The latest “Pro-Palestinian protest” at Columbia University, as liberal media likes to call it, included a series of chants to murder Jews and destroy the Jewish State.
Jewish students – almost all unmasked and sporting kaffiyehs to show solidarity with Gazan Arabs – chained themselves to Columbia’s gates and chanted to free Mahmoud Khalil and demanded the names of university trustees who handed over the names of students to the New York Police Department and federal immigration services.
It was a curious spectacle: Jewish students showed their faces as they demanded clarity regarding university due process and protections for fellow students, while students wearing masks for whom they were advocating, yelled antisemitic slogans as defined by the university.
If ever there was a group that took free speech arguments to the extreme, it is Jews that chain themselves to a fence to advocate for rights of students who despise them.
The Columbia chapters of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) were suspended by the university on Nov. 10, 2023, after the groups “repeatedly violated University policies related to holding campus events.” That has not kept them from storming the gates of the university, partnering with not-soon-enough-designated-terrorist group WithinOurLifetime.
Columbia’s chapter of JVP was more explicit about violence “by any means necessary,” like the October 7 massacre.
Somewhere in the middle of the pro-Palestinian Jewish community at Columbia is J Street U, which is an officially recognized student group on the university’s undergraduate website. The group is worried about antisemitic incidents and chants of “Pro-Palestinian protesters” but also wants to protect their speech and keep them from getting kicked off campus without due process.
SJP appreciates that sentiment but demands more of Jews, specifically calling for the end of Israel. The Tufts chapter of SJP said “While SJP recognizes that many Jewish people begin their anti-zionist political journey through J Street U and appreciates that J Street U’s Tufts chapter agrees that antisemitism and anti-Zionism are not synonymous, it is crucial for students to refuse half-measures that condemn occupation while normalizing colonization.”
The Columbia and Barnard Hillel houses J Street U. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has called Hillel and other Jewish groups “enemies of the Muslim community” for supporting Israel. It is seemingly lockstep with SJP and JVP that only Jews that call for destroying Israel “by any means necessary” can be considered allies.
There is a spectrum of left-wing Jews at Columbia and Barnard, ranging from virulently anti-Zionist, to modestly pro-Israel. Many are pro-Israel too, although they tend to be more centrist and right-leaning. The vast majority are targets of the pro-Palestinian gang. All of them are being ranked on an Israel litmus test for judgement, like no other diaspora community in the world.
Many countries have pressured Israel to develop a plan for “the day after” the war for Gazans. It is a curious question, as many of those same countries have condemned Israel for operating in Gaza and demand that it leave immediately. Furthermore, they all know that any plan developed by Israel will likely be viewed with hostility and rejected outright by Gazans.
A more relevant question for Israel is what the day after will look like for Israel.
There are many aspects to that question.
What is the plan for rebuilding Israeli towns near Gaza? Will there be new codes for security, safe rooms, layouts of the streets and homes, etc.?
How will Israel manage security with Gaza? Will it construct a different type of fence and monitoring system to better protect Israelis? Arm the military bases there differently?
Will it allow work permits for Gazans, and if so, how will it manage it?
How will it monitor materials flowing into Gaza as part of a rebuilding operation?
Gazans smash through security fence into Israel on October 7, 2023
As it relates to what the world most wants to hear, a restart of a political process with the Stateless Arabs from Palestine (SAPs) in Gaza and East of the 1949 Armistice Lines (E49AL), much depends on reforms made by the counterparty.
It will also depend on the United Nations.
First, the UN must clearly state that the future of their so-named “Palestinian Refugees” who never lived in Israel will not move into Israel. Their future is in a future state of Palestine, which the UN claims already exists and is “occupied.” As part of crystalizing that, it must announce plans to close all UNRWA operations in Gaza and the West Bank.
Second, to bring Israel to the table and engage with the UN as part of the process, the UN Security Council should revoke UNSC 2334, a blatantly antisemitic resolution. That resolution demands an ethnic cleansing of all Jews from E49AL, including Judaism’s holiest location, the Old City of Jerusalem.
Samantha Power, US ambassador to the UN (left) and US Secretary of State, John Kerry (right) enabled the antisemitic UNSC 2334 to pass in the waning days of the Obama administration
There is precedent for such action. In 1991, the UN rescinded UNGA 3379, which declared that Zionism was a form of racism, to get Israel to participate in the Madrid Conference, which ultimately yielded the Oslo Accords. Such action ended the First Intifada and could help end the Iranian Proxies Intifada of today.
The UN has long been the biggest instigator of the regional conflict by making promises to local Arabs on behalf of Israel, and then pressuring Israel to meet those demands. It is time for the UN to either shift course and be constructive with each party, or desist from the matter.
Israel is engaged in a war in Gaza it didn’t start or want, and will end immediately if Hamas surrenders and returns all of the hostages. Israel doesn’t need a plan for “the day after” in Gaza but should be consulted to ensure that a new regime will bring stability in the region and be a counterpart with whom to coordinate the transfer of goods and people.
Israel should be focused on its own “day after” plans. To the extent that the world wants to encourage a path to an eventual “peace process,” the UN needs to make significant reforms, including rescinding UNSC 2334.
Columbia University is cycling through yet another president. The latest leader is Claire Shipman, who takes over the “Interim/ Acting” role from Katrina Armstrong, who had the title for a short few months.
In taking over the position, Shipman offered no words to alumni about 1) the rank antisemitism on campus, 2) the perceived threat to “free speech” which anti-Israel rioters use as a red herring to mask the stink of their abhorrent conduct, nor 3) the financial sword hanging over the institution with the Trump administration’s demand for change. Instead, Shipman said she would attempt to be “transparent” about her efforts to navigate through this challenging time and sought a “partnership” with alumni.
Will Shipman openly review her responses to Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) demands, including that the university commit to $10 million for a Gaza “resilience fund” which will finance scholarships for as many as 40 students from the West Bank and Gaza for five years? Will Shipman partner with the Gaza Scholarship Initiative of the Center for Arab American Philanthropy in such effort? Will she feel compelled to have a similar donation drive for Israelis impacted by Hamas’s genocidal war?
CUAD wanted to make sure that antisemitic professors like Joseph Massad, who praised the October 7 massacre, would be “protected.” Will the school hire White Supremacists to teach students that Black people liked being slaves? Will Andrew Tate teach a class on Women’s Studies? Shipman’s letter said she “love[s] the sharp argument, the intellectual sprawl, the sense that anything feels possible.” Will vile racists be welcomed onto campus for a wide-ranging test of free speech?
CUAD demanded the reinstatement of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). Will Shipman grant the KKK a chapter at Columbia as well?
Dozens of professors signed an open letter to university administrators to protect professors like Joseph Massad, including Columbia Law’s “Human Rights Institute” team of Kelsey Jost-Creegan and Bassam Khawaja. The institute is funded by Kathy Surace-Smith, a university trustee. Will fellow trustees sway Shipman’s course of actions?
How transparent will Shipman be with her alumni donors and what kind of feedback will she incorporate into her action plan?
She may think she’s deciding between constituents, aligning with either students, faculty, alumni, trustees, or the government with competing desires. She may be debating who will provide the most funding or people over the long term. Or perhaps she just wants to test the parameters of “intellectual sprawl,” tickling the edges of harassment and intimidation.
Would a Gaza fundraiser help clarify her calculus?
Shipman said she wants to hear from you. Contact her and the school at officeofthepresident@columbia.edu, alumdev@columbia.edu and secretary@columbia.edu. The phone number is (212) 854-9970
In the year 2000, the United Arab Emirates president Sheik Zayed bin Sultan Nahayan announced a $2.5 million gift to the Harvard Divinity School to endow a professorship of Islamic studies “to promote a better understanding of Islam among the non-Muslim people of the world.” In 2003, after students at Harvard flagged the Abu Dhabi-based Zayed International Center for Coordination and Follow-Up (ZICCF) long list of anti-American, anti-Israel and anti-Jewish speakers and articles, Harvard felt compelled to return the gift. The Sheik announced closing the center with a press release that acknowledged that ZICCF “had engaged in a discourse that starkly contradicted the principles of interfaith tolerance.”
MEMRI noted that its work and translation of Arabic into English helped shed light on the centres conspiracy theories including that America and Israel committed the attacks of 9/11, that the Protocol of the Elders of Zion is true, as well as Holocaust deniers.
The Arab world was apoplectic at the closing of the centre and Harvard’s return of the gift. Al-Sharq Al-Awsat in London wrote that ZICCF had “an educational mission that allows the exploration of various points of view on issues of international significance. But it was accused of radicalism when the Americans and Zionists did not like the opinions expressed in it… The Centre was obliterated in order to silence it and to make an example to others. And the astonishing thing about all this is that it happened amidst calls to democratize the Arab world… to allow freedom of expression and to fight despotic regimes… [It] shows that the fierce influence that Zionism has on the American decision-making has extended outside the U.S.”
Twenty years later, the fountain of anti-Americanism and anti-Zionism under the cloak of free speech is home-grown and widespread.
Columbia University student holding sign with arrow at fellow students holding Israeli and American flags to be targets of Hamas rockets
This is not a problem that can be cancelled with a returned check. It is now an ingrained feature of the American educational system.
President Donald Trump announced his intention to root out the problem. He announced plans to close the Department of Education, to revoke visas and expel foreign students who promote terrorist groups and ideologies, and to withhold U.S. government grants to institutions that have essentially Americanized the Zayed International Centre.
US President Donald Trump holds an executive order to start dismantling the Department of Education (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP)
It will not be enough.
Advancing Holocaust education in the schools will not be enough.
Providing transparency of foreign donations to schools through the DETERRENT Act will not be enough.
They are needed and helpful but systemic changes should be implemented throughout America’s schools.
Teacher unions – and all municipal unions – must be barred from contributing to any politician and making statements on any political races.
Tenure should be abolished in all schools.
Charter schools and private schools should receive funding proportionate with the number of students in the district attending those schools.
Schools that fail to teach minimum skills in critical subjects like math should be defunded and/or closed.
Teachers and administrators that vilify a segment of the population should be terminated and lose their pensions.
Other steps are also needed as people get their information from toxic sources outside of school. TikTok and any other foreign-owned media companies should be banned, based on a scale of level of concern of the country and content. Phones should be banned from classrooms so students can focus on learning skills and not lured by fake news and vortex of peer dynamics.
People may believe that the Trump administration’s actions to reverse both the decline of skills and increase in antisemitism in schools are draconian. In truth, a systemwide overhaul is needed.
Reed Rubinstein is a Senior Vice President of America First Legal and a former Deputy Associate Attorney General, U.S. Department of Education General Counsel (acting and delegated), and Senior Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury. He was nominated to be a Legal Advisor to the State Department by President Trump and had a confirmation hearing on March 25, 2025 before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
During the hearing, only a handful of Democratic senators asked Rubinstein any questions, preferring to spend their time on Mike Huckabee who is nominated to be the US ambassador to Israel. Astonishingly, TWO of those senators – Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) accused Rubinstein of believing in and promoting false anti-Israel and antisemitic conspiracy theories about the State Department and public school education.
Sheehan On Obama Administration Funding Group To Oust Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “Conspiracy Theory”
At 49:30 of the hearings, Sen. Shaheen said to Rubinstein “I’ve heard these conspiracy theories before. But I have been here through the Obama administration, the first Trump administration, through the Biden administration, and I can tell you that I never heard anybody at any of those administrations talking about a multi-front war trying to overthrow the Israeli government. I don’t believe it and I hear you saying that and try to justify that as a conspiracy theory.”
Sen. Shaheen gaslighting Reed Rubinstein during confirmation hearing, March 2025
One would hope that Shaheen, a ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has heard about the Obama administrations efforts to oust Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu through a group called OneVoice Israel (OVI), as there was a formal investigation.
The Senate performed a review of almost $350,000 which were granted by the State Department to OVI in 2014. The grant was quite large for an international NGO, as most State Department overseas grants average around $15,000. OneVoice built a large database of Israeli voters and then “absorbed and funded an Israeli group named Victory15 or “V15” and launched a multimillion-dollar grassroots campaign in Israel. The campaign’s goal was to elect “anybody but Bibi [Netanyahu]” by mobilizing center-left voters,” according to the report.
OVI originally got its State Department grant in September 2013 to “execute a grassroots campaign in conjunction with Secretary of State John Kerry’s effort to sustain negotiations between the Palestinian Authority and Israel.” The outreach effort was to run from October 15, 2013 to July 15, 2014, and the State Department made its final payment of grant funds to OVI on August 25, 2014, with the grant period ending on November 30, 2014. In addition to the $350,000 handed to OVI, the State Department gave the group $40,000 for outside consultants and another $115,000 to OneVoice Palestine, a sister NGO. It is estimated that over 1.3 million Israelis were exposed to OVI’s campaign, about 16% of the population.
By the end of the targeted grant period in July 2014, the Kerry Israeli-Palestinian peace plans were in shambles. By August, OVI leadership decided to use its now large infrastructure for direct political purposes, to “SHIFT SUPPORT WITHIN THE KNESSET AWAY FROM LIKUD/RIGHT WING COALITION BY ADVOCATING TO ‘SWING’ CENTRIST VOTER’S [sic] POLICIES AND SUPPORT POLITICAL CANDIDATES WHO EMBRACE AN EXPEDITED NEGOTIATION TOWARD A [TWO-STATE SOLUTION] AND THE END OF SETTLEMENT EXPANSION.” When Netanyahu announced new elections in December 2014, OVI quickly absorbed the “anybody but Bibi” V15 into its organization to oust Netanyahu.
The Senate initiated an inquiry into this funding matter in February 2015. It found that “OneVoice did inform at least two State Department officials of its political plans, and it did so during the grant period. The Department took no action in response.”
To summarize the facts in Sheehan’s dismissal of the “conspiracy theory,” the State Department handed roughly $500,000 in total to organizations which built up a large infrastructure inside Israel which was used to try to replace Netanyahu in the 2015 elections. It is unclear whether this was directly at the behest of the Obama Administration or was simply a byproduct of the anti-Netanyahu left-wing US State Department’s animus towards Netanyahu, engaging in election tampering against an American ally.
To put that $0.5 million in perspective, the entire Israeli budget for the 2015 election was $62 million.
Kaine On K-12 Public School Anti-Israel, Antisemitic, Woke Education “Conspiracy Theory”
At 1:24:45 of the hearing, Sen. Kaine took aim at a post that Rubinstein made on LinkedIn saying “‘K-12 teachers are almost all products of extreme left teachers’ training programs in the colleges, then the same leftist antisemite professors provide training on MENA [Middle East and North America] and other issues. The system is not fixable.'” Kaine continued “A lot of us on the committee have parents, spouses, kids who are K-12 teachers who work in education programs, training K-12 teachers. A lot of us like me were governors appointing boards of universities with intimate knowledge of teacher training programs. There can be a bad apple in any organization but I got to say I read a comment like that – and it strikes me along the lines of what Senator Shaheen was asking – a kind of political fantasy or conspiracy that doesn’t really seem like the kind of thing that a careful lawyer offering narrow advice would say.”
Sen. Kaine gaslighting Reed Rubinstein during confirmation hearing, March 2025
Perhaps Kaine is ignorant or has put on blinders about the hatred being instilled by public school teachers into the next generation of students. Here are just a few:
The non-partisan American Jewish Committee (AJC) issued a report in December 2024 that “Leaders and activists within the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) have waged an aggressive campaign that has encouraged K-12 teachers to become pro-Palestinian activists and bring anti-Israel propaganda into their classrooms.” The documented MTA initiatives included “promoting multipleone-sidedanti-Israel resolutions,… Sponsoring programming, including a webinar that purported to address “anti-Palestinian racism” which was dedicated to attacking the legitimacy of the world’s only Jewish state,” and “curating and promoting on its website anti-Israel educational resources that it encourages members to bring back to their schools.”
In October 2023, right after the Hamas October 7 massacre in Israel, the Oakland Education Association, a teacher’s union, condemned “apartheid” and “genocidal” Israel. The OEA handed out material from Teach Palestine, with curriculums for educators. It suggested that in situations that get “pushback from Zionist parents,” to pivot the conversation to “compare youth incarceration in the U.S. and Palestine.”
In November 2023, the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT 59) union produced a resolution which “condemn the role our government plays in supporting the system of Israeli occupation and apartheid, which lies at the root of the Palestinian Israeli conflict.”
Teacher union in Minnesota calling Israel an “apartheid” country and at fault for the Hamas-initiated war
In February 2025, the Santa Ana Unified School District of California settled a lawsuit for using “courses that were developed in secret and infected with anti-Semitism.” Committees at the school said “Jews are the oppressors,” and “racist” and worked with outside groups who decried “Zionist control.”
There is a new group called The Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism (founded mostly by professors of the University of Santa Ana) which is trying to decouple the study of Zionism from Jewish Studies program in universities, and place it in “settler colonial studies” and put it in the context of “repressive work and solidarities” since “Zionism’s project extends beyond the borders of Palestine.” These efforts are being pushed in the University of California school systems and at New York University. The organization markets a “toolkit” for use by anti-Israel protestors.
Also in May 2024, Portland Oregon’s teacher union, the Portland Association of Teachers, had a meeting about how to teach students both inside and outside of the classroom how to be anti-Zionists, complete with a website to disseminate propaganda.
Professors all over the country have given “extra credit” to students who participate in anti-Israel protests. Students for Justice in Palestine are encouraging it on social media.
There are cases all around the country. In addition to Teach Palestine, teachers are encouraged to use materials from “Decolonize Palestine,” which is designed with animation for young students. It vilifies Israel as a racist colonial endeavor always designed to oppress local Arabs.
In July 2024, the National Education Association (NEA), the largest labor union and teachers union with around 3 million members held its annual meeting. It included resolutions to boycott Israel and praise the October 7 massacre of 1,200 people in Israel (NBI 8). NBI 9 urged the NEA and other trade unions to “pressure governments to stop all military trade with Israel, and in the case of the US, to stop funding it.” NBI 74 sought to publish a list of government officials who accept money from groups supporting Israel.
In April 2021, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) which has roughly 1.7 members said that “American Jews are now part of the ownership class,… who want to take that ladder of opportunity away from those who do not have it.” Herself a Jew, her large base got the message that Jews are the 1% who are coming to steal opportunities from the 99%. In AFT’s July 2024 annual convention, there were seven anti-Israel resolutions.
While Jews are suffering a horrible spike of antisemitism in the United States in the aftermath of the worst slaughter of Jews in Israel in 1,000 years, two Democratic senators took public aim at a Jew for supposedly promoting “conspiracy theories” about anti-Israel and antisemitic activity. It was gaslighting at the highest level, an affront to Jews everywhere.
ACTION ITEMS
Contact Sen. Shaheen and Sen. Kaine about your extreme disappointment with their public gaslighting of Jews about antisemitism and anti-Israel activities in the United States today.
President Donald Trump nominated former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee to be the next US ambassador to the State of Israel. In advance of his senate confirmation interview, the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR) issued a letter strongly opposing his confirmation and suggested a few questions for senators to ask Huckabee.
A few Democratic senators picked up CAIR’s line of questions including Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Sen. Chris van Hollen (D-MD).
Huckabee’s responses were mostly diplomatic and said his role would be to carry out the president’s policies, not his own. Therefore, below are more direct responses that I imagine Huckabee and many Christian Zionists would share outside of a public hearing.
The Denial of “Palestinian identity”
CAIR asked senators to get Huckabee to state whether he believed in “Palestinian identity.” In the typical usage of English terms, adding “ian” is a recognition of a country like “Italian” means people from Italy and “Costa Rican” means citizens of Costa Rica. As the United States does not recognize a country called “Palestine,” there is nothing inconsistent with people not using “Palestinians.” Some people call the local Arabs “Stateless Arabs from Palestine” or SAPs for short, or maybe just “Gazans” and “West Bank Arabs.”
In the early 20th century, there were Palestinian Jews and Arabs in the region before nationalism brought new countries into the world. The Palestinian Liberation Organization’s charter attempted to redefine a “Palestinian” as narrowly related to Arabs. The Palestinian Authority crafted a constitution similarly said “Palestine is part of the Arab nation…. The Palestinian people are part of the Arab and Islamic nations.” By its own definitions, Palestinian Arabs refer to themselves as regional Arabs, not necessarily distinct as a “people.” It’s call to be part of “Islamic Nations,” seemingly calls for Islamic Supremacy and ignores historic reality of Palestinian Jews and Palestinian Christians before the creation of nations in the Middle East.
People do not call people today “Constantinoplians” as there is no place called Constantinople today. They certainly wouldn’t insist on using such concoction to only mean a subset of people who lived in that area, such as only Muslims. So it is with “Palestinians.”
Refusal To Use Term “West Bank”
CAIR was upset by Huckabee not using the term “West Bank” and asked senators to ask him about it at the confirmation hearing.
The commonly used term “West Bank” – as well as “East Jerusalem” – are both politicized and dated. For 4,000 years of history, neither term existed. The contours of both were manufactured because on the 1948-9 war initiated by five Arab armies to destroy the nascent State of Israel. The 1949 Armistice Agreement that Israel struck with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan created both entities. Jordan illegally annexed both in an action not recognized by any country other than the United Kingdom and Pakistan. Jordan then launched another attack on Israel in 1967 and lost both territories it had illegally annexed. The United Nations only started to use the term “West Bank” after that war.
The actual historic regions of Judea and Samaria existed for centuries, not 18 years of illegal Jordanian occupation from 1949 to 1967. Judea and Samaria actually have a larger footprint than Jordan’s “West Bank,” so it is also the wrong term to apply. Discussing the region today would be best using “East of the 1949 Armistice Lines” or E49AL.
CAIR’s ongoing use of the short-lived “East Jerusalem” is politicized and dated, and perhaps highlights why it gets triggered by people refusing to use the manufactured “West Bank.”
Refusal to Recognize Israeli “Occupation.”
CAIR (and the UN) believe that Israel “occupies Palestinian land.” This notion has many problems.
First, the occupation narrative is integral to the antisemitic view that Jews are “European settler colonialists.” It is nonsensical, as Jews have 3,700 years of history in the Holy Land. Judaism is a unique religion that has ties to a specific piece of land, the land of Israel. Judaism was designed in the Bible as a small regional tribe, not a global religion like other monotheistic faiths.
Second, when Israel declared itself a state in May 1948 as the British ended their mandate, the entirety of that mandate became Israel. The fact that Jordan seized the eastern part of the country and Egypt took Gaza, only made international recognition of the de facto borders of Israel more narrow. When Israel took those areas back during its 1967 defensive war, it opted to only incorporate eastern Jerusalem and left the other areas as Israeli territories to possibly swap for an enduring peace with its neighbors.
Third, most of the Global North, including Israel and the United States, do not recognize a State of Palestine. It is therefore impossible to occupy “Palestinian land.”
Gaza as “Ancestral Homeland.”
It is puzzling to see CAIR refer to Gazans as being tied to the land for centuries while simultaneously arguing that 80% of Gazans are “1948 refugees” who should move into Israel. If today’s Gazans aren’t really Gazans according to the United Nations and Arab countries, why the uproar in trying to move them out of a war zone which caused thousand of casualties? Why the uproar in trying to move them out of the rubble to rebuild the region which was decimated in a war their leaders started and they supported?
“Right of Return” and “Right To Remain”
CAIR used terms “right of return” and “right to remain” in its letter to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. It attempted to anchor local Arabs everywhere in the land, including in Israel. Simultaneously, CAIR advocates – as does the United Nations per UNSC 2334 – that Jews should be expelled from the “West Bank” / E49AL. This is an extremist Islamic Supremacy agenda and not one based on mutual dignity.
CAIR’s leadership made troubling statements about the Gazan war against Israel and called Jewish groups “enemies” of Muslims. It is distressing that some Democratic senators like Van Hollen and Merkley echoed the group’s questions to Mike Huckabee at his confirmation hearing. Hopefully these responses articulate what was omitted from that session.
Mike Huckabee during confirmation hearing to become US ambassador to Israel, March 2025
The United Nations Security Council met once more about Gaza on March 18, 2025, and the parade of charges against Israel’s conduct in its defensive war was to similar tunes.
Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, criticized Israel for halting aid into the terrorist enclave and for preventing UNRWA for operating freely. He would go on to also comment on Israel’s operations to root out terrorists in the West Bank.
Countries from the Global South, the majority of which recognize a Palestinian state, followed his remarks, starting with Algeria, Somalia, Sierra Leone from Africa, and Guyana in South America. Only Sierra Leone would condemn Hamas (29:45) even though it would equate the Israeli hostages with “detainees” held by Israel.
Then the representative of the United States, Dorothy Shea, took the floor.
At every moment, Shea would call out Hamas. She referred to it as a “brutal terrorist organization” which has a “disregard for human life.” It demanded Hamas “release the hostages it abducted” and called out the group’s refusal to do so and extend the ceasefire.
Shea mentioned “Hamas” thirteen times, and only stopped discussing “Hamas’s savagery” which “threatens peace and stability” when she pivoted to the opportunity to reshape the region for a better and more prosperous future.
France, a member of the Global North, spoke next and it condemned Hamas’s attack of October 7 but did not call for Hamas to be eliminated. Further, it said that “a global political resolution” to the conflict was needed, not only trying to sideline Israel’s military operation but the country’s effort to work a bilateral agreement with the Stateless Arabs from Palestine (SAPs).
The representative of Panama spoke next and at 51:15 specifically called out Hamas’s attack of October 7, its refusal to abide by commitments to release Israeli hostages and condemned the group.
The Global North continued with Russia and Slovenia speaking next and both gave Hamas a complete pass. The United Kingdom and Greece said that Hamas can have no role in a future Gaza but did not condemn the political-terrorist group.
Pakistan and China ignored Hamas. South Korea would only condemn Hamas’s abduction of hostages. Denmark condemned both Hamas’s October 7 massacre and taking of hostages and said there can be no role for Hamas in the future of Gaza.
The sorry state of the UNSC barely mentioning and condemning Hamas and calling for it to face maximum justice is not new. When the council first met in October 2023 at the start of Hamas’s war, only the United States would call out Hamas. At that time I wrote “If and when the United Nations can call out the evil of Hamas, thousands of lives in the region will be saved, and the terrorist group will be on a path for elimination. I am not optimistic.”
We are tens of thousands of dead later, and only a few countries in the Global North have started to call out Hamas, led by Denmark and Panama. The relative silence from France, the United Kingdom, Greece and South Korea is disappointing. The behavior of Slovenia and Russia is appalling.
The countries of the Global North at the UN Security Council must lead in clearly condemning Hamas and insisting that it be dismantled completely. Thousands of additional lives are at stake.
ACTION ITEMS
Thank the United States government and its mission to the UN at (212) 415-4000 for being a leader for placing the blame for the war and ongoing suffering squarely on Hamas.
Thank the governments of Panama (emb@panama-un.org, 212.421.5420) and Denmark (nycmis@um.dk, 212.308.7009) for clearly condemning Hamas.
Contact the UN missions from France (212.702.4900), the UK (212.745.9200), Greece (212.888.6900, grdel.un@mfa.gr), and South Korea (212.439.4000, korea.un@mofa.go.kr) and ask them to do more.
Vilify Russia (212.861.4900) and Slovenia (212.370.3007) for allowing barbarism to go unmentioned and putting thousands of additional lives at risk.
President Donald Trump applied the woke-standard of absolutism like “defund the police” and “abolish ICE” to begin the process of eliminating the federal Department of Education and move control of schools to the states. He orchestrated a photo op with signing an executive order in front of school children which bemoaned the DOE’s spending over $3 trillion since its creation in 1979, without improving student knowledge.
US President Donald Trump holds an executive order in the East Room of the White house in Washington, DC, March 20, 2025 to start dismantling the Department of Education, in front of young students. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP)
The photo session included a young Orthodox Jewish student in the background. It was perhaps not surprising, as Trump was the only president to invite an Orthodox rabbi to speak at his inaugurations – both times.
When Trump held the signed EO aloft and the other students similarly did so, the Orthodox boy in large blue kippah continued to write. People speculated whether he had OCD and was compulsively checking his spelling. Perhaps he was correcting grammar in the EO or adding footnotes like the biblical commentator Rashi (1040-1105).
As the Children of Israel walked the desert, they built a home, a mishkan, for God. Exodus 36: 2-7 introduces us to the work:
“2 Then Moses summoned Bezalel and Oholiab and every skilled person to whom the Lord had given ability and who was willing to come and do the work. 3 They received from Moses all the offerings the Israelites had brought to carry out the work of constructing the sanctuary. And the people continued to bring freewill offerings morning after morning. 4 So all the skilled workers who were doing all the work on the sanctuary left what they were doing 5 and said to Moses, “The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the Lord commanded to be done.” 6 Then Moses gave an order and they sent this word throughout the camp: “No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.” And so the people were restrained from bringing more, 7 because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work.“
The Torah relates that there was such an outpouring of donations to help build the mishkan, that it overwhelmed those skilled craftsmen performing the actual construction work.
Alas, we do not have that kind of over-enthusiasm for causes today, but we definitely have many foot soldiers in trying to stem the tide of antisemitism in the Jewish diaspora.
Consider those fighting the rampant antisemitism at Columbia University. The university finally took action on March 21, 2025, announcing a plan that basically aligned with the demands of the Trump administration to protect Jewish students and faculty on campus. It did not happen in a vacuum.
Columbia’s Hillel had been trying to get the Columbia administration to make changes since the October 7, 2023 massacre of Jews in Israel and riots against Israel and Jews and at the university since then. Alums For Campus Fairness issued a 33-page report about antisemitism at Columbia in 2019. Countless alumni wrote letters to the school administration and withheld donations.
Announcement from Columbia Hillel on March 21, 2025
Leaders of the Jewish philanthropic world like Dan Loeb, Bill Ackman and David Magerman very publicly shifted their donations from their alma maters to Jewish schools like Yeshiva University and some in Israel. Some not so wealthy but public voices like Alan Dershowitz announced that they were shifting all of their philanthropic activities and pro bono work to Jewish causes.
All of these activities helped pivot public thought. It made former Republicans switch to the Democratic Party to help oust politicians perceived as antisemitic like Jamaal Bowman. It was part of what led a decades-long record percentage of Jews to vote for Donald Trump for president in 2024 with his promise to clean up the widespread failures in American schools.
Do not think that the work is done but take a moment to thank the many people who fought to stem the horrific tide of Jew hatred. We need them to keep putting money into Jewish institutions instead of naming buildings at disgraced universities. We need groups like StandWithUs and Brandeis Center to continue to advocate for Jews on campus. We need politicians like Rep. Ritchie Torres and Rep. Mike Lawler in the House, and Sen. Josh Hawley and Sen. John Fetterman to continue their principled work on behalf of Americans. We need the Trump administration to continue to pressure universities to stop enabling a toxic environment for Jewish and other students on campus.
Many people have been working for years to end Jew hatred and it should not be taken for granted. Now is a moment to thank them for their noble efforts.
The World Zionist Organization amended its Jerusalem Program in February 2024, not long after the horrible massacre of around 1,200 people in Israel by thousands of Gazans. The original WZO platform was the “Basel Program” of 1897, adopted at the First Zionist Congress convened by Theodor Herzl. It has been amended through the years, including in 1951 (after Israel was established), 1968 (after Jerusalem was unified) and 2004 (amidst the “Second Intifada”).
The unity of the Jewish people, its bond to its historic homeland Eretz Yisrael, and the centrality of the State of Israel and Jerusalem, its capital, in the life of the nation;
Aliyah to Israel from all countries and the effective integration of all immigrants into Israeli society.
Strengthening Israel as a Jewish, Zionist and democratic state and shaping it as an exemplary society with a unique moral and spiritual character, marked by mutual respect for the multi-faceted Jewish people, rooted in the vision of the prophets, striving for peace and contributing to the betterment of the world.
Ensuring the future and the distinctiveness of the Jewish people by furthering Jewish, Hebrew and Zionist education, fostering spiritual and cultural values and teaching Hebrew as the national language;
Nurturing mutual Jewish responsibility, defending the rights of Jews as individuals and as a nation, representing the national Zionist interests of the Jewish people, and struggling against all manifestations of anti-Semitism;
Settling the country as an expression of practical Zionism.
Encouraging recruitment and service in the Israel Defense Forces and the security forces and strengthening them as the protective force of the Jewish people living in Zion, as well as encouraging full National Service for anyone exempted in law from service in the IDF.
The various statements above can be unpacked into three general categories: Global Jewry; the Land of Israel; and the State of Israel. It echoes Gil Troy’s definition of Zionism: Jews are a nation; Jews have ties to their particular homeland in the land of Israel; and that Jews have a right to establish a state in that homeland.
Global Jewry
“The unity of the Jewish people”: Global Jewry likely appreciates and believes in the concept of unity, whatever that term means.
“Aliyah to Israel from all countries and the effective integration of all immigrants into Israeli society.”: The statement lacks an introduction – is this encouraging and supporting aliyah or physically making aliyah? Whether they move to Israel or not, diaspora Jewry likely wants to see new immigrants absorbed into Israel effectively.
“Ensuring the future and the distinctiveness of the Jewish people by furthering Jewish, Hebrew … education,”: Most of diaspora Jewry attends public school and has assimilated into the local culture. In the United States, this is particularly true of Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism. While many diaspora Jews may appreciate Jewish and Hebrew education, they do not necessarily want to be viewed as “distinct” from their fellow countrymen. “Zionist education,” is perhaps even more foreign to Reform and Reconstructionist diaspora Jews. Using Zionist education as a tool for “distinctiveness” likely rings hollow for many, especially if “Zionism” relates more to a country or government, rather than the land.
“Nurturing mutual Jewish responsibility, defending the rights of Jews as individuals and as a nation” and “struggling against all manifestations of anti-Semitism”: Antisemitism in the diaspora is against Jews as a people, while antisemitism in Israel is against Jews as both a country and a people.
Land of Israel
“bond to its historic homeland Eretz Yisrael”: The land of Israel is the Jewish homeland. It is part of what binds Jewish people together, the common inheritance from our forefathers.
“Aliyah to Israel from all countries and the effective integration of all immigrants into Israeli society.”: As above, making “aliyah” is about the holiness of the land. Jews have made aliyah for thousands of years before there was the modern State of Israel.
“Ensuring the future and the distinctiveness of the Jewish people by furthering Jewish, Hebrew and Zionist education”: Zionism, as it relates to the land of Israel would not be controversial to even unaffiliated Jews.
“Settling the country as an expression of practical Zionism”: The phrasing here is interesting. It refers to settling the “country,” not the land. Does that mean only within the internationally recognized borders rather than the entirety of the land of Israel which would include east of the 1949 Armistice Lines (E49AL / Judea and Samaria / West Bank)? The clause describes “practical Zionism.” Does that limit where Jews move or does it encourage Jews moving to certain parts of the land? This clause is very open to interpretation.
State of Israel
The statements in the Jerusalem Program as they relate to the State of Israel are arguably difficult for a few slates in the 2025 World Zionist Congress (WZC) election in the United States run by the American Zionist Movement (AZM), based on public statements to date. This is true of the Hatikvah slate which includes Reconstructionist and Renewal branches of Judaism, and progressive groups like New Jewish Narrative (merger of Americans for Peace Now and Ameinu), T’ruah and J Street, as well as Vote REFORM.
“centrality of the State of Israel and Jerusalem, its capital, in the life of the nation”: Several members on the slates mentioned above have openly stated that they believe that Jerusalem is NOT the capital of Israel and not central to Judaism or the Jewish nation.
“Strengthening Israel as a Jewish, Zionist and democratic state”: There is arguably little for diaspora Jews to do regarding the internal workings of the state of Israel. How and why should Jews from around the world get involved with Israel’s political dynamics and rules put in place to strengthen or weaken its democratic character. People would not want Israeli Jews messing with their own government structure.
“representing the national Zionist interests of the Jewish people”: It makes sense for Israel to represent “Zionist interests” as it is the embodiment of the Zionist goal. The statement seems self-evident, unless there is a movement to create a second Jewish state somewhere else.
“Encouraging recruitment and service in the Israel Defense Forces and the security forces and strengthening them as the protective force of the Jewish people living in Zion, as well as encouraging full National Service for anyone exempted in law from service in the IDF.”: This sentence was added in the latest 2024 Jerusalem Program as a reaction to the October 7, 2023 massacre. The military conscription policies of the sovereign State of Israel are only matters for the government of Israel and its citizens, and should not be a matter of diaspora Jewry influence. Therefore, this language must be a call to encourage diaspora Jews to join the IDF. While many people do volunteer service even if not a dual-citizen, the statement is problematic. While it is not inherently illegal to serve in a foreign armed service, it could be construed as a step to relinquishing citizenship in the home country, and particularly problematic as governments and situations change.
One must be amazed that there are many current members of the Israeli Knesset who could not affirm this Jerusalem Program which is being demanded of American Jewry to participate in the WZC elections.
As detailed above, the Jerusalem Program has continued to evolve with pivotal changes to the State of Israel. It suggests that Zionism has morphed with and for the State of Israel, while it may or may not have changed for diaspora Jewry.
Consider Troy’s definition of Zionism referred to above: that Jews are a nation with ties to the land of Israel and have a right to sovereignty in that land. The current Jerusalem Program extends Zionism to encourage diaspora Jews to join the Israeli army to fight for that country. That is a long way from believing in the right of a Jewish State.
The calls for Jewish unity have been consistent and not controversial. The statements related to the Land of Israel get a tad more thorny as the text is ambiguous about the borders of the land, and whether they reflect the full holy land or just internationally recognized borders. Lastly, the State of Israel text is the most difficult for many diaspora Jews.
Many Jews participate in the WZC election who do not believe in the Jerusalem Program. Rabbi Alissa Wise, co-founder of the Rabbinical Council of the anti-Zionist Jewish Voice for Peace ran on a progressive slate some years ago as did Peter Beinart. Today, the Reform Movement is attempting to get out the vote deliberately not telling people about the Jerusalem Program. It does this to funnel monies – over $1 billion per year – to advocate for THEIR causes, not the causes outlined in the Jerusalem Program.
The Vote Reform site makes no mention of affirming the Jerusalem Program as a condition to vote
Voting for the World Zionist Congress runs from March 10 until May 4, 2025 and people are lobbying to get people to vote for their slates without knowing the incorporated affirmation. People should read the Jerusalem Program before they vote, and see whether they are comfortable with the 2024 amended language, and believe that people on the slates really endorse such program as well.
First One Through 