How did supporters of Hamas and others who want Israel destroyed win over so many young people since Oct. 7? According to JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin, the answer lies in large measure in the ability of progressives to redefine words in such a way as to normalize Jew-hatred and help create a surge of antisemitism.  He’s joined in this week’s episode of Think Twice by scholar Donna Robinson Divine, co-editor of the new book, October 7: The Wars Over Words and Deeds, a collection of essays exploring issues relating to the war on Israel and how the Jewish state’s opponents have helped turn truth on its head to demonize Israel. According to Divine, on college campuses across the country, “feelings replaced thinking” as many young persons who know little or nothing about the Middle East, were convinced to believe that supporting a genocidal and antisemitic cause was the right thing to do. The veteran scholar of the Middle East said she was shocked not merely at the distorted nature of the discussion about the post-Oct. 7 war but also because not a single head of an elite university told their students to “go and study” the subject of their protests. She says that compared to student protest movements of the past, the pro-Hamas activists don’t seem to know what they’re talking about or have a clear idea of what they want. Other, that is, than wanting Israel to disappear, though even there they don’t seem to realize that doing so would involve Jewish genocide. Divine points out that a study of the history of the conflict quickly reveals that the goal of the Palestinian movement isn’t about statehood, it’s the principle of not sharing any part of the land with the Jews. Redefining terms is also important to the cause of delegitimizing Israel. Divine points out that by changing the meaning of the word “genocide”—coined in the aftermath of the Holocaust to mean an attempt to wipe out an entire people—to merely meaning “depriving them of agency,” the pro-Palestinians have smeared the Jewish state as guilty of genocide. Though she also notes that if the Palestinians have lost the ability to determine their own future, it’s because of their own decisions. Just as sinister is the way Palestinian employed “extreme violence” and rape on Oct. 7, only to see their supporters deny these crimes happened, despite abundant evidence for them provided by the perpetrators. Most important, is how the Palestinians and their supporters have worked to demonize the Israeli victims, both to make the terrorists appear as if their atrocities are justified and to depict the Jews as deserving of being murdered, raped or kidnapped. Divine also says that the willingness of opponents of Israel to delegitimize the Jewish state’s actions when they are no different from those of other countries leads to the inevitable conclusion antisemitism is the explanation for these double standards.   Listen/Subscribe to weekly episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, iHeart Radio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.   Watch new episodes every week by subscribing to the JNS YouTube Channel.

Though the study of history is being slighted by contemporary educators, according to JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan S. Tobin, knowledge of the past, including that of the ancient world, is more important than ever if we are to understand current dilemmas. And that’s especially true in the Middle East.   He’s joined in this week’s episode of Think Twice by Hoover Institution scholar Barry Strauss, one of the leading experts on the ancient world and the author of the new book, Jews vs. Rome: Two Centuries of Rebellion Against the World’s Mightiest Empire.   Strauss’s book tells the story of the three rebellions fought by Jews against the Roman Empire over the course of a 70-year period stretching from 66 C.E. to 136 C.E. that included the Great Revolt, the destruction of Jerusalem and the Holy Temple, a little-known Diaspora revolt and the Bar Kochba rebellion. The history of these struggles is integral to the story of the Jews. But some historians call the Jews of the ancient world Judeans rather than Jews. Strauss disagrees with this since, as he says, “this is to write Jews out of Jewish history.”   The historian says there are some important lessons for Jews and Israelis to draw from these tragic episodes.   One is the danger of disunity. The divisions between the Jews fighting the Romans and each other inside besieged Jerusalem were, he says, “absolutely fatal.” He notes that, there should be a lesson that you can only take political disputes during a time of war or in a dangerous period “only so far.” That’s something that Israelis learned from the Oct. 7, 2023 attack, since the Palestinians believed they were too divided to unite and defend their county.   Strauss says another issue is the relationship between faith and politics. Jewish extremists believed that God would save them if they fought Rome no matter how steep the odds. “Faith is essential for Jews and for everyone in their own particular way. But when you are letting it lead you to politically dangerous, unintelligent decisions, then you have to really think things through and you have to be careful of what you're doing.”   Yet another lesson Strauss says that can be drawn from the revolts is that “small states never are fully independent.” In fact, he added, “Even large states are never fully independent. Everyone needs allies, but small states above all need allies. And so, I think Israel today must learn from the lesson of the failure of the rebels in the great revolts.” Speaking of the Jewish rebels, he says, “They had a plan that was an intelligent plan, which involved getting help from Parthia [an independent kingdom located in modern-day Iraq and Iran that successfully resisted Rome]. But they should have been able to do a cost-benefit analysis and say, it's not likely and maybe back down then.”   The author says the failure of America’s education system to teach history is “terrible” and largely the fault of progressives. “The so-called woke people are selling narratives that give a completely different view of American history and of the world, and that makes it easier for people to push the button of the oldest hatred and to cast the Jews as the villains,” Strauss says. “It’s absolutely essential for the next generation, for good people to get control of the educational system and to bring us back to a sensible educational system in which people can study history without fear or favor in an unbiased way. We know as citizens, whether we're Jewish or not, that education is absolutely essential. So, this is something that we have to prioritize.”   Listen/Subscribe to weekly episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, iHeart Radio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.   Watch new episodes every week by subscribing to the JNS YouTube Channel.

The victory of Zohran Mamdani is a watershed moment for American Jewry, says JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin. For the first time in living memory, Jews are dealing with a surge of antisemitism that the election of an avowed anti-Zionist will exacerbate. He is joined in this week’s episode of Think Twice by Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York City, a leading liberal critic of Mamdani.   According to Hirsch, the danger from a Mayor Mamdani for New York Jews isn’t necessarily a matter of him downgrading protection for Jewish institutions. Rather, he says, “History demonstrates to us that wherever anti-Zionism is normalized and wherever it has support, anti-Zionism has support from high-level government officials, as night follows day, hostility to Jews increases.” Moreover, as he learned from a meeting between the mayor-elect and a group of rabbis, Mamdani is ideologically committed to the war against Israel, it’s “the core principle of his political ideology. That’s why he can’t explain away his support for “Globalize the intifada.”   Hirsch also notes that the surge of antisemitism since Oct. 7 has traumatized liberal Jewish New Yorkers who have seen their erstwhile allies fail them. “Many of them disappointed us and some of them actually betrayed us.”   The rabbi also noted that the disaffection from Israel on the part of many American Jews, is due in part to the failure of  liberal Jewish religious denominations including his own Reform movement. He says they “mistaught” the concept of tikkun olam by failing to make it clear that while universal values are a vital part of Jewish identity, many of the youngsters didn’t also learn that defending Jewish rights and expressing Jewish particularism, including support for Israel, is also integral to liberal Judaism.   At the core of the problem is, he said, “There's simply a very deep and broad Jewish illiteracy in the American Jewish community” that can only be corrected by increased emphasis and support for Jewish day schools, camps and trips to Israel.

Everything you learned about the horrors of nationalism and the importance of multilateral and supranational organizations like the United Nations is wrong, says JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin. Much of the West has been taught to denigrate the idea of faith in a system of independent sovereign states after World War II and to support systems that undermine them. But the truth is that the most likely source of hate, bigotry and oppression in the 21st century doesn’t come from nationalists, but from liberals and leftists who seek to impose their ideas on the world by any means necessary. He’s joined in this week’s episode of "Think Twice" by Yoram Hazony, author of the seminal 2018 book The Virtue of Nationalism, which has just been republished in an updated edition. He points out that though modern liberals have accepted the idea that Adolf Hitler’s Nazism was a natural consequence of German nationalism, the truth is that it was a scheme for imperial domination, much like the ambitions of Napoleon and Stalin. It had nothing to do with the notion of an international order of independent sovereign states that, as Hazony writes, is the best recipe for freedom, despite the fact that all countries are flawed. He also points out that the contemporary push to downgrade national freedom in favor of globalism and the rule of international organizations, like the United Nations or the European Union, is another instance of that same desire for imperial rule in which elites in one place seek to dominate other nations. Hazony believes that the anti-Zionism and antisemitism directed at Israel is, in large measure, derived from the resentment of Marxists and Europeans who have lost faith in the rights of their own countries to national independence and sovereignty feel about the Jewish state’s willingness to fight for its right to exist and thrive. In this way, Israeli nationalism is viewed as unacceptable and paradoxically linked to the intolerance of the Nazis when, in fact, Zionism is a rational and much-needed response to the powerlessness and lack of national sovereignty of the Jews during the Holocaust. The intolerance of these anti-nationalists on the left for those, like Israelis, who resist their diktats, is similar to the way true believers in an ideological faith regard those who resist their ideas, he said. That, along with traditional antisemitism, is fueling the fires of hatred against Israel. Hazony, who leads the Edmund Burke Foundation, which has organized several National Conservative conferences in Europe and the United States since his book was first published, acknowledged that he was troubled by the growth of anti-Israel sentiment among some American conservatives since the Hamas-led Palestinian Arab attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Most American conservatives have embraced U.S. President Donald Trump’s version of nationalism, which is very supportive of Israel. But some figures, labeled by Hazony as “alt-right,” seek to push Jews out of the conservative movement and are hostile to the Jewish state. That’s creating a problem for the Trump administration. Their need to keep their electoral coalition intact may be setting up a situation where they need to confront people like former Fox News host and current political commentator Tucker Carlson, but are “hesitant” to do so. But the author said he still has hope that it will do so in a firm way. Listen/Subscribe to weekly episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, iHeart Radio or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Watch new episodes every week by subscribing to the JNS YouTube Channel.

According to JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin, a growing number of otherwise marginal right-wing voices are joining forces with most of those on the left to bash Zionism and Israel. He is joined in this week’s episode of Think Twice by Breitbart.com’s Joel Pollak who believes that Zionism isn’t just a movement of Jewish rights but a model for how every group and nation can emphasize success rather than a harmful focus on being victims.   Pollak is the author of the newly republished book The Zionist Conspiracy Wants You and believes that instead of demonizing Zionism, the rest of the world, including the Palestinians, ought to learn from it. In his view, it provides a model for empowering and bettering the lives of non-Jewish minorities who are otherwise mired in divisive minority-group woke politics.   He sees anti-Zionism from the left as, in part, derived from anti-American ideas that oppose all successful nations as morally suspect. And the hatred for Israel that has surged in the last two years is rooted in a desire to spread fear among Jews.   The anti-Israel attitudes that are coming from the right are partially the result of traditional antisemitism and also based in envy of Israel as well as delusional conspiracy theories about the Jewish state controlling the United States. Those who oppose Israel are also putting themselves on the wrong side of history and opposing President Donald Trump, which is a certain loser for conservatives.   Tobin and Pollak disagreed about how to handle people like podcaster and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and the openly antisemitic Candace Owens. Pollak sees Carlson’s anti-Israel attitudes and platforming of antisemitic guests including Holocaust deniers as the result of the Anti-Defamation League’s attacks on him before he was openly antisemitic.   Tobin believes that Carlson was always an opponent of Israel and that his departure from Fox News just removed the guardrails that existed there which deterred him from platforming hatemongers in the way that he does now in his podcast. Tobin believes that prominent conservatives need to denounce antisemitism even when it comes from friends and allies. Pollak prefers to accentuate the positive and thinks it’s not too late for Carlson to change but agrees that even a “big tent” has walls, meaning that some things must always be unacceptable.   Listen/Subscribe to weekly episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, iHeart Radio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.   Watch new episodes every week by subscribing to the JNS YouTube Channel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had no choice but to go along with the scheme but believing that President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan for ending the war in the Gaza Strip can work still requires a leap of faith, says JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin. He believes that there’s little reason to think Hamas will free the hostages and surrender their arms and control of the Strip even if Trump is offering them no alternative. Tobin is joined in this week’s episode of Think Twice by JNS contributing editor and columnist Ruthie Blum who believes that while an end to the war with the “barbarians” of Hamas on Trump’s terms is possible, but she said we shouldn’t call that “peace” if it involves releasing more terrorists in exchange for freeing Israeli hostages and believing that the Palestinians are ready to change. While she was skeptical that Hamas would take this opportunity to end the war, the Trump plan won’t involve trust since nothing will move forward if all of the hostages are not freed first. Still, she feared that any deal that will mandate the release of Palestinian terrorists from prison may lead to more bloodshed in the same way that the 2011 agreement that freed kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit led to the Oct. 7 massacres. She also agreed with Tobin that the Trump administration’s faith in the good will of Qatar is a mistake since that regime funds terrorism and Islamist fundamentalism around the globe. Blum believes that businessmen like Trump and his envoy Steve Witkoff simply don’t understand Muslim fanaticism since they view the world solely through the prism of business deals based on mutual interests. They fail to realize that the war between Jews and Arabs is about much more than real estate. Blum pointed out that those who claim that Israel can’t achieve its objectives by military means are wrong and that Netanyahu is right. If there is to be any progress toward ending the war it is only because of the military pressure that Israel has exerted on Hamas. What will be needed for Trump’s deal to do more good than harm, as was the case with previous attempts to broker peace, is for him to stick to his word and let Israel “finish the job” of defeating Hamas if they don’t agree to the deal or violate it afterward. That’s not what happened in the past when Israel made concessions to the Palestinians in the 1993 Oslo Accords and the 2005 withdrawal from Gaza. Blum sympathizes with Netanyahu when he tells his supporters to pipe down about extending Israeli sovereignty to Area C of Judea and Samaria where Jewish communities exist. His priority must be to avoid alienating Trump and showing patience on the issue since that is in Israel’s interests.

The question facing American Jewry is which trend is more important. As JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin notes, a lot of American Jews have been shocked by both the trauma of the Oct. 7 attacks and the subsequent surge of antisemitism into increased activism on behalf of Israel and giving to Jewish causes. But on the other hand, a large number of Jews, especially progressives, are becoming more assimilated, less interested in Jewish life and alienated from Israel. He’s joined in this week’s episode of Think Twice by eminent scholar and author Jack Wertheimer, whose new book Jewish Giving: Philanthropy and the Shaping of American Jewish life traces the history of the subject up and to the present day. According to Wertheimer, since Oct. 7, “Jews have come out of the woodwork to give in support of Israel and support of Jewish institutions.” But on the other hand, there has been a marked decline in giving to Jewish causes over the course of recent decades. In the 2020 Pew Research Center survey on American Jews, showed that for the first time, a majority of them were not giving to Jewish philanthropies. Wertheimer said there was overlap between this group and those whom demographers describe as “Jews of no religion,” and those identity as political progressives. The problem is greater among younger Jews who are being heavily influenced by what he described as “propagandistic social media” that is hostile to Israel and the “tribal” loyalties to Israel and the Jews that is out of fashion on the political left. It is this portion of the community that sees the problem with Jewish groups and philanthropies as being that they are too focused on Jewish causes rather than not enough interest in them. Wertheimer’s research leads him to the conclusion that the problems facing umbrella Jewish philanthropies like federations are no different to those being faced by similar secular groups. He also thinks the belief that “big donors” are having a disproportionate impact driving the agenda of the Jewish community is overblown. Jewish groups and donors are not monolithic in their agendas. He says the key question facing the Jewish community is how it can follow up on the post-Oct. 7 increase in interest in Jewish life from those who have been galvanized by the actions of Hamas and its antisemitic supporters, including among those secular Jews who had been “checking out” of the community. Wertheimer asserts that even as major Jewish philanthropies have recognized the importance of support for Israel, they're also recognizing the vital importance of educating the next generation and also socializing them into participating in Jewish communal life. Because without that, there won't be a future for Jewish philanthropy in the next generation. Listen/Subscribe to weekly episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, iHeart Radio or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Listen/Subscribe to weekly episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, iHeart Radio or wherever you listen to your podcasts. If you liked this episode, watch more Think Twice here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsksduy16U5Kb-ZQdW5aIj7xGhY1kk6i0&si=ar3F8TsXM898lAJi Become a JNS Channel Member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC24cdDLzkNJf2_CNNzdI-UQ/join Watch new episodes every week by subscribing to the JNS YouTube Channel. Become a JNS Channel Member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC24cdDLzkNJf2_CNNzdI-UQ/join

According to JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin, the release of a new documentary film called “Soul on Fire” about the life of Holocaust survivor, author, teacher and Nobel Peace Prize Winner Elie Wiesel couldn’t be timelier. At a time of an unprecedented surge of antisemitism and demonization of Israel, Wiesel’s example of courageous truth-telling is needed more than ever.   He is joined in the latest episode of Think Twice by Wiesel’s son Elisha, who works on Wall Street and for Israeli startups, as well as being a leading human rights activist. Elisha Wiesel said that he and his late mother, who passed away earlier this year, had been searching for a filmmaker to do a documentary about his father before choosing writer/director and producer Oren Rudavsky. He says that acting on his father’s instructions, they have refused to let anyone produce a film based on Wiesel’s classic Holocaust memoir, Night but believed a well-made documentary could help keep his memory alive as well as reintroduce a new generation to his work.   The film traces Wiesel’s Holocaust experience and journey back to life after surviving the camps and then his rise to prominence as an activist and author. But the key incident in it concerns his confrontation with President Ronald Reagan live on national television when he unsuccessfully sought to persuade him not to visit a military cemetery in Bitburg, where German SS soldiers were buried in 1985.   Elisha Wiesel, who was present at the White House for this event says that looking back at it now, he sees how difficult it was for his father, who liked Reagan very much, to lecture him in front of the country. But it was a classic example of how to “speak truth to power,” in the service of a great truth.   He also says that those Jews who speak out against Israel since Oct. 7, 2023 and in favor of “free Palestine” are not following his father’s example. Elie Wiesel was an ardent Zionist and never chose to criticize the Jewish state whether or not he always agreed with its government because he understood how that would be used by antisemites.   “Many of these people think that they're acting in keeping with my father's values. You know, I've seen signs at Israel-hating rallies that actually say, know, Elie Wiesel said, you know, the enemy, the opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. So, a lot of people go around and they think, you know, ‘I'm being Wieselian. I'm not indifferent. Look at me.’ But of course, I think my father hadn't properly envisioned at the time that he made that statement, how we've gone past, we've gone beyond indifference. We've gone straight to what I like to think of is indignant ignorance.”   He said that the current generation of young American Jews, “Don't feel what I feel in my heart. When Israel is attacked, it's visceral. It's gut level. It's emotional. This is 50% of my brothers and sisters in the Jewish people, so many of whom came, whether fleeing the Farhud in Muslim lands or the Holocaust, you know, to get to Israel. These are my people, my brothers and sisters, who have gotten to a place where they can finally defend themselves and create the state that is transforming the world with its inventions and its ideas.   Elisha Wiesel compared the “Free Palestine” movement and support for Israel-hating New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani to the punk rock music he loved as a teenager.“So much of the free Palestine movement to me, and so much of the tear it down, anarchy, let's end capitalism, has all of the violence of punk rock without the good music. It's just people looking for change without thinking too hard about what they're going to build or what should be built.”

When Jews gather in synagogues on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur this month, will their rabbis seek to rally them to stand with Israel and against the surge of antisemitism fueled by blood libels against the Jewish state? Or will they instead use their pulpits to virtue signal their support for the false charges of “genocide” being hurled at Jerusalem? Those are the questions that JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin is posing. He’s joined in this week’s episode of Think Twice by Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt, chair of the Rabbinic Zionist Coalition, who lamented the fact that so many Jews rely on outlets like The New York Times and NPR for news, which base their coverage on an uncritical acceptance of an anti-Israel and pro-Hamas narrative. He says the Rabbinic Zionist Coalition is needed more than ever now because as the post-Oct. 7 war drags on with antisemitism growing, Israel needs both the support of American Jewry and their spiritual leaders more than ever. He believes that the imperative for rabbis is to remember that “we should not allow our relationship with Israel to be defined or determined by Israel's enemies.” Weinblatt said he was concerned by the way a growing number of young rabbis are embracing an anti-Zionist agenda promulgated by opponents of the Jewish state. Their opinions were, he said, as is the case with many young Americans, influenced by progressive ideologies that falsely labeled Jews and Israel as “white” oppressors. Moreover, he said it was essential for all Jews to recognize the centrality of the land of Israel in Judaism. While some are focused on misleading allegations about Israeli behavior, even if some of the charges lodged against the Jewish state were true, “We do not love Israel because Israel is perfect, nor do we need Israel to be perfect for us to love her.” The mainstreaming of antisemitic attitudes and blood libels is, he said, simply a reversion to the pre-Holocaust reality in which Jew-hatred was normal. He pointed out that there are many great young rabbis who are inspiring their congregants to have a stronger connection with Israel. But part of the problem is the way some of the seminaries educating rabbis are admitting open opponents of Israel’s existence, something, he said, they would not do if candidates for admission were homophobic or racist. These institutions do so because they are desperate for students and also because they, too, are influenced by progressive attitudes about Israel. Listen/Subscribe to weekly episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, iHeart Radio or wherever you listen to your podcasts. If you liked this episode, watch more Think Twice here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsksduy16U5Kb-ZQdW5aIj7xGhY1kk6i0&si=ar3F8TsXM898lAJi Watch new episodes every week by subscribing to the JNS YouTube Channel. Become a JNS Channel Member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC24cdDLzkNJf2_CNNzdI-UQ/join

With mainstream media parroting Hamas propaganda about “genocide” in Gaza, the post-Oct. 7 surge in antisemitism is likely to continue to get worse, says JNS editor–in-chief Jonathan Tobin. Those blood libels are not only fueling the sort of Jew-hatred that is impacting students on college campuses but also raising the threat of more violence directed at synagogues, schools and other Jewish targets. He’s joined on this week’s episode of Think Twice by Michael Masters, the National Director and CEO of the Secure Community Network (SCN), the organization that is responsible for the security organization for the North American Jews. The SCN monitors threats to Jews and advises community organizations on safety issues providing its own version of an Iron Dome for the community. According to Masters, the antisemitism crisis on college campuses is not the product of spontaneous efforts to support Hamas and attack the pro-Israel community. The immediate mobilization of protesters and materials for them was organized and coordinated. And much of it was funded by foreign state actors, especially Iran. Moreover, he says these efforts were not merely expressions of free speech but took the form of organizing manuals that were clearly aimed at facilitating violence and other illegal acts.   The most ominous development, Masters points out, is that in the wake of pressure from the Trump administration on colleges and universities to stop tolerating and encouraging Jew-hatred, the pro-Hamas activists are switching tactics. Instead of building takeovers, they are now emphasizing the targeting of Jewish individuals, such as professors and students. Their goal is to silence and intimidate people from speaking out on behalf of Israel and in defense of the Jewish community.   The security expert points out that in the current atmosphere, Jew-hatred unites both the extreme left and the extreme right in a “circle” in which white supremacists and Islamists join together to target Jews. As such, he asserts that what is needed is a unified Jewish community that will advocate against antisemitism and also to get the funding needed to adequately protect Jewish institutions.   While the SCN has a list of recommendations for enhancing Jewish safety, Masters emphasizes the need for training for those responsible for security. While Americans have a Second Amendment right to carry firearms, he says the key to protecting the community is putting weapons in the hands of those who are trained to use them in an emergency.   Listen/Subscribe to weekly episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, iHeart Radio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.   Watch new episodes every week by subscribing to the JNS YouTube Channel.

Jewish students should expect to be confronted by more pro-Hamas mobs and antisemitism when returning to college this fall, says JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin.  With legacy media mainstreaming Hamas propaganda and blood libels against Israel,  it’s likely that the surge of antisemitism throughout American education that began after the Hamas-led Palestinian Arab attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, will continue in the coming months. He’s joined in the week’s episode of Think Twice by Cornell Law professor and Legalinsurrection.com founder William Jacobson who says it’s “going to be a very hot fall” with respect to anti-Israel activity. Jacobson believes that the pro-Hamas movement is in retreat as a result of Trump’s crackdown, which has caused many schools to act swiftly to quash antisemitism on campus, lest they lose federal funding. But given the widespread belief in the lies about Israel committing “genocide” in Gaza, antisemitic groups like Students for Justice in Palestine will be even more aggressive than in the past two years. It will be up to colleges and universities to ensure that those who break the rules and engage in illegal activity in the name of “Palestine” are held accountable. Israel-haters have, Jacobson says, co-opted the entire left-wing movement, sidelining causes like Black Lives Matter and making activism for the destruction of Israel their main goal. This movement is being aided with funding from Qatar and other malign actors and is also seeking to co-opt the right via influencers like Tucker Carlson. But, he says, their main target is America itself and not just the Jews. “If you wanted to destroy the United States from inside, what would you do differently than the left and now the Islamists are doing to our educational system, which is pitting students against each other based on skin color and identity group? And that's what the mainstream Jewish community refuses to address.  Jacobson says that Trump’s attempts to broker deals with universities like Harvard and Columbia is having an impact on the spread of antisemitism, in part, because of the decline in foreign students who have been a big part of the problem. But he cautions that enforcement of the provisions of those agreements are key, since these institutions are hoping to wait out Trump and go back to their discriminatory policies once he leaves office. The key to the problem is ridding the system of the plague of the woke catechism of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) which is at the core of the spread of anti-Jewish prejudice because it falsely identifies Jews and Israel as “white” oppressors. He criticized those mainstream liberal Jewish groups that refuse to oppose DEI.  Jacobson said he’s not sure whether the education system can be saved. “We need to now figure out how we protect ourselves from the universities, not how we reform the universities. I do not believe that universities can reform themselves, at least not the so-called elite universities where we're having most of these problems.” Listen/Subscribe to weekly episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, iHeart Radio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.   Watch new episodes every week by subscribing to the JNS YouTube Channel.

According to JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin, Americans and many in the West seem to be blind to the threat posed by radical Islam and Islamist movements. Thanks to the successes of a red/green alliance that unites Marxists and Islamist antisemites who both hate the West, this attitude is leading to a fundamental shift that undermines the national identity of some nations and calls into question their willingness to defend civil liberties. This also involves not just tolerance for antisemitism and hatred for the state of Israel but legitimization and mainstreaming of the worst sort of anti-Jewish hate. He’s joined in this week’s episode of Think Twice by Ben Poser, the executive editor of White Rose Magazine, which has devoted its most recent issue to a discussion of what it describes as “the death cult of Islam.” Poser believes that in the name of tolerance and pluralism, many in the West fail to understand that jihadist terror groups and their advocates aren’t so much distorting Islam as they are a reflection of its basic beliefs and texts. Moreover, the claim by Muslim apologists that the word “jihad” is merely about internal struggle rather than faith-based commitment to aggression and terror against non-Muslims is a deception. Poser points out that the notion that the West is uniquely or even solely guilty for slavery or imperialism is not just wrong. It also ignores the fact that historically the Muslim world was just as responsible for such practices and, unlike the West, never repented for its crimes. Indeed, as he notes, slavery continues to this day in the Islamic world though few in the West care to notice it. He says Western societies need not violate their own principles of civil liberties in order to defend their values against those who seek to impose Muslim practices that are antithetical to liberty and democracy. Moreover, they need to recognize that the while the red-green alliance seems to be solely focused on vilifying Jews—in which they falsely accuse Israel of genocide which is what the Islamists of Hamas seek to do—it is also a threat to the entire West and not just Israel and its supporters. It is, Poser declares, necessary to understand that groups like the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR) that masquerade as a Muslim civil rights group, is directly linked to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood terrorists. The Brotherhood should, he says, be designated as a terrorist group, by the United States government. Washington should also stop treating Qatar, which funds these groups and is itself deeply implicated in the Islamic terror and indoctrination, as an ally rather than a dangerous foe. #geopolitics #news Chapters 00:00 The Nature of Islam and Its Perceived Threat 03:49 Understanding the Focus of White Rose Magazine 08:14 The Historical Context of Jihad 12:39 The Concept of Jihad: Internal Struggle or Conquest? 24:41 Islam's Compatibility with Western Civilization 31:26 Historical Perspectives on Slavery and Guilt 36:12 The Red-Green Alliance: Ideological Intersections 41:14 The October 7th Massacres and Ideological Jihad 43:35 Persecution of Christians in the Muslim World 50:36 Modern Slavery and Western Ignorance 54:56 The Rise of American Muslim Organizations Listen/Subscribe to weekly episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, iHeart Radio or wherever you listen to your podcasts. If you liked this episode, watch more Think Twice here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsksduy16U5Kb-ZQdW5aIj7xGhY1kk6i0&si=ar3F8TsXM898lAJi

If Israel’s plan for the “day after” the current war against Hamas ends is to secure a future of peace by pouring aid into the Gaza Strip, then JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin says Israel’s leaders are being delusional. That’s the same foolish mindset that led the entire Israeli military, intelligence and political establishment to believe that Hamas wouldn’t jeopardize the flow of cash and aid into the Strip by attacking as they did on Oct. 7, 2023. He’s joined in the week’s episode of Think Twice by Hudson institute scholar and Tablet magazine editor-at-large Liel Leibovitz who says that Israel’s leadership, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his political opponents lived in “dream palaces” in which they bought into the conceptzia that led them to think, “that all we have to do is find the correct amount of U.S. dollars to pay the Palestinians in Gaza and Hamas would basically transform itself into the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.” According to Leibovitz, the lesson of Oct. 7 and of the previous century of history is that the idea that Israel is, as its leadership always says, not at war with the Palestinian people, is a delusion. It is, he says, “absolutely straightforwardly false. Israel's war is 100% with the Palestinian people and we know this from the records of every single hostage who's returned” and spoken of how they were held and abused by ordinary Palestinian civilians, not terrorists. “We are fighting a war against a population that is hellbent on destroying us for no apparent reason. They are not kind of under the spell as some of our self-appointed intellectual and moral betters like to tell us.” Nor is it, he asserts, “because of some generational trauma or the ‘occupation’ or living in Gaza. They are pursuing a very distinct and easy to understand faith that tells them that in their midst, there is a usurper, the Zionist entity and it must be destroyed.  Leibovitz also believes that the emphasis in the pro-Israel community on winning the information war against the Hamas propaganda with better hasbara is another delusion. He says that Israel should forget about hasbara because the Western media is not interested in facts or truth. The only thing to do is to win the war and defeat Hamas and not worry about the “day after.” He also points out that the arguments against defeating Hamas in order to save the remaining hostages simply isn’t rational because it will endanger more Israelis and these efforts to pressure the government to surrender to the terrorists just makes a deal even less likely. The writer also believes the efforts by some Jewish groups including the Jewish Federation in New York City to aid Gazans is indicative of a delusional effort to demonstrate their empathy for the Palestinians that will accomplish nothing. The same is true, he says, of what the Anti-Defamation League is doing. Leibovitz thinks the mainstream Jewish organizations’ failure to respond to the post-Oct. 7 surge in antisemitism illustrates their moral bankruptcy and the need to replace them with groups that actually serve the community’s interests and defend the Jewish people. Listen/Subscribe to weekly episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, iHeart Radio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.   Watch new episodes every week by subscribing to the JNS YouTube Channel.

Not enough attention is being paid to the way foreign funders and supporters of terrorism are infiltrating into North America. That’s the conclusion JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin draws from a new report about the growing influence of the Muslim Brotherhood produced by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP).  He’s joined in this week’s episode of Think Twice by ISGAP’s founding director and president, Charles Asher Small. According to Small, the Muslim Brotherhood is a century-old reactionary Islamist movement whose goal is to complete the work of Adolf Hitler and kill Jews and destroy the state of Israel. It’s just as interested in waging war on the West. To that end, it has spawned the Hamas terrorist movement and, with the financial assistance of Qatar, is also spreading its influence in the West. As ISGAP’s research revealed, the Brotherhood has made an impact in the United States as front groups like the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) pose as civil rights organizations while spreading hate for Jews. But it has made even greater inroads in Canada. There it has weaponized that country’s liberal political culture and lack of First Amendment free speech protections to promote the idea that any criticism of Muslim antisemitism is Islamophobia and illegal. As Small relates, it has led many Jewish groups and leaders to be silent on a growing problem of Jew-hatred. That is compounded by the fact that many Brotherhood associated groups are now also receiving money from the Canadian government. Small also discussed the way Qatari money is spreading antisemitism in higher education, something that is also advanced by the presence of so many foreign students from countries where Islamist views are normative. He says it’s important for groups that are advocating terror and being funded from the Middle East to be banned and cut off from funds. Similarly, universities should not be allowed to import Jew-hatred while bolstering their finances. Listen/Subscribe to weekly episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, iHeart Radio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.   Watch new episodes every week by subscribing to the JNS YouTube Channel.

Patriotism seems to be out of style in the United States and many young people are also being influenced by toxic woke ideas that falsely smear Israel as an illegitimate “apartheid” state. That’s why JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin believes we need examples of Jews who dedicated their lives to serving both America and Israel more than ever. He’s joined in this week’s episode of Think Twice by author Steven Ossad, whose latest book is dedicated to retelling the story of one of the greatest of American Jewish heroes: David “Mickey” Marcus, the West Pointed-trained American Jewish officer who helped lead Israeli troops in the War of Independence.   Marcus is the most famous of the foreign volunteers who joined the fledgling forces of the newborn Jewish state in 1948. Ossad’s new book, Chasing The Shadow: Mickey Marcus’s 200 Days of Destiny is the first book in English dedicated to this subject to be published in 60 years. Speaking of his subject, the author says Marcus was the son of Romanian immigrants to the United States who “made it” in the era in between the two world wars. He graduated from West Point where he won acceptance from his classmates as a collegiate boxing champion. He then went on to a career in the law and the administration of New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia before returning to the service prior to America’s entry into World War Two. He was a highly-ranked Pentagon staff officer and played an important role in the occupation of Germany and the prosecution of Nazi war criminals.   But in early 1948, he accepted an offer from the head of the government of what would soon become the state of Israel to organize and train the troops of the Haganah as it transitioned from an underground militia to an army of a beleaguered nation that was about to be invaded by five nations. He would go on to be the first Jew to be given the rank of aluf or general in 2,000 years and command the IDF’s troops that successfully lifted the siege of Jerusalem before being killed on the evening of a cease-fire in the conflict in a tragic friendly fire incident.   According to Ossad, Marcus is a symbol of the shared national security interests of the United States and Israel and a symbol of the democratic values of an army that fights a common enemy. He also noted that in the current atmosphere of hatred for Israel and antisemitism, he had a very difficult time finding a publisher for the book before the University of Missouri finally accepted it. Chapters 00:00 Reviving American Jewish Heroes 03:25 The Life and Legacy of Mickey Marcus 11:42 Mickey Marcus: Myths and Realities 17:42 The Formation of the Israel Defense Forces 23:21 Mickey Marcus's Impact on Jewish Identity 29:54 Mickey Marcus and Military Training Manuals 32:10 Truman's Recognition of Israel 35:56 Mickey Marcus's Role in the 1948 War 42:14 The Battle of Latrun and Its Significance 47:49 Mickey Marcus: A Symbol of US-Israel Relations 53:59 The Legacy of Mickey Marcus and His Story   Listen/Subscribe to weekly episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, iHeart Radio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.   Watch new episodes every week by subscribing to the JNS YouTube Channel.

According to JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin, Americans may be failing the Jeffrey Epstein Rorschach test. He says the eagerness of so many people to not merely jump to conclusions about the notorious case but to use it as a vehicle to promote antisemitism says a lot about contemporary America as well as the way Jew-hatred has been mainstreamed by the corporate media and popular culture. He’s joined in this week’s episode of Think Twice by famed legal scholar and author Alan Dershowitz. The retired Harvard Law School professor is someone who has been in the middle of the Epstein controversy as one of his attorneys and was at one time one of those falsely accused of participating in his crimes. That charge was retracted by his accuser. He says he wants all the material related to the case released by the government. But he warns though that those who anticipate that there are some terrible secrets yet to be revealed will probably be disappointed.

With talk of a U.S.-brokered cease-fire/hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas in the news, JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin is asking whether the proposed agreement will allow the terrorists to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Israel’s two main goals of the post-Oct. 7 war—freedom for the hostages and the eradication of Hamas—are still mutually exclusive. He says it remains to be seen whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can insist on the sort of tough terms that will ensure that the Jewish state’s security isn’t compromised by an agreement that lets the terrorists survive the war they started with unspeakable atrocities. He’s joined by Israeli military analyst Elliot Chodoff who says that after 22 months of fighting, the Israel Defense Forces are exhausted and are ready for a break in the fighting against Hamas in order to rest and refit its units. He also says that although the terrorist group is not wiped out, the IDF has “smashed” its military formations and capability. What is left are guerilla forces that harass Israeli soldiers and is what he calls the “thug” level, in which operatives of the Islamist group intimidate the population of the Gaza Strip. Those thugs will likely prevent the creation of a planned “humanitarian city” in the southern sector of Gaza as well as any hope of realizing President Donald Trump’s idea of turning the area into a resort. Chapters 00:00 Ceasefire Negotiations and Hamas's Future 02:53 IDF's Achievements and Costs of War 05:59 Political Dynamics and Military Strategy 08:43 Challenges of Urban Warfare and Guerrilla Tactics 11:46 Economic Implications of Prolonged Conflict 27:15 Taxation and Economic Challenges in Israel 29:35 IDF's Mistakes and Successes: A Critical Analysis 33:39 Intelligence Failures: Understanding the October 7th Attack 38:31 Iran's Strategic Position and Future Threats 50:32 Syria's Role and the Future of Israeli Relations 53:02 The Abraham Accords: Prospects for Saudi Recognition

Anti-Israel extremists on both the left and the right are becoming more vocal and dangerous. But, according to JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin, Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the New York City primary and the rebuff of Tucker Carlson by President Donald Trump, demonstrates that the left is far more dangerous right now. He’s joined on this week’s episode of Think Twice by Townhall.com political editor and Fox News Radio host Guy Benson who is deeply troubled by the way so many people have sympathized with the murderers, rapists and kidnappers of Hamas rather than democratic Israel after the Oct. 7 attacks. Chapters 00:00 The Shift in Democratic Support for Israel 03:39 The Rise of Extremism in Political Discourse 09:37 The Impact of Zoran Mamdani's Candidacy 17:46 The Intersection of Identity Politics and Extremism 23:36 The Broader Cultural War and Its Implications 28:54 The No Kings Movement and Its Implications 33:36 Bipartisan Responses to Foreign Policy 40:56 The Rise of Extremism in Political Discourse 49:41 Evaluating Trump's Second Term 54:56 Concluding Thoughts and Future Outlook

Being someone who opposes Israel’s existence and favors legitimizing terrorism and antisemitism now means never having to say you’re sorry in New York City. That’s the conclusion JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin drew from the victory of Socialist Zohran Mamdani in the Democratic mayoral primary in New York City. According to Tobin, Israel’s enemies in the Middle East have suffered devastating defeats. He’s joined in this week’s episode of Think Twice by Foundation for Defense of Democracies senior analyst and JNS columnist Ben Cohen who believes Mamdani’s win must be seen in the context of an “eye-watering escalation of hate crimes against Jews” in New York since Oct. 7, 2023. Cohen also sees this as an example of how the antisemitism of the elites and the rougher version of Jew-hatred that happens on the streets has merged in the form of the pro-Hamas mobs chanting to “globalize the intifada” that Mamdani supports.

In this episode of "Think Twice," host Jonathan S. Tobin, editor-in-chief of JNS.org, welcomes Professor Amy Wax, a tenured law professor at the University of Pennsylvania and a leading voice on issues of academic freedom, to discuss the increasingly narrow boundaries of acceptable discourse in America’s elite universities.