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The Names and Crimes of 80 Dangerous Terrorist Murderers That Were Released by Israel
Thousands of supporters of hostage families gather in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv as three hostages are returned to Israel. Photo: Paulina Patimer / Hostages Families Forum
As Israel celebrates the release of seven of the hostages kidnapped on October 7, 2023 and anticipates the release of more over 42 days, every Israeli dreads the consequences of the dangerous price extorted on the Jewish State by Hamas.
For just 33 hostages alone, Israel has agreed to release over 1,900 terrorists, including many murderers, such as Wael Qassem, who is serving 35 life sentences.
General Security Service Director Ronen Bar told Israel’s security cabinet last week that 82% of the 1,024 terrorists released in exchange for Israeli hostage Gilad Shalit in 2011 “returned to terrorism.”
The leaders of Hamas who planned and led the October 7 massacre were released terrorist prisoners. Thousands of Israelis have been murdered as a direct result of previous terrorist-hostage exchanges.
To display the nature of the danger, Palestinian Media Watch has prepared a list of the names of 80 of the terrorist murderers to be released with descriptions of some of their crimes.
Note that among those being released are terror commanders, who planned and organized murders by suicide bombing, shooting, and stabbing; bomb builders; and terrorists who murdered with their own hands by stabbing and shooting.
As in the past, the majority of those being released now will return to their former positions and be the leaders and foundation of Palestinian terrorism for years to come.
Wael Qassem – Serving 35 life sentences. Led a cell responsible for three suicide bombing attacks in 2002 — Café Moment, the Hebrew University cafeteria, and the Sheffield Club, murdering 35 in total.
Ammar Al-Ziben – Serving 32 life sentences. Hamas. Planned several suicide bombings, including the double suicide bombing at the Mahane Yehuda outdoor market in 1997, murdering 16.
Majdi Za’atri – Serving 23 life sentences. Hamas. Planned and assisted a suicide bombing in 2003 — drove a suicide bomber to a bus stop in Jerusalem where the bomber boarded the #2 bus and blew himself up, murdering 23, including children and babies.
Ahmad Salah – Serving 21 life sentences. Involved in two Jerusalem suicide bus bombings in 2004, murdering 19 people and injuring over 100.
Sami Jaradat – Serving 21 life sentences. Head of Islamic Jihad in the Jenin district. Planned several attacks, including the 2003 suicide bombing at the Maxim restaurant in Haifa, where 21 people were murdered and over 50 were injured.
Fahmi Mashahreh – Serving 20 life sentences. Aided and instructed suicide bomber Muhammad Al-Ghoul, who murdered 19 and wounded 74 on a Jerusalem bus in 2002.
Shadi Ibrahim Ammouri – Serving 17 life sentences. Islamic Jihad. Prepared the bomb for the 2002 Megiddo Junction bombing in which 17 were murdered and 43 were wounded on the #830 bus from Tel Aviv to Tiberias.
Salim Hijja – Serving 16 life sentences. Assisted a suicide bomber in blowing up a bus in Haifa in 2001, murdering 15 and injuring 40.
Mansour Shreim – Serving 14 life sentences. Participated in the murder of an Israeli soldier near Kibbutz Metzer in 2001. Sent terrorists to carry out attacks, including an attack at a Bat Mitzvah celebration in Hadera in 2002, where 6 were murdered and over 30 were injured, and an attack in the town of Itamar in 2002, where 3 teenagers were murdered.
Muhammad Naifeh ‘Abu Rabia’ – Serving 13 life sentences. Tanzim. Involved in the murder of 5 Israelis at Kibbutz Metzer in 2002, 3 Israelis in Hermesh in 2002, and 5 others in various shooting attacks in 2001.
Ahmed Barghouti – Serving 13 life sentences. Commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades in the Ramallah region. Dispatched terrorists to lethal attacks in 2002. Sent terrorists to shooting attacks in which 12 people were murdered.
Ahmed Abu Khader – Serving 11 life sentences. Palestinian terrorist and former member of the PA Security Forces, Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, and Tanzim. Trained terrorists for suicide missions, carried out shooting attacks, and transported terrorists who committed lethal attacks.
Mar’i Abu Sa’ida – Serving 11 life sentences. Hamas. Member of cell responsible for several terror attacks, including a suicide bombing at the Tzrifin bus stop (9 murdered, 14 wounded, 2003), a suicide bombing at Café Hillel in Jerusalem (7 murdered, over 50 wounded, 2003) and a bombing at a bus stop in Tel Aviv (1 murdered, 24 wounded, 2004).
Izz Al-Din Khaled Hamamrah – Serving 9 life sentences. Tanzim. Recruited suicide bomber Muhammad Za’oul, who blew up the #14 bus in Jerusalem in 2004, murdering 8 and injuring dozens. Also perpetrated shooting attacks in the Bethlehem area.
Osama Al-Ashqar – Serving 8 life sentences. Tanzim. Organized two attacks resulting in the deaths of 8 Israelis in 2002 besides carrying out dozens of shooting attacks in the Tulkarem area.
Samer Al-Atrash – Serving 8 life sentences. Assisted a suicide bomber in blowing up a bus in the French Hill neighborhood of Jerusalem in 2003, murdering 7.
Ahmad Obeid – Serving 7 life sentences. Hamas member from East Jerusalem. Together with Nael Obeid, he planned the Café Hillel suicide bombing in Jerusalem in 2003, where 7 people were murdered, and he brought the terrorist to the attack site.
Taleb Ali Taleb Amr – Serving 7 life sentences. Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. Provided the explosives to a suicide bomber who murdered 6 and wounded more than 80 at Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda outdoor market in 2002.
Muayyad Hammad – Serving 7 life sentences. Ambushed Israeli soldiers near Ramallah, killing 3.
Amjad Takatka – Serving 6 life sentences. Played a role in a suicide bombing at Jerusalem’s outdoor market where 6 were murdered and more than 80 were wounded in 2002.
Ashraf Zgheir – Serving 6 life sentences. Drove a suicide bomber to Tel Aviv’s Allenby Street in 2002, where 6 people were killed and 84 were wounded, in addition to playing roles in other attempted bombings.
Bakr Al-Najjar – Serving 6 life sentences. Tanzim. Was involved in two deadly shooting attacks in 2002.
Hatem Al-Jayousi – Serving 6 life sentences. Provided the car used to perpetrate the 2002 Hadera Bat Mitzvah attack, in which 6 Israelis were murdered and dozens of others were wounded.
Ibrahim Sarahneh – Serving 6 life sentences. Israeli Arab who drove suicide bombers in 2002 to carry out three different attacks in Israel in which five were murdered.
Iyad Masalmeh – Serving 4 life sentences. Hamas. Sent and directed Ahmed Masalmeh and Ali Asafra in 2002 to infiltrate Karmei Tzur near Hebron, where they shot and murdered Eyal Sorek, his pregnant wife Yael, and Shalom Mordechai, and wounded five others.
Yusuf Al-Skafi – Serving 4 life sentences. Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. Recruited suicide bombers.
Othman Younes – Serving 4 life sentences. Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. Sent Habash Hanani to murder 3 Israeli students and injure 2 others in the town of Itamar in 2002. Was also involved in other shooting and bombing attacks.
Ali Suleiman Al-Sa’adi – Serving 4 life sentences. Islamic Jihad. Organized an attack at Afula’s central bus station in 2001 that killed Michal Mor and Noam Gozovsky and wounded 50 others. Organized several suicide bombings, including the attack at the Wall Street Café in Kiryat Motzkin in 2001.
Nasser Al-Shawish – Serving 4 life sentences. Responsible for 3 suicide bombings.
Husam Abd Al-Qader Halabi – Serving 3 life sentences. Member of Yasser Arafat’s Presidential Guard. Planned and provided the arms for the attack in which Avi and Avital Wolanski were shot and murdered and their three-year-old son was wounded in 2002.
Nasser Al-Shawish – Serving 4 life sentences. Responsible for 3 suicide bombings.
Bilal Ghanem – Serving 3 life sentences. Shot and stabbed passengers on a bus in Jerusalem’s Armon Hanatziv neighborhood, murdering Israelis Chaim Haviv (78), Alon Govberg (51), and Richard Lakin (76), and wounding 3 Israelis.
Yasser Abu Bakr – Serving 3 life sentences. Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. Directed an attack in Netanya in 2002 where Israel Yihye and 9-month-old Avia Malka were murdered. Also responsible for the killing of Border Policeman Constantine Danilov.
Mahmoud Abu Wahdan – Serving 3 life sentences. PFLP. Planned suicide bombings during the PA terror campaign (the second Intifada, 2000-2005).
Muhammad Khamis Brash – Serving 3 life sentences. Shot and killed Elad Wallenstein, Amit Zaneh, and Sarah Lisha in 2000.
Akram Othman Hamed and Rafat Othman Hamed – Both serving 3 life sentences. Members of the PA Security Forces members and of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. Shot Israeli civilians and soldiers, murdering Assaf Hershkovitz and Idit Mizrachi in 2001. Also murdered a Palestinian they suspected of aiding Israel during the PA terror campaign (the second Intifada, 2000-2005).
Murad Nazmi Al-Ajlouni – Serving 3 life sentences. Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. Together with Mazen Al-Qadi, he used his status as an Israeli Arab to freely drive Ibrahim Hassouneh to carry out an attack in which 3 Israelis were murdered and 15 were wounded.
Mazen Al-Qadi – Serving 3 life sentences. Drove Ibrahim Hassouneh to Tel Aviv in 2002 to carry out an attack on two restaurants—Seafood Market and Mifgash Hasteak—murdering 3 and wounding 15.
Ali Sa’ada and Wael Al-Arja – Each serving 2 life sentences. Murdered Asher Palmer and his baby son, Yonatan, near the Israeli town of Kiryat Arba in 2011.
Ammar Abu Ghallous and Sajed Abu Ghallous – Both are serving 2 life sentences. Fatah. In 2003, Sajed shot and murdered Israeli civilian David Mordechai and paralyzed his son Menachem, while Ammar stood guard. In 2004, Ammar drove Sajed to an attack in which Sajed shot and murdered Israeli Arab Christian George Khoury, mistaking him for a Jew as he was jogging in Jerusalem.
Yusuf Ata Dhiab Hamdan – Serving 2 life sentences. Drove the suicide bomber who murdered Avner Mordechai in his convenience store near Beit Shean in 2003. Drove 2 other suicide bombers who blew themselves up resulting in the murder of Yehezkel Yekutiel and Erez Hershkowitz as well as the injury of 11 others.
Kifah Hattab – Serving 2 life sentences. PA Security Forces member and head of a Tanzim cell that murdered Rabbi Aharon Ovadian in Baqa Al-Gharbiya in northern Israel in 2001. Hattab was also involved in the murder of a Palestinian suspected of aiding Israel.
Sa’id Musa Shtayyeh – Serving 2 life sentences. Fatah. Provided the arms to the terrorists who murdered Mordechai and Shlomo Odesser in 2002.
Hassan Rateb Aweis – Serving 2 life sentences. Murdered 2 people in a shooting attack at the Afula central bus station in 2001.
Zaid Bassisi – Serving a life sentence. Islamic Jihad. Planned a car bombing outside a Netanya school in which 8 were wounded in 2001.
Zaid Younes – Serving a life sentence. Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. Drove a suicide bomber to Tel Aviv resulting in the injury of 25 people in 2002 and assisted a terrorist murderer to escape prison.
Hafez Sharai’ah – Serving a life sentence. Member of the PA intelligence service and the Tanzim. Was one of the murderers of Israeli police superintendent Moshe Dayan in the Judean Desert in 2002. Also was one of 39 wanted terrorists who took over the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem in April 2002, using dozens of hostages and the religious site as shields.
Ayman Ibrahim Al-Awawdeh – Serving a life sentence. Member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades and PA military intelligence. Murdered 1 and committed shooting attacks against Israelis during the PA terror campaign (the second Intifada, 2000-2005).
As’ad Zo’rob – Serving a life sentence. Shot and murdered his Israeli employer, Nissan Dolinger, while traveling together with Dolinger in his car in 2002.
Jad Maalah – Serving a life sentence. Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. Carried out attacks during the PA terror campaign (the second Intifada, 2000-2005).
Jawad Jawarish – Serving a life sentence for the murder of Devorah Friedman in 2002.
Hani Khamaiseh – Serving a life sentence for the murder of Stanislav Sandomirsky in 2001.
Wael Al-Jaghoub – Serving a life sentence. Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) leader who carried out terror attacks.
Khalil Sarahneh – Serving a life sentence. Israeli Arab who drove a suicide bomber to Jerusalem in 2002 resulting in the killing of Israeli police officer Tomer Mordechai.
Yusuf Kmeil and Muhammad Abu Al-Rub – Each serving a life sentence. Stabbed and murdered 70-year-old Reuven Shmerling in a warehouse in the Israeli Arab city of Kafr Qassem, east of Tel Aviv, in 2017.
Mudar Abu Daya and Musa Ekhleil – Serving a life sentence each. Stabbed and murdered Erez Levanon as he was praying in a forest near Bat Ayin, southwest of Bethlehem in 2007.
Musa Sarahneh – Serving a life sentence. Drove a suicide bomber to carry out an attack in which 2 were murdered and 28 were wounded in Jerusalem in 2002.
Muhammad Al-Tous – Serving a life sentence. Fatah. Commanded terrorist cell that attacked 5 civilian buses in 1985, wounding 16 passengers. Also directed the murder of Zalman Abolnik in 1984 as well as Meir Ben Yair and Michal Cohen in 1985. Helped murder Mordechai Suissa and Edna Harari in 1985.
Muhammad Falana – Serving a life sentence. Planted a bomb near the town of Dolev in 1992, murdering 1 and injuring 6.
Nael Barghouti – Serving a life sentence. Stabbed and murdered Israeli bus driver Mordechai Yekuel in 1978.
Nael Yassin – Serving a life sentence. Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades and PA policeman. Shot and murdered Israeli border policeman Yosef Tabjeh and injured another while they were on a joint Israeli-PA patrol near Qalqilya in 2000. (Note: As part of the “peace process” prior to the PA terror war launched in Sept 2000, Israel and the PA would do joint security patrols.) Afterwards, he was involved in dozens of shootings and bombings until he was arrested.
Samir Yasser Ghaith – Serving a life sentence. Led a group of terrorists in murdering 25-year-old law student Moran Amit at the Armon Hanatziv Promenade in Jerusalem in 2002 as well as other attacks.
Ammar Mardi – Serving one life sentence. Kidnapped and murdered Yuri Gushchin from the Pisgat Ze’ev neighborhood of Jerusalem in 2001.
Abd Al-Majid Mahdi – Serving a life sentence. Fatah. Shot and murdered his Israeli employer, Gadi Rejwan, in the Atarot neighborhood of Jerusalem in 2002.
Othman Abu Khurj – Serving a life sentence. Murdered 16-year-old Aliza Malka and injured 3 other teens in a drive-by shooting near Kibbutz Merav in 2001.
Alaa Ahmad Abd Al-Mun’im Salah – Serving a life sentence. Murdered Yossi Zandani in 1994 and was recruited to murder an Israeli citizen and use his body as a hostage to release imprisoned terrorists, as is happening today.
Iyad Hreibat – Serving a life sentence.
Ayham Sabah – A murderer serving only a 35-year sentence. (He was a minor when he murdered). Stabbed and murdered Tuvia Yanai Weissman in 2016 at a supermarket.
Itamar Marcus is Palestinian Media Watch (PMW)’s Founder and Director. Ephraim D. Tepler is a contributor to Palestinian Media Watch. A version of this article originally appeared at PMW.
The post The Names and Crimes of 80 Dangerous Terrorist Murderers That Were Released by Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Why Do Western Countries Treat Qatar Better Than Their Jewish Citizens?
Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani attends an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, following an Israeli attack on Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar, at UN headquarters in New York City, US, Sept. 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
Growing up in communist Prague, I was exposed to antisemitism expressed largely by government officials and communist outlets, rather than by citizens themselves.
I learned in school about three major enemies of the socialist republic of Czechoslovakia: Germans seeking to conquer back the Sudetenland, American imperialists, and, you might have guessed, Zionists. And I was one of them.
The propaganda during the Six-Day War was unrelenting and hostile to Israel. Some years later, during my studies in medical school, I was invited to continue as a graduate student at the genetics institute after obtaining my MD degree. However, a year or so later, I was disinvited because I was Jewish.
Surprisingly, the old Jewish quarter in Prague was relatively well maintained — it was a big tourist attraction, especially for Germans, and a good source of Western currency for the state. There was also a permanent exhibit of art by Jewish children imprisoned in Theresienstadt during World War II. And we did read Anne’s Frank diary. Prague was still much better than the Soviet Union and Romania.
At that time, Western Europe, the US, and Canada were the beacons of freedom for everybody, including Jews. A few decades later, it appears to me that the sides have switched.
Central and Eastern Europe (not counting Russia) have become more hospitable to Jews, and Western Europe and Canada are outright hostile. The situation in the US is somewhat mixed. What happened?
Most Western officials and leaders blame Israel for the war in Gaza, and they accuse Israel of genocide, intentional famine, and starvation of Gazans. Hamas has become — or at least is becoming — a beacon of freedom, especially among younger generations. In the meantime, the EU, UK, and Canada are threatening Israel with sanctions and recognizing a State of Palestine, which is basically a reward for Oct. 7.
Affairs have further deteriorated after Israel’s bombing of a meeting of Hamas leaders in Doha last week. Everybody runs to the defense of Qatar — after all, Qatar is considered an “honest” mediator between Israel and Hamas. This is the same Qatar that is the instigator of anti-Zionism and antisemitism by infiltrating Western institutions, particularly universities and subverting the education of Western values into support for radicalism, and is also the host of Hamas leaders and financiers, including those who planned the October 7 massacre.
Do Western countries really believe that Qatar, led by an emir with three wives, with a track record of slave working conditions of its foreign workers and with funding of Hamas terrorists, deserves support?
Furthermore, the hate in Western Europe is not being directed just at Israelis (which is still wrong, since Israel is not a monolith) — but against all Jews.
Jews, and particularly Israeli Jews, are disinvited from conferences, art performances, collaborations with their colleagues, sports events, and more. They are dehumanized and physically attacked on the streets of Western cities. The Spanish Prime Minister has been attempting to throw out Israeli athletes from several competitions because they were attacked by pro-Palestinian demonstrators rather than preventing demonstrators from attacking Israelis.
What is going to happen to Jews living in the West? Will they really be protected? Overall, Western governments appear to be willing to throw their Jewish citizens under the bus. Why is that? Do they really trust Qatar as an honest mediator, and even more as the most important non-NATO ally? Do they pretend they’ve never heard about Qatar’s subversive role in Western countries and support of the Muslim Brotherhood? Are they afraid of their increasing Muslim populations due to immigration and high birth rates in their own countries? Don’t they realize that they are falling into a moral morass at an accelerating rate?
It is unclear how long Western outrage at Israel will last. Is it going to be short-lived, like when Israel bombed Iraq’s nuclear reactor in 1981? Or will the West try to humiliate Israel and force (or at least attempt to do so) a solution to the war that leaves Hamas in power and isolates Israel internationally? One can only hope that the West, led by the US, will make the right decision not only for Israel, but for all democratic countries.
Dr. Jaroslava Halper has been a professor of pathology at The University of Georgia in Athens, GA for many years. She escaped from communist Prague because of antisemitism, and lack of freedom and free speech. The gradual increase of antisemitism and anti-Zionism in certain circles in her second homeland, and the devastating October 7 massacre by Hamas, led her to realize that more active engagement is necessary to combat antisemitism, including anti-Zionism.
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Palestinian Authority: Marco Rubio’s ‘Invasion’ of the Western Wall Is a Crime Against Islam
Benjamin Netanyahou and Marco Rubio. Photo: David Azagury, US Embassy Jerusalem
On Sunday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Ambassador Mike Huckabee visited the Western Wall of the Temple Mount, together with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) was incensed by this visit, and publicized a long condemnation by the PA Jerusalem Governorate against what they called a “crime” against Islamic holy places:
The participation in these invasions by high-ranking American officials in an official capacity constitutes unacceptable collusion with the occupation’s policy, and dangerous willful blindness to the daily crimes committed against the holy city, its residents, and its holy places.
When Jews and Christians pray at the Western Wall or on the Temple Mount, the PA condemns what they call “Talmudic ceremonies.” The visit “offends the feelings of our Palestinian people”:
The Jerusalem Governorate viewed the invasion of the occupation’s Prime Minister — Benjamin Netanyahu, American Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and American Senator [sic, Ambassador] Mike Huckabee into the Western Wall plaza, and the fact that they held Talmudic ceremonies at this purely Islamic site, as a provocative step that offends the feelings of our Palestinian people and constitutes a blatant violation of the historical and legal status quo in the occupied city of Jerusalem.
Even though Muslims built a mosque in Jerusalem on the site of the Temples specifically because it was a Jewish holy site, today the PA proclaims that the Western Wall is a solely Islamic site:
The governorate emphasized that the Western Wall is an inseparable part of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and that it is part of the Islamic Waqf lands under Palestinian sovereignty. It further stressed that there is no legitimacy for any Israeli or foreign presence within it, without the approval of the relevant Palestinian authorities.
The PA even threatened that this “escalation” would have “consequences”:
The governorate warned of this escalation’s consequences on the situation on the ground within the city. It emphasized that the Palestinian people would not agree to any harm to the Arab identity of Jerusalem or its Islamic and Christian holy places, and that they would resist all attempts to impose the occupation’s sovereignty over the land and the people. The governorate called on the international community… to curb the occupation’s violations and stop the American involvement in support for the Judaization projects of the occupied city.
[PA Jerusalem Governorate, Facebook, September 14, 2025]
The author is the Founder and Director of Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article first appeared.
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What Charlie Kirk Meant to Jewish Conservatives
Charlie Kirk speaking at the inauguration of Donald Trump in January 2025. Photo: Brian Snyder via Reuters Connect
The horrific assassination of activist Charlie Kirk has left Jewish conservatives asking who will weaken the anti-Jewish hostility brewing in some corners of the far right now that Kirk has left us.
The 31-year-old, a devout Christian and founder of the organization Turning Point USA (TPUSA), understood that a society that turns on its Jews is a society that is rotting at its core.
When it came to quieting the antisemitic energies of the far right, Kirk knew that the conspiratorial scapegoating was a symptom of a serious malady, aggravated by an anxious and unhappy generation living in a digital den within an increasingly secularized America.
Kirk said that rejecting antisemitism, which he called “demonic,” was directly tied to defending Western civilization and protecting America’s Judeo-Christian identity.
That’s sadly ironic, given that many far right conspiracists online have blamed the Jewish people or Israel for Kirk’s murder.
In what may have conveyed a warning to the crop of influencers seeking to manipulate the Kirk assassination to advance their anti-Jewish objectives, US President Donald Trump released an image on Friday, showing the US leader and Kirk embracing against a backdrop of a US and Israeli flag with the caption reading, “Everybody Loved Charlie!”
Kirk’s speaking engagements at college campuses across the country drew thousands of students, admirers, and protestors. The informal open-air events provided participants with a platform to ask the late conservative influencer his thoughts on a host of issues, with many questions focused on Israel, Gaza, and the Jews.
Always respectful, Kirk carefully articulated why antisemitism is anti-Americanism.
Whether coming from the progressive left or the far right, Kirk defended Israel through a strategic and historical lens, and rejected the slew of libelous accusations leveled against the Jewish State.
Most recently, the TPUSA President exposed liberal media outlets for their role in fomenting the lie that Israel was starving the citizens of Gaza.
I just debated at Cambridge and Oxford. At Cambridge, instead of focusing on their own decaying country, they are obsessed with Israel. The lack of moral clarity on this topic is chilling. I decided to put this bouncy Brit in his place.
Watch: pic.twitter.com/RRnLiXJE2X
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) May 21, 2025
He also inspired Jewish conservatives to confront toxic positions with serious rebuttals, rather than with reflexive smears, while affirming that the path to a healthier country required responding to unsavory ideas through thoughtful and critical reason.
Acknowledging that it’s “hunting season for Jews right now in this country and that is a sick thing,” Kirk recently instructed an Israeli student who was harassed on a US campus to get “tougher.”
Indeed, he encouraged Jews to fight hate not with grievance, but with grit.
Jewish victimhood may have worked as a convenient tool of the political left, but Kirk saw the necessity and beauty in Jewish strength.
He emboldened Jewish Americans to lean into faith, and showed us that religion is the moral and divine anchor in today’s complicated and liberalized world.
Kirk advocated for issues that were in American Jews’ best interest, even as many of our own leaders resisted departing from the liberal sensibilities that undermined Jewish safety, and refused to acknowledge the dangers embedded in liberal immigration regulations.
As mainstream Jewish groups ignored the challenges associated with the increasing number of Muslims with radical ideologies entering the US, Kirk was firm in his assertion that radicalized Islam was incompatible with Western civilizational values.
Kirk granted right-leaning American Jews the space and the courage to sharpen our arguments as to why adopting strict immigration provisions was sound policy. He also defended Israel his whole life, and was an astute observer of the cracks in the emerging debate among younger conservative cohorts as it relates to safeguarding the US-Israel bond.
Warning of an “earthquake coming on this issue”, Kirk convened a focus group over the summer featuring Gen Z conservatives to discuss America’s alliance with Israel.
It was a candid discussion, and the panel provided a blueprint for what constituted “persuadable” pro-Israel arguments, and why, according to the young TPUSA supporters, focusing on shared values, radical Islamist threats, and intelligence cooperation was more of a motivator for bolstering support for Israel than unveiling public campaigns that underscored the progressive policies undertaken by the Jewish State.
The horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk has left Jewish Americans with an intense sadness over losing a friend who was critical to sidelining the anti-Jewish rumblings occurring across the cultural and political landscape.
As an Evangelical Christian, Kirk also taught American Jewry the value of adhering to our Jewish inheritance. He delivered a roadmap for how strong Jews, who commit to channeling conservative ideals through robust debate, are crucial to preserving the Judeo-Christian character of our country and will organically yield a US-Israel alliance that will be a bulwark against the enemies of Western civilization.
Irit Tratt is a writer who resides in New York. Follow her on X @Irit_Tratt.