Think Twice with Jonathan Tobin

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.”

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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.

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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.