upcoming spring.
We are now in the first of two months of Adar. Jewish tradition holds that Adar is a month of happiness and when Jews defeated their mortal enemies who attacked the weakest Jews. The double month of Adar is meant as a moment of double celebration.
This year of 5784 is the eighth year of the 19-year Metonic cycle which marks leap years on the third, sixth, eighth, eleventh, fourteenth, seventeenth and nineteenth year. Just as 2024 is the eighth year in the cycle, so was 1967, when Israel reunified Jerusalem, as was 1948, the year that the Jewish State was reborn. From 1948 to 1967 was one Metonic cycle and from 1967 to 2024 were three full cycles.
Numbers have significance in Judaism. One is connected to the singularity of God in the Jewish monotheistic faith. Three symbolizes Judaism’s founding fathers, the sections of the Shema prayer, three holidays of pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the three groups of Jews.
Eight is also meaningful. Beyond the day that Jewish males are circumcised to join the Jewish nation, tradition is that eight connects man in the natural to the supernatural world. While God made the world in seven days and had seven branches on the menorah in the holy Temple, eight is the step beyond. The seven branch menorah was for the Temple, while Jews light an eight branch menorah in their homes and synagogues today to connect to the miracle.
Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us. (Isaiah 8:10)
These months of Adar seem like important months to recite the oft-skipped prayer. A time to mark the third complete leap year cycle of Jewish control Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. It is a time to remember that God is with us and he is the sole source of fear.
Amalek And Arms Aloft Together
When the Jewish people left slavery in Egypt they were attacked by the nation of Amalek. During the battle, Jews looked up to Moses who held his arms pointing to the sky with the assistance of Aaron and Hur who held the elderly prophet’s arms. The Jews were empowered when they saw Moses praying to God to vanquish the enemy, and prevailed as God enabled their success.
And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you. (Isaiah 46:4)
Today, there is no Jewish leader like Moses to pray on behalf of the jews, and every Jew takes their own prayer book to talk to God. They gather in minyanim around the world to pray for Jewish soldiers fighting with weapons, and Jewish lay leaders who fight against Hamas’s supporters in governments, college campuses and everywhere.
Let us all recite Al Tirah together, holding the hands of the people to our right and left, and pray for God to deliver success in defeating all of our foes.
First One Through 