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The Lost Cause: Anti-Zionism, Oct. 7, and How Revisionist Movements Can Distort History
Pro-Hamas activists gather in Washington Square Park for a rally following a protest march held in response to an NYPD sweep of an anti-Israel encampment at New York University in Manhattan, May 3, 2024. Photo: Matthew Rodier/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
Every January, I study aspects of the American civil rights movement and pay tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. for bending the arc of our world toward justice. Since last year, I have been revisiting Lost Cause literature. Much to my surprise, the Lost Cause movement was popularized by universities and influencers in ways that are eerily similar to today’s resurgent antisemitism.
The Lost Cause is a popular revisionist movement that reframes the Confederate States in the US South as the victims of Northern aggression and Confederates as righteous and heroic actors of the United States Civil War. While the Civil War ended in 1865, many secessionists and Confederate sympathizers were determined to bring victory out of battlefield defeat through terrorism and a revisionist counter-narrative of the Civil War. The tactics changed but the struggle for White Supremacy remained the same. The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was founded in 1865 by former Confederate soldiers to realize the goals of the Lost Cause. As Charles Aycock, the former governor of North Carolina, later proclaimed, “From the mountains to the sea … we must disenfranchise the Negro.”
WEB Du Bois eloquently wrote in Black Reconstruction in America that the Lost Cause and its revisionist narrative was propelled for decades by elite American universities: “The real frontal attack on Reconstruction, as interpreted by the leaders of national thought in 1870 and for some time thereafter, came from the universities and particularly Columbia [University].” Du Bois further states: “The Columbia school of historians … has issued … sixteen studies of Reconstruction … all based on the same thesis, and all done according to the same method: first, endless sympathy with the white South; second, ridicule, contempt or silence for the Negro [italics added for emphasis].” As Du Bois concludes in his seminal book: “A nation-wide university attitude has arisen by which propaganda against the Negro has been carried on unquestioned.”
In addition to universities, influencers helped to mainstream the Lost Cause by disproportionately emphasizing the sins committed by Northerners and Southern blacks during and after the Civil War. From Birth of a Nation to Gone with the Wind to The Dukes of Hazard, the popular Lost Cause narrative celebrated Southern white culture and defiance of “outsider” meddling while downplaying the horrors of slavery and injustices of Black Codes and segregation. The occupying Union soldiers and administrators were labeled “the carpet bagger regime” and the Reconstruction “occupation” was viewed primarily as folly and oppressive.
Similar to the Lost Cause phenomenon, anti-Zionism is a popular revisionist movement that reframes the founding of Israel as a colonial enterprise and the Palestinians/Arabs as righteous and heroic actors of the ongoing conflict. The reality is most Jews were forcibly expelled from what is modern day Israel into the diaspora by the Babylonians and the Romans, yearning for centuries to return to their sacred ancestral homeland, while many Jews remained in the area for millennia. Throughout the early to mid-1900s, Arab anti-immigrant activists in the Middle East pressured the British to restrict Jewish refugees in the British Mandate of Palestine, enabling millions of Jewish deaths in the Holocaust including 80 members of my family. Nevertheless, when the colonial British Mandate in Palestine ended, the Jewish Agency supported the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan to establish a Jewish and a Palestinian state.
Palestinian leaders and surrounding Arab countries refused to compromise and almost immediately attacked Israel in 1948. The goal of the 1948 war against Israeli independence was, as clearly stated at the time, “to eliminate the Jews of Palestine, and to completely cleanse the country of them.”
Most neighboring countries are still determined to eliminate Israel as an independent nation, only tolerating a weak token Jewish presence in their midst. As Bobby Kennedy foresaw in 1948 after visiting the region, “They are determined that a separate Jewish state will be attacked and attacked until it is finally cut out like an unhealthy abscess.” Around 30 countries currently do not recognize Israel’s right to exist. A number of these countries openly support terrorism and exhibit a singular hatred of the Jewish state. Malaysia inscribes on its passports: “This passport is valid for all countries except Israel.” The Iranian president said he would “try to have friendly relations with all countries except Israel.” The Qatari government has given Hamas $1.5 billion over the past 10 years, and systemic antisemitism is woven into their country’s educational curricula. Yet, Israel is widely vilified by the international community.
Much like at the height of Lost Cause influence, antisemitic and anti-Zionist sentiment today is being fueled by elite universities. University presidents refused to unequivocally declare that on-campus advocacy of genocide against Jews violates school codes of conduct. A Columbia University professor who declared Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel “resistance” has been rewarded rather than reprimanded: the anti-Zionist professor is scheduled to “teach” a course on Zionism! Professors and university-supported student organizations at places such as Harvard astonishingly blamed Israel for the horrors of Oct. 7, even before Israel’s military response, despite the government of Gaza explicitly declaring its desire to eliminate Israel through more such attacks.
It’s an upside-down time, where the party that seeks to commit genocide flips the script by labeling the party it wants to kill as evil and genocidal.
The anti-Zionist hostility on college campuses is palpable, as I observed during visits with my college-bound son. Numerous banners promote “the intifada” and decry “the Gaza genocide,” with no “free the hostages” or “free Gaza from Hamas/Iran” signs anywhere to be found.
Well-intentioned people usually gravitate to “the underdog” and social justice rhetoric. But what if the perceived underdog’s values or viewpoints are dangerous? And, what if the social justice slogans are misleading or nefarious? As Bob Dylan forewarns in Man of Peace, “sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace.” (A red flag for the well-intended: university professors and students echo former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, who participates in anti-Israel protests and claims the Jews are committing “genocide” against the Palestinians.)
Also similar to the Lost Cause, influencers today are legitimizing antisemitism and indifference to Jewish suffering. Eric Clapton’s recent claim that “Israel is running the world, Israel is running the show” epitomizes this perspective. Throughout the world, musicians abandoned their hippie comrades in Israel. There has been no “We are the World” coalition to commemorate the Nova festival massacre or demand a return of the hostages taken from the peaceful music venue — even though Oct. 7, 2023, was the largest and most violent atrocity in music history.
A deliberate effort is underway to separate Jewish identity from Zionism, while branding Zionism as evil. Anti-Zionists hypocritically celebrate longstanding place-based connections of every identity group, except the Jewish Tribe.
Jews and the State of Israel are far from perfect. But Israeli efforts — along with shameful instances of egregious abuse, mistakes, and bigotry — should be viewed within the “bigger picture” context and without double standards. For instance, journalists and anti-Israel activists emphasize the number of deaths “on both sides,” implying moral equivalency or that a higher death toll on one side in and of itself shows the other side is wrong.
Yet, no reasonable journalist or human rights organization suggests that the Americans and English were the bad actors of World War II, even though the American military was segregated at the time, during “D-Day” the Allies bombed Nazi-controlled French villages and cities inadvertently killing over 20,000 French civilians, and an estimated 40,000 German civilians were killed by the American and English bombings of Hamburg. During and after the US Civil War, some white Union soldiers engaged in horrific behavior including instances of rape and pillaging of white southern communities. However inexcusable (and deserving condemnation), such misdeeds are no longer disproportionately emphasized or given equal footing with the perpetuation of slavery due to the waning influence of Lost Cause advocates.
Zionism is a Jewish liberation and self-determination movement that should be widely celebrated but instead is being quieted by antisemitic narratives and supersessionist religious theologies that erase Jewish indigenousness in the land of Israel. Historical documents and archeological findings undeniably prove a sustained Jewish presence in the land of Israel for thousands of years. Denying historical Jewish connections to the land of Israel is, as Yossi Klein Halevi states, part of an ongoing “war against the Jewish story” and should be viewed as a threat to indigenous people everywhere.
Zionists need to do a better job communicating the beauty of Zionism and history of the Jewish people, while not hardening our own hearts and minds in the face of adversity. Rising extremism within our own midst requires unequivocal condemnation and marginalization, including against Jewish-settler terrorism in the West Bank. We must cherish strength and security but continuously strive for peace and compromise, despite the long history of intolerance toward Jews and ongoing hostilities to Jewish sovereignty in the Holy Land.
Studying the Lost Cause offers opportunities to understand how harmful human beliefs and behaviors can become widely accepted. Long after the Civil War, American blacks and their allies were lynched, harassed, and intimidated to suppress black liberation. Universities and influencers for decades fueled anti-black hatred and oppression, while claiming to champion social justice. On the other hand, the abolition and civil rights movements show the difficult and ongoing efforts required to push back against slavery and Lost Cause themes. While the US Lost Cause and civil rights movements are unique experiences, Jews and our allies would be wise to learn from them to overcome our struggles for freedom and liberty.
The post The Lost Cause: Anti-Zionism, Oct. 7, and How Revisionist Movements Can Distort History first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Documents Reveal Hamas Uses Gaza Hospitals for Military Purposes, International NGOs Complicit in Operations
Israeli soldiers inspect the Al Shifa hospital complex, amid their ground operation against Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, in Gaza City, Nov. 15, 2023 in this handout image. Photo: Israel Defense Forces/Handout via REUTERS
Internal documents from Hamas’s Ministry of Interior and National Security dating back to 2020 reveal the Palestinian terrorist group has long used Gaza’s medical facilities for military purposes, according to a new report.
On Wednesday, NGO Monitor — an independent, Jerusalem-based research institute that tracks anti-Israel bias among nongovernmental organizations — released two documents declassified by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), revealing how Hamas has weaponized Gaza’s hospitals for years to shelter its operatives and leaders.
Translated from Arabic, the documents also reveal that international organizations — including the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders — are aware of Hamas’s presence in Gaza’s medical facilities, even as they publicly deny or downplay it.
“While repeatedly echoing Hamas allegations and condemning Israel’s operations to end the exploitation of hospitals for terror, these groups clearly knew that Hamas exploited these facilities and chose to remain silent,” Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor, said in a statement.
BREAKING: Leaked docs show Hamas admits to using Gaza hospitals as terror infrastructure, in files authored by its Interior Security Mechanism and obtained by NGO Monitor. Hospitals served as command hubs while NGOs went along under Hamas rules.
Here’s what they reveal
pic.twitter.com/HXI6hULYTG
— NGO Monitor (@NGOmonitor) September 10, 2025
Since the start of the war in Gaza, Hamas’s exploitation of hospitals has drawn heightened attention, with Israel facing international criticism for its operations near medical facilities as it seeks to crack down on the terrorist group.
According to NGO Monitor, the internal Hamas documents show a deliberate strategy of “embedding its military infrastructure, fighters, and leadership within hospitals and medical facilities in Gaza … thereby violating international law and endangering civilian lives.”
The documents also show that foreign NGOs have not only been aware of Hamas’s presence in Gaza’s medical facilities but also have sometimes worked alongside them.
For example, one internal memo notes that the Red Cross occupied a wing in the Al-Shifa medical complex directly adjacent to offices used by Hamas.
Despite international claims to the contrary, the documents show that the Palestinian terrorist group views medical facilities not as neutral spaces but as integral parts of its infrastructure.
“These facilities are considered to be of interest to hostile security parties and an important source for intelligence gathering, especially in times of war, since these health facilities are a place of gathering for the wounded during times of escalation, and these wounded cases hold sensitive positions in the resistance,” one of the internal memos reads.
“Furthermore, these health facilities are a place of gathering for numerous leaders of the movement and the government during times of escalation,” it continues.
The documents also reveal how Hamas closely monitors and controls foreign NGOs working in hospitals due to fears that they might serve as channels for Israeli intelligence.
“Do not let these associations have their own locations to work inside health facilities. When a location is allocated for these associations, it shall be outside the main building of the clinic or hospital, and far away from movement locations, and following security authorization,” one of the internal memos reads.
“Medical members from the Gaza Strip must join incoming delegations, whether the delegations work in hospitals or their own locations,” it adds.
Under this structured oversight, NGO Monitor explains that foreign organizations had to operate according to Hamas’s rules, “making them complicit in a system” that exploits medical centers for terrorist purposes.
“The internal Hamas documents reviewed in this report expose a systematic Hamas strategy to militarize Gaza’s health-care system, using hospitals and medical facilities as extensions of its military and security apparatus,” NGO Monitor says.
“This arrangement is fundamentally inconsistent with the principle of medical neutrality in Gaza, transforming humanitarian spaces into dual-use facilities that serve both medical and military purposes,” it continues.
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Mamdani Maintains Comfortable Lead in New York City Mayoral Race, Despite Jewish Opposition
Candidate Zohran Mamdani speaks during a Democratic New York City mayoral primary debate, June 4, 2025, in New York, US. Photo: Yuki Iwamura/Pool via REUTERS
Zohran Mamdani maintains a substantial lead in New York City’s mayoral contest, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released on Tuesday, as discontent with City Hall continues to rattle the electorate.
The survey of likely voters found Mamdani, a democratic socialist from Queens, taking 45 percent in a four-way matchup, well ahead of former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo at 23 percent, Republican activist Curtis Sliwa at 15 percent, and embattled incumbent Eric Adams at just 12 percent.
If Adams were to exit the race, Mamdani’s margin would narrow, with 46 percent support compared to Cuomo’s 30 percent. Sliwa would hold 17 percent of the electorate.
The poll underscores Adams’s strong standing among certain demographics, particularly Jewish voters, who make up a crucial bloc in several boroughs. Among Jewish voters, Adams receives 42 percent support, while Mamdani and Cuomo are tied at 21 percent each. Moreover, 75 percent of Jewish voters view Mamdani unfavorably, according to the poll, highlighting a key vulnerability for the progressive candidate.
The results came days after another poll showed similar results.
Mamdani holds a commanding 22-point advantage over his chief rival in the mayoral race, Cuomo, 46 percent to 24 percent, according to the poll by the New York Times and Siena College. Sliwa polled at 15 percent, and incumbent Adams polled at 9 percent among likely New York City voters.
Perhaps most striking, the survey found that Mamdani would still beat Cuomo in November’s election, 48 percent to 44 percent, if the other candidates dropped out and it was a one-on-one matchup.
Adams and Cuomo are both running as independents.
A little-known politician before this year’s Democratic primary campaign, Mamdani is an outspoken supporter of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to isolate Israel from the international community as a step toward its eventual elimination.
Mamdani has also repeatedly refused to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, falsely suggesting the country does not offer “equal rights” for all its citizens, and promised to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits New York.
Mamdani also initially defended the phrase “globalize the intifada”— which references previous periods of sustained Palestinian terrorism against Jews and Israels and has been widely interpreted as a call to expand political violence — by invoking the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising during World War II. However, Mamdani has since backpedaled on his support for the phrase, saying that he would discourage his supporters from using the slogan.
Mamdani’s overall strength appears to rest not only on name recognition among progressives but also on enthusiasm. Approximately 91 percent of his supporters say they’re enthusiastic about their choice, far outpacing backers of other candidates, the Quinnipiac data found. Cuomo, despite his experience and political legacy, is hurt by a 56 percent unfavorable rating.
Voters rank crime — 30 percent — and affordable housing — 21 percent — as the most pressing concerns, with inflation a distant third.
Moreover, Mamdani’s adversarial and combative rhetoric aimed at President Donald Trump seems to help him in the race.
“The name not on the ballot but seen having influence on this race is President Trump. And likely voters in New York City make it clear they want the next occupant of Gracie Mansion to stand up to Trump when it comes to issues inside New York City,” said Quinnipiac University Poll Assistant Director Mary Snow.
The findings paint a picture of a fractured electorate, with Mamdani consolidating left-leaning voters while Adams maintains strongholds among more moderate constituencies, including Jewish neighborhoods, and Cuomo tries to galvanize support among voters as various scandals loom over his campaign. Sliwa remains in the mid-teens but could play spoiler if the race tightens.
Mamdani has also sought to distance himself from some of the most radical policies he previously advocated for, such as defunding the police. Mamdani’s attempt to strike a more moderate tone seems to be paying dividends thus far. Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY), a Democrat from a swing district, endorsed Mamdani on Wednesday.
“@ZohranKMamdani fights for the PEOPLE. Andrew Cuomo is a selfish POS who only fights for himself and other corrupt elites. I know whose side I’m on. I’m with the people. I’m with Zohran,” Ryan posted on social media.
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‘Pro-Hamas Terror Ties’: US Sen. Tom Cotton Warns of CAIR’s Push Into Philadelphia Schools
CAIR officials give press conference on the Israel-Hamas war. Photo: Kyle Mazza / SOPA Images/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
US Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) has warned in a letter to the Department of Education that the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a nonprofit advocacy group long accused of having ties to terrorist organizations including Hamas, is seeking to infiltrate the city of Philadelphia’s public education system.
The letter was dated Tuesday, about two weeks after the Philadelphia chapter of CAIR announced that it was partnering with local schools.
“CAIR-Philadelphia is partnering with schools this year to make sure every student feels seen, safe, and supported,” the group said in an Instagram post. “Invite the CAIR Philly staff for a training to educators and staff on cultural competency, anti-bullying, and inclusive practices.”
“The CAIR Philadelphia staff works not only with staff and administration, but also directly with students!” the post continued. “We can visit classrooms as guest facilitators to lead student-centered discussions.”
Given CAIR’s controversial history, the federal government should act to prevent such a program from becoming reality, according to Cotton.
“It is well documented that CAIR has deep ties to pro-Hamas terrorist organizations and publicly supports Hamas’s terrorist activities,” Cotton wrote in the letter to US Education Secretary Linda McMahon. “As I noted in a previous letter, the Department of Justice listed CAIR as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee in the largest terrorism-financing case in US history. Further, CAIR-Philadelphia’s executive director, Ahmet Selim Tekelioglu, stated that Israeli ‘occupation’ was the reason for the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack by Hamas in Israel.”
Cotton’s letter cited materials which CAIR distributes across the city and promotes in its programming — notably its “American Jews and Political Power” course — and other attempts to revise the history of Sharia law, which severely restricts the rights of women and is opposed to other core features of liberal societies.
One of CAIR’s most controversial documents demands that teachers omit key facts about the 9/11 terrorist attacks which, in addition to destroying the World Trade Centers and severely damaging the Pentagon, claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 Americans.
“Avoid using language that validates the claims of the 9/11 attackers by associating their acts of mass murder with Islam and Muslims,” CAIR insists in the material. “For example, avoid using inaccurate and inflammatory terms such as ‘Islamic terrorists,’ ‘jihadists,’ or ‘radical Islamic terrorists.’”
Additionally, since the Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, CAIR-Philadelphia has lobbied the state government to enact anti-Israel policies and accused Gov. Josh Shapiro of ignoring the plight of Palestinians.
In a 2023 speech following Hamas’s Oct. 7 atrocities, CAIR’s national executive director, Nihad Awad, said he was “happy to see” Palestinians “breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land.”
According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), “some of CAIR’s current leadership had early connections with organizations that are or were affiliated with Hamas.” CAIR has disputed the accuracy of the ADL’s claim, despite government trial exhibits indicating its founders participated in meetings with Hamas supporters in Philadelphia. The organization has asserted that it “unequivocally condemn[s] all acts of terrorism, whether carried out by al-Qa’ida, the Real IRA, FARC, Hamas, ETA, or any other group designated by the US Department of State as a ‘Foreign Terrorist Organization.’”
“Such an organization should never have access to our nation’s children,” Cotton wrote in his letter, urging the Education Department to “ensure” that CAIR is not able to push its ideology on American schoolchildren.
“Sen. Cotton’s comments bring much needed scrutiny to the alarming trend of unchecked outside groups influencing public school curricula. CAIR, with their ties to Hamas, should have no involvement with the Philadelphia School District,” said Steve Rosenberg, Philadelphia Regional Director for the North American Values Institute (NAVI). “This raises serious concerns about balance, transparency, and educational integrity, not to mention basic decision making. Parents and taxpayers deserve assurance that their children aren’t being exposed to ideologically driven lessons — especially from groups with dangerous political affiliations.”
CAIR’s pushing into K-12 education comes at a time of rising antisemitism in public schools.
In August, for example, the Education Department promptly opened an investigation into allegations of antisemitism in Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPS) following the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) filing a complaint regarding the matter.
Jewish students allegedly experienced relentless bullying in BCPS, where students pantomimed Nazi salutes, treated campuses as a canvas for Nazi-inspired and antisemitic graffiti, and sent text messages threatening that the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas will be summoned to kill Jewish students the bullies do not like, the ADL complaint said, noting that teachers behaved even worse than students. At Bard High School, an English teacher allegedly performed the Nazi salute three times and later admitted to administrative officials that he did so intentionally to harm “the sole Jewish student” enrolled in his class. Following the incident, he suggested that the student unregister for his class because the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would be discussed in it.
“The allegations that Baltimore City Public Schools tolerate virulent Nazi-inspired antisemitic harassment of its Jewish students is at once appalling and infuriating. When a teacher allegedly directs a Nazi salute toward a Jewish student, or non-Jewish students harass their Jewish contemporaries by saying ‘all Jews should die,’ we are not simply talking about contemptible bullying; we are talking about a shocking abdication of educator responsibility that constitutes unlawful antisemitic harassment under Title VI,” Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights, said in a statement announcing the lawsuit.
Last month, The Algemeiner reported that the Santa Clara Unified School District (SCUSD) in California, which stands accused of refusing to address antisemitism, ruled that a teacher who allegedly showed her students antisemitic, discriminatory, and biased content violated policy when she screened an offensive video about the Holocaust in her classroom.
The move came without the prompting of the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, with which two Jewish civil rights groups, StandWithUs (SWU) and the Bay Area Jewish Coalition (BAJC), filed a complaint against the district in April.
Among other things, SWU and BAJC alleged that an SCUSD employee, Wilcox High School teacher Kauser Adenwala, screened a documentary produced in Turkey which compared the war in Gaza to the Holocaust. The graphic film at one point “displays a picture of a young Jewish child who was branded with a number by the Nazis during World War II and then suddenly shows an untraceable image of children with Arabic writing on their arms,” according to the complaint, which alleged the teacher’s conduct violated numerous district policies and potentially state law.
She remains employed by the district to this day.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.