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Societies That Hate Jews Endanger Every Single Citizen
Pro-Hamas protesters outside the Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago, Illinois on Tuesday, May 21, 2024. Photo: Ron Sachs via Reuters Connect
My father was not what you would call a philosemite. At the dinner table, he complained bitterly about the Jewish employee who supervised him when he got a job at a defense company, after his career as an insurance salesman ground to a halt in his late 40s.
My father would repeatedly refer to the Jewish man in obscene and racist terms, as my brother and I would look down at our plates. Our mother would remonstrate with him from across the dinner table, to no avail. To be fair, my father spoke about one of his Irish Catholic colleagues in similarly bigoted language, but the phrase he used to describe his Jewish supervisor was much worse than the man with the Irish last name he also disdained.
But for all the contempt my father expressed for his Jewish supervisor, he was a Zionist. Part of his Zionism was rooted in his admiration of Israel’s success, but it was also rooted in a desire not to repeat the horrors of World War II.
Dad knew full well that German Jew-hatred was a major factor in starting a war that cost 60 million people their lives. His own father, who returned from World War I a profoundly wounded human being, cried like a baby at the kitchen table in Harrisville, New Hampshire, when he learned of the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. He had a premonition that he was going to lose one of his two sons in the ensuing war.
“And he did,” dad said. My father’s older brother, who joined the Marines when he was 17, died on Iwo Jima in early 1945 at the age of 20. “He saw three pitched battles by his 19th birthday,” Dad would say. “Tinian, Saipan, and Iwo Jima.”
Consequently, my father had a visceral and supernatural fear of antisemitism and the chaos it introduced into the world. That’s why he supported Israel. Anything that made it harder to kill Jews was a good thing — not just for Jews, but for non-Jews as well.
He vocalized his support for Israel when the UN General Assembly passed the “Zionism is Racism” resolution in 1975. “What do they think they’re doing?” he asked. “Don’t they remember?” He viewed the Arab world’s open expression of hostility toward the Jews as a people as a harbinger of catastrophe — not just for the Jews, but Arabs as well. The past few decades of the region’s history confirm this assessment.
Three decades after his death, my father would be shocked to see the growing prevalence of antisemitism in American society where, according to the FBI, Jews are by far and away the most likely targets of violence because of their identity. For him, no patriotic American could hate the Jews as a people because to do so would be to side with the forces that turned Europe into a disaster zone in the mid-20th century. “Don’t they remember?” he would ask. (No Dad, they don’t, and I’m sorry.)
My father, a lifelong Republican, would be shocked at Tucker Carlson’s efforts to portray Hitler as something less than the world-ending villain he was in a recent interview. As shocking as it is to hear such an assessment, this interview was preceded by a flood of commentary from the left portraying Israel — not Hamas — as the villain in the aftermath of the October 7 massacre. In sum, the left and the right have contributed to the diminishment of what used to be a strategic asset that kept the crazies from power in the West: Contempt for Jew-haters.
Despite his disdain for his Jewish supervisor, my father understood that those who hate Jews cannot and should not be trusted. Maybe this is something French military officer Georges Picquart understood during the Dreyfus Affair, which rocked France between 1894 and 1906. Picquart was no philosemite, and according to The New York Times, was “casually antisemitic.”
Nevertheless, he spent a year in jail as a result of his role in the ultimately successful effort to absolve Alfred Dreyfus, a Jew, falsely charged with spying for the Germans in the 1890s.
Picquart’s efforts did not just help the falsely accused Dreyfus, or French Jews, but France itself. As long as France falsely blamed Dreyfus for espionage, France would be unable to acknowledge who the real threat was — Ferdinand Esterhazy, who had been spying for the Germans for years. Blaming Dreyfus the Jew obscured the real problem: a general air of incompetence in the French military establishment — an incompetence that played a huge role in France’s disastrous defeat at the hands of Hitler’s armies in the mid-20th century.
The truth is that as long as elites blame Jews for problems in the societies they lead, they will remain unable to confront the source of the threats to their well-being.
But there is hope. When my father died after a long period of confronting his demons — and helping others to do the same — hundreds of people showed up at his wake. A man in his fifties came through the reception line and offered me and my brother condolences over our father’s death.
“I worked with your dad,” he told us. “I learned so much from him. He was a really good man. He was very kind to me.”
“What’s your name?” my brother asked. He told us. We both shook his hand earnestly and thanked him before he moved on to speak to our mother. My brother and I struggled to keep our mouths from opening in shock as we looked at one another. It was the Jewish supervisor our father had routinely vilified at the dinner table years before. Wide-eyed, we nodded at one another before extending our hands to the next mourning well-wisher, awash with astonishment and gratitude.
Dexter Van Zile is managing editor of Focus on Western Islamism, a news site published by the Middle East Forum. His opinions are his own.
The post Societies That Hate Jews Endanger Every Single Citizen first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s Sharaa Says Talks With Israel Could Yield Results ‘In Coming Days’
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks at the opening ceremony of the 62nd Damascus International Fair, the first edition held since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, in Damascus, Syria, Aug. 27, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa said on Wednesday that ongoing negotiations with Israel to reach a security pact could lead to results “in the coming days.”
He told reporters in Damascus the security pact was a “necessity” and that it would need to respect Syria’s airspace and territorial unity and be monitored by the United Nations.
Syria and Israel are in talks to reach an agreement that Damascus hopes will secure a halt to Israeli airstrikes and the withdrawal of Israeli troops who have pushed into southern Syria.
Reuters reported this week that Washington was pressuring Syria to reach a deal before world leaders gather next week for the UN General Assembly in New York.
But Sharaa, in a briefing with journalists including Reuters ahead of his expected trip to New York to attend the meeting, denied the US was putting any pressure on Syria and said instead that it was playing a mediating role.
He said Israel had carried out more than 1,000 strikes on Syria and conducted more than 400 ground incursions since Dec. 8, when the rebel offensive he led toppled former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
Sharaa said Israel’s actions were contradicting the stated American policy of a stable and unified Syria, which he said was “very dangerous.”
He said Damascus was seeking a deal similar to a 1974 disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria that created a demilitarized zone between the two countries.
He said Syria sought the withdrawal of Israeli troops but that Israel wanted to remain at strategic locations it seized after Dec. 8, including Mount Hermon. Israeli ministers have publicly said Israel intends to keep control of the sites.
He said if the security pact succeeds, other agreements could be reached. He did not provide details, but said a peace agreement or normalization deal like the US-mediated Abraham Accords, under which several Muslim-majority countries agreed to normalize diplomatic ties with Israel, was not currently on the table.
He also said it was too early to discuss the fate of the Golan Heights because it was “a big deal.”
Reuters reported this week that Israel had ruled out handing back the zone, which Donald Trump unilaterally recognized as Israeli during his first term as US president.
“It’s a difficult case – you have negotiations between a Damascene and a Jew,” Sharaa told reporters, smiling.
SECURITY PACT DERAILED IN JULY
Sharaa also said Syria and Israel had been just “four to five days” away from reaching the basis of a security pact in July, but that developments in the southern province of Sweida had derailed those discussions.
Syrian troops were deployed to Sweida in July to quell fighting between Druze armed factions and Bedouin fighters. But the violence worsened, with Syrian forces accused of execution-style killings and Israel striking southern Syria, the defense ministry in Damascus and near the presidential palace.
Sharaa on Wednesday described the strikes near the presidential palace as “not a message, but a declaration of war,” and said Syria had still refrained from responding militarily to preserve the negotiations.
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Anti-Israel Activists Gear Up to ‘Flood’ UN General Assembly
US Capitol Police and NYPD officers clash with anti-Israel demonstrators, on the day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC, July 24, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
Anti-Israel groups are planning a wave of raucous protests in New York City during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) over the next several days, prompting concerns that the demonstrations could descend into antisemitic rhetoric and intimidation.
A coalition of anti-Israel activists is organizing the protests in and around UN headquarters to coincide with speeches from Middle Eastern leaders and appearances by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The demonstrations are expected to draw large crowds and feature prominent pro-Palestinian voices, some of whom have been criticized for trafficking in antisemitic tropes, in addition to calling for the destruction of Israe.
Organizers of the demonstrations have promoted the coordinated events on social media as an opportunity to pressure world leaders to hold Israel accountable for its military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, with some messaging framed in sharply hostile terms.
On Sunday, for example, activists shouted at Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon.
“Zionism is terrorism. All you guys are terrorists committing ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza and Palestine. Shame on you, Zionist animals,” they shouted.
BREAKING: PRO-PALESTINE PROTESTORS CONFRONT “ISRAELI” AMBASSADOR DANNY DANON AT THE UNITED NATIONS
1/5 pic.twitter.com/4G1VYEMGzV
— Within Our Lifetime (@WOLPalestine) September 14, 2025
The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), warned on its website that the scale and tone of the planned demonstrations risk crossing the line from political protest into hate speech, arguing that anti-Israel activists are attempting to hijack the UN gathering to spread antisemitism and delegitimize the Jewish state’s right to exist.
Outside the UN last week, masked protesters belonging to the activist group INDECLINE kicked a realistic replica of Netanyahu’s decapitated head as though it were a soccer ball.
US activist group plays soccer with Bibi’s mock decapitated HEAD right outside NYC UN HQ
Peep shot at 00:40
Footage posted by INDECLINE collective just as UN General Assembly about to kick off
‘Following the game, ball was donated to Palestinian Genocide Museum’ pic.twitter.com/TQ84sgZhKr
— RT (@RT_com) September 9, 2025
Within Our Lifetime (WOL), a radical anti-Israel activist group, has vowed to “flood” the UNGA on behalf of the pro-Palestine movement.
WOL, one of the most prolific anti-Israel activist groups, came under immense fire after it organized a protest against an exhibition to honor the victims of the Oct. 7 massacre at the Nova Music Festival in southern Israel. During the event, the group chanted “resistance is justified when people are occupied!” and “Israel, go to hell!”
“We will be there to confront them with the truth: Their silence and inaction enable genocide. The world cannot continue as if Gaza does not exist,” WOL said of its planned demonstrations in New York. “This is the time to make our voices impossible to ignore. Come to New York by any means necessary, to stand, to march, to demand the UN act and end the siege.”
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), two other anti-Israel organizations that have helped organize widespread demonstrations against the Jewish state during the war in Gaza, also announced they are planning a march from Times Square to the UN headquarters on Friday.
“The time is now for each and every UN member state to uphold their duty under international law: sanction Israel and end the genocide,” the groups said in a statement.
JVP, an organization that purports to fight for “Palestinian liberation,” has positioned itself as a staunch adversary of the Jewish state. The group argued in a 2021 booklet that Jews should not write Hebrew liturgy because hearing the language would be “deeply traumatizing” to Palestinians. JVP has repeatedly defended the Oct. 7 massacre of roughly 1,200 people in southern Israel by Hamas as a justified “resistance.” Chapters of the organization have urged other self-described “progressives” to throw their support behind Hamas and other terrorist groups against Israel
Similarly, PYM, another radical anti-Israel group, has repeatedly defended terrorism and violence against the Jewish state. PYM has organized many anti-Israel protests in the two years following the Oct. 7 attacks in the Jewish state. Recently, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) called for a federal investigation into the organization after Aisha Nizar, one of the group’s leaders, urged supporters to sabotage the US supply chain for the F-35 fighter jet, one of the most advanced US military assets and a critical component of Israel’s defense.
The UN General Assembly has historically been a flashpoint for heated debate over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Previous gatherings have seen dueling demonstrations outside the Manhattan venue, with pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups both seeking to influence the international spotlight.
While warning about the demonstrations, CAM noted it recently launched a new mobile app, Report It, that allows users worldwide to quickly and securely report antisemitic incidents in real time.
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Nina Davidson Presses Universities to Back Words With Action as Jewish Students Return to Campus Amid Antisemitism Crisis
Nina Davidson on The Algemeiner’s ‘J100’ podcast. Photo: Screenshot
Philanthropist Nina Davidson, who served on the board of Barnard College, has called on universities to pair tough rhetoric on combatting antisemitism with enforcement as Jewish students returned to campuses for the new academic year.
“Years ago, The Algemeiner had published a list ranking the most antisemitic colleges in the country. And number one was Columbia,” Davidson recalled on a recent episode of The Algemeiner‘s “J100” podcast. “As a board member and as someone who was representing the institution, it really upset me … At the board meeting, I brought it up and I said, ‘What are we going to do about this?’”
Host David Cohen, chief executive officer of The Algemeiner, explained he had revisited Davidson’s remarks while she was being honored for her work at The Algemeiner‘s 8th annual J100 gala, held in October 2021, noting their continued relevance.
“It could have been the same speech in 2025,” he said, underscoring how longstanding concerns about campus antisemitism, while having intensified in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, are not new.
Davidson argued that universities already possess the tools to protect students – codes of conduct, time-place-manner rules, and consequences for threats or targeted harassment – but too often fail to apply them evenly. “Statements are not enough,” she said, arguing that institutions need to enforce their rules and set a precedent that there will be consequences for individuals who refuse to follow them.
She also said that stakeholders – alumni, parents, and donors – are reassessing their relationships with schools that, in their view, have not safeguarded Jewish students. While supportive of open debate, Davidson distinguished between protest and intimidation, calling for leadership that protects expression while ensuring campus safety.
The episode surveyed specific pressure points that administrators will face this fall: repeat anti-Israel encampments, disruptions of Jewish programming, and the challenge of distinguishing political speech from conduct that violates university rules. “Unless schools draw those lines now,” Davidson warned, “they’ll be scrambling once the next crisis hits.”
Cohen closed by framing the discussion as a test of institutional credibility, asking whether universities will “turn policy into protection” in real time. Davidson agreed, pointing to students who “need to know the rules aren’t just on paper.”
The full conversation is available on The Algemeiner’s “J100” podcast.