Transcript [00:00] Hey everyone, I want to react to a clip [00:01] from Victor Davis Hanson. He put this [00:04] out recently for the Daily Signal. This [00:06] is an excerpt from a longer piece. I'm [00:08] just picking it up in the middle. And I [00:09] want to share some thoughts on a few on [00:12] a few of the things he says, and I'll [00:13] share them as we go. So, let's get into [00:17] it. Let's first make this a little bit [00:19] bigger for you. And away we go. [00:23] There had traditionally been about, oh, [00:26] 6 to 7% of the population was Jewish. [00:30] And maybe 1% was Muslim. [00:34] And that has radically changed now. [00:37] Uh, mostly through immigration and the [00:40] Muslim birth rate in the United States [00:42] is about 2.6 [00:44] and the all other, um, [00:46] ethnic groups, white, black, it's about [00:49] 1.7. [00:51] And that population is about five, uh, 5 [00:55] million and it's projected to increase [00:58] to a number higher than the Jewish [01:00] population. But you can see the trends [01:01] already. And then you have to factor [01:03] into [01:04] that it's very hard for a Muslim to be [01:07] secular, agnostic, atheistic, atheistic, [01:10] Christian. But in the case of Jews, [01:13] they're more and more are being [01:14] secularized or intermarrying much more. [01:17] And their support of Israel is not [01:19] contingent on their being Jewish. [01:21] More importantly, we've we're getting [01:24] billions of dollars. The UAE, [01:27] Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia are among the [01:29] top five, um, donate donators, donors to [01:34] universities in America. And they found [01:36] found Middle East they have founded [01:39] Middle East studies programs. And those [01:42] are not Middle East studies programs, [01:43] they're indoctrination center for the [01:46] entire student body. [01:47] So, demography means that people feel [01:50] that in states like Michigan, the future [01:52] will be you have to say something, [01:55] um, critical of Israel. I we remember El [01:58] Sayed, the candidate in the Democratic [02:01] primary, said he didn't want to really [02:04] criticize anything about Iran, and if he [02:06] said anything positive about the United [02:08] States taking out or Israel taking out [02:11] this atrocious leader Khomeini, the [02:13] supreme leader, then his his [02:15] constituency [02:17] in [02:18] Michigan would be upset. That was kind [02:20] of an an admission that, um, [02:24] there's a growing minority in America [02:26] that hates Israel, and they have a lot [02:28] of money, and they are gaining political [02:30] cloud, and that's going to increase. [02:32] What we see in the universities is going [02:33] to be mainstreamed into society at [02:35] large. [02:38] Okay, so he's talking about [02:39] anti-Semitism. That's the subject of [02:42] um, [snorts] of his video. [02:46] So, he makes two points in the section I [02:48] just showed you. The first is about DEI. [02:52] Um, the [02:54] the protected class framework does [02:57] create a permission structure for [02:59] anti-Semitism on the left. And I don't [03:02] dispute that, but the second point that [03:03] the the Gulf money [03:05] flowing into American universities, [03:07] that's actually the more important [03:08] point. And I think he almost buries it. [03:10] He mentions it and he moves on. [03:12] And I want to stay here a little longer [03:13] because this deserves more attention. [03:15] Qatar, [03:16] uh, is really the main is is like the [03:18] largest donor to American universities. [03:20] He didn't even mention them. [03:22] Um, and they and they don't just write [03:24] checks, they they build infrastructure, [03:26] they fund whole departments in the in [03:28] the universities, they hire faculty, [03:30] they shape curricula. And and what comes [03:32] out of that investment? [03:34] A generation of students at a lot of [03:36] major American universities who've been [03:38] taught a very specific narrative about [03:40] Israel and about the Middle East. [03:42] And about who the victims and villains [03:44] are. They pour a lot of money into the [03:45] Ivies, and we saw all about like the Ivy [03:47] League schools. And everyone remembers [03:49] the famous hearings [03:51] about anti-Semitism on those campuses. [03:54] So, this is all not by accident. It's a [03:55] strategy that's employed by the enemies [03:57] of Israel pouring [04:00] billions of dollars into American [04:02] academia. Okay, it's part of their [04:04] strategy and it worked. We'll come back [04:05] to this [04:06] because the story of the Gulf money [04:07] doesn't end at university campuses, not [04:09] by a long shot. [04:11] Okay, let's take a look at the the next [04:13] thing that uh [04:14] VDH has to say. [04:17] Third is the Democratic Party is not [04:20] democratic anymore. As I've said before, [04:21] it has a Jacobin agenda, a French [04:24] revolutionary party agenda. It's not [04:27] just that they want to tear down statues [04:29] and rename buildings and [04:31] change the foundational date to 1619. [04:33] But those were all Jacobin trademarks. [04:36] But they have a [04:38] a holistic socialist [04:40] agenda. Open borders, [04:43] illegal immigration mainstream, [04:46] mass amnesties, [04:48] no cash uh bail, [04:50] critical legal theory, [04:52] DEI, [04:54] and cuts massive cuts in defense, uh [04:58] raising taxes and more entitlements, of [05:01] course, in the new green deal. But [05:02] embedded in that agenda [05:05] is anti-Israelism [05:07] and indifference to anti-Semitism. [05:10] I say embedded because though that's a [05:12] non-negotiable agenda. If you want to be [05:15] nominated for an office in the [05:17] Democratic Party, you can't come out for [05:19] pipelines [05:20] or more drilling, drill baby drill. [05:23] You can't say we need tougher um [05:26] criminal prosecutions. You can't say [05:30] I love the wall, it's a good idea. You [05:32] can't say anything. And by that [05:34] same reasoning, you cannot say you [05:37] support wholeheartedly Israel. Anybody [05:39] who does so in the Democratic Party, [05:41] like John Fetterman, the [05:43] >> [snorts] [05:43] >> senior senator from Pennsylvania, [05:45] becomes persona non grata in his own [05:47] party. [05:49] Finally, there is a a sense that the [05:52] institutions in the United States that [05:54] bequeath [05:56] uh [05:56] laurels and mainstreaming and adulation, [06:00] they're all they're all left-wing. [06:02] Uh all the awards are left-wing, all the [06:04] book reviews, the major venues are [06:06] left-wing, the major media is left-wing. [06:09] And a lot of people feel that they've [06:12] been pelted with this left-wing hail [06:15] storm, and at some point they get tired, [06:17] and they want to come out of the storm. [06:19] And so we've seen people at The Bulwark, [06:21] for example, who have flipped over, [06:23] and now they're they they receive [06:26] adulation. [06:27] So, when Tucker Carlson said he was [06:29] going to [06:31] interview a number of really strident [06:33] anti-Semites and um [06:36] anti-Israelis, and he wants to have [06:38] Graham Plasterer, the notorious nominee, [06:40] would-be nominee, he is the nominee now [06:43] from Maine who had a total Mekauf death [06:45] heads [06:46] Nazi tattoo on him, then there were [06:48] people he immediately won a New York [06:51] Times interview. The New Yorker wants to [06:53] interview him. Atlanta writes about him. [06:56] They would not have touched Tucker [06:57] Carlson two years. So, there's a sense [06:59] that [07:00] in this growing momentum, a lot of [07:02] people want to piggyback on it, whether [07:04] for clicks, especially foreign audiences [07:07] were starting to learn that a lot of our [07:09] people on the left that hate Israel, and [07:11] a lot of the people on the right that do [07:14] uh get enormous audiences overseas, [07:17] mostly from the Middle East. So, you add [07:19] this all together, and [07:22] for many people without strong [07:23] convictions, they look at the the [07:26] ledger, and they say, "Well, the DEI [07:29] community [07:30] is anti-Israel, and probably many of [07:33] them think they can be anti-Semitic [07:35] Semitic without consequences. The [07:38] demography is there, the money is there, [07:41] the whole left-wing agenda uh [07:43] is a parcel, so you can't really defect [07:45] from it. You have to embrace it if [07:47] you're a Democrat. [07:48] And there's some money to be made, or [07:51] there's some power to be gained, or [07:53] there's some approval to be had. [07:57] Okay, let's pause it there. [08:00] Um [08:02] She's talking about the incentives. [08:05] The incentive structure that exists, [08:07] right? [08:08] Now, he's right that the Democratic [08:09] Party has shifted dramatically on [08:11] Israel, and he mentions Senator John [08:13] Fetterman from Pennsylvania. He's [08:14] absolutely paid a price [08:16] for being openly pro-Israel in his own [08:18] party. That's real. But I want to push [08:21] back a little on the framing here. You [08:22] see, [08:25] uh he presents this almost entirely as a [08:27] left-wing problem, right? A Jacobin [08:29] socialist agenda that has anti-Semitism [08:31] baked into it [08:32] as a package deal. And I think that [08:34] framing, while partly true, [08:37] actually lets the right off the hook in [08:39] a way that's [08:41] that uh is not really honest. It's not [08:43] really accurate. Because here's what's [08:45] also happening. On the right, in the [08:47] MAGA world, in conservative media, [08:50] we're seeing the same rot spreading. [08:52] Just it has a different uh [08:54] a different veneer, a different [08:55] aesthetic. [08:57] Right? It's attached to different issues [08:59] at times. Like so, [09:01] I I've talked about this a lot on this [09:03] channel, like about Tucker Carlson and [09:04] Candace Owens and and others who have [09:06] spent the last couple of years [09:07] platforming Holocaust revisionism, [09:09] conspiracy theories about Jewish power, [09:12] and open hostility to Christian Zionism [09:14] is a one other theme. [09:16] Right? So, they call it like just asking [09:18] questions, right? It's a little [09:19] different than the left-wing flavor. [09:21] Um [09:23] But here's what I think is driving it on [09:25] the right, because it's not the same [09:26] mechanism as on the left. On the left, [09:28] it's the DEI, the victimhood politics [09:31] that that being anti-Israel fits into, [09:34] the oppressor-oppressed binary. [09:36] But on the right, it's it's something [09:38] different. It's a different type of [09:39] grievance. It's economic grievance, [09:41] right? There's a generation of young [09:42] conservatives, [09:44] you know, Gen Z Maga, who are genuinely [09:46] struggling. They can't afford a home. [09:48] They feel locked out of the economy. [09:51] They feel locked out of [09:52] institutions. They [09:54] They feel locked out of a future that [09:55] their parents took for granted. [09:58] So, that's And that's so real. There's a [09:59] lot of legitimacy to that frustration. [10:01] But Tucker, Candace, and others have [10:03] found a way to capitalize on that [10:05] frustration, to redirect it. The [10:07] message, sometimes explicit, sometimes [10:10] implied, is that the reason that you [10:12] can't get ahead is because someone else [10:15] has a stranglehold on the system. This [10:16] is what Charlie was very much speaking [10:20] out against, even though he embraced [10:22] some of the anti-Israel narratives, you [10:24] know, he he he did waver on certain [10:26] points about Israel. That's well known. [10:29] But [10:30] but he he absolutely called out what was [10:33] being the this blaming the Jews uh [10:36] culture that was taking hold on the [10:38] right. [10:40] So, it's the same old grievance politics [10:41] just wearing a Maga hat instead of a [10:43] kaffiyeh. [10:45] It's a different aesthetic, but it's the [10:47] same construct, right? Blaming the Jews. [10:51] So, when Victor Davis Hanson mentions [10:52] that some people on the right are [10:54] getting clicks and foreign audiences by [10:56] being anti-Israel and getting paid or [10:58] whatever, he's right, but but that's he [11:02] only talks about the surface aspect of [11:03] it, right? He says it almost says an [11:05] aside, but I think it's actually central [11:07] to what's happening in terms of the [11:09] American attitude towards the Jews and [11:12] Israel today. [11:13] Okay, we'll come back to this in a bit. [11:15] Let's finish off the clip. There's only [11:16] a little bit of it left. [11:18] Let me go back to it. Here we are. [11:23] You add it all up and we're going to see [11:26] uh a lot more anti-Semitism. And the [11:28] final irony, the so-called bigot Donald [11:30] Trump, the so-called racist Donald [11:32] Trump. [11:34] He's a He He has admitted he's probably [11:36] going to be the last president that [11:37] wholeheartedly supports Israel. For now, [11:40] he is the last dam holding back this [11:42] deluge. Thank you very much. [11:45] Okay, there we go. That's his final [11:47] point. [11:48] Let's pull this down. [11:51] And we can be done with that. [11:55] So, he ends off [11:57] talking about Trump as the last dam [11:59] holding back the deluge. [12:01] And look, I appreciate that Trump has [12:03] been genuinely good on Israel, [12:05] especially compared to what we would [12:06] have gotten otherwise. That's very real, [12:09] and I [12:10] But I want to come back to something [12:11] that Victor Davis Hanson touched on [12:13] earlier and I didn't and and he didn't [12:15] fully develop. Right, the Gulf money [12:17] issue. Because now I want to connect it [12:18] to something that should make everyone [12:20] watching this deeply uncomfortable. [12:22] One of the oldest anti-Semitic [12:24] conspiracy theories in existence, and [12:26] this is we're seeing it now again, is [12:28] that Jews secretly control the media, [12:30] the banks, the governments, right? [12:32] Shadowy Jewish influence pulling the [12:33] strings behind the scenes. [12:36] Right, that's what you hear. It's in the [12:38] It's the Protocols of the Elders of [12:39] Zion. It's in a thousand different [12:41] versions of it across a thousand years [12:42] of history. [12:44] Right, and today you hear it constantly [12:45] from certain voices on the left and on [12:47] the right. But let me ask you something. [12:51] When you [12:53] when you actually follow the money, [12:55] when you look at who's spending enormous [12:57] sums to shape what Americans think about [12:59] Israel [13:00] and the Middle East, [13:03] what do you find? Who's at the front of [13:05] the line? [13:06] So, Qatar paid a lobbying firm called [13:08] Luminate Advisors, [13:10] a lobbying firm, [13:12] paid them $180,000 [13:14] a month. [13:15] And that firm's only documented activity [13:18] on their FARA registration form, the [13:19] Foreign Agents Registration Act, the [13:21] public record, is a single interview [13:24] between Tucker Carlson and the Qatari [13:26] Prime Minister. [13:27] That's it. One interview, $180,000 a [13:30] month. [13:31] Or you have the you have this tech [13:32] billionaire with Pakistani and Iranian [13:34] roots, [13:35] um Malik, who poured millions of dollars [13:38] into Tucker's new network when he left [13:40] Fox. [13:41] So, if you want to start making [13:43] conspiracy theories about who is pouring [13:45] money into influence operations, [13:47] this is public record. [13:49] And then there's all the funding to the [13:50] academic institutions as I talked about. [13:55] All right, this is the actual influence [13:57] operation targeting American media and [13:59] opinion, not Jews. [14:01] Qatar, the same Qatar that hosts Hamas's [14:04] political leadership [14:06] and funds Al Jazeera, which is [14:07] incredibly popular among young [14:09] Americans. [14:10] The people screaming the loudest about [14:12] Jewish control of everything are in many [14:14] cases consuming content that was [14:17] purchased by the governments that fund [14:19] Israel's enemies, foreign governments. [14:24] Now, why does this work? Why do these [14:26] messages land? Why do people on the left [14:29] and right find themselves from [14:30] completely different starting points [14:32] arriving at the same hostility towards [14:34] Israel and toward Jews? [14:36] And this is where I think uh [14:38] Victor Davis Hanson's analysis, as sharp [14:41] as it is, stops short. Cuz he explains [14:43] the left Islamist alliance as a DEI [14:46] coalition. Shared victimhood politics, [14:48] oppressor oppressed binary. [14:50] That's part of it, but I'd argue that [14:52] the convergence between the radical left [14:54] and political Islam runs much deeper [14:57] than political convenience. [14:59] These two movements share a common [15:01] enemy. They are both at their core [15:03] hostile to the same idea. [15:06] The idea of the free individual, the [15:08] morally accountable, [15:10] covenantally connected to God [15:13] individual, [15:14] and the relationship of that person to [15:16] to a society, [15:18] which [15:20] the American idea is a biblical [15:22] construct. It's in tune with [15:24] Christianity with Judaism. [15:28] That's what Western civilization at its [15:29] best was built on and that is what [15:31] Israel represents not just as a state [15:34] but as a living embodiment of that idea [15:36] in history. Both Marxism and political [15:38] Islam [15:39] are systems of imposed order. [15:43] One through revolutionary ideology, one [15:45] through this [15:47] this uh [15:49] what passes for theology this uh [15:52] this uh mass megalomania [15:55] ideology called Islam. [15:58] And what both of them cannot tolerate is [16:00] a world in which individual human beings [16:03] are free to choose to dissent [16:05] to say no. [16:07] So that's why the you know [16:09] you have to realize that that the that [16:11] the bond between them goes much deeper [16:14] than pragmatics when you see [16:17] leftist activist tearing down posters of [16:21] Israeli civilian hostages being held by [16:23] Hamas. [16:25] Like what the motivation there. [16:28] The existence of Jewish victims [16:30] contradicted their narrative so they had [16:33] to tear down those posters [16:35] cuz the narrative must be protected. [16:38] Now I want to end this video with [16:40] something well you before I end the [16:41] video, please make sure you subscribe to [16:43] this channel. Please make sure you [16:44] subscribe to Israel 365 news YouTube [16:47] channel [16:48] and go into the link in the description [16:50] of this video and make sure that you [16:53] that you subscribe to the newsletters at [16:55] Israel 365 action and Israel 365 news so [16:58] that you're up to date. You cannot rely [17:00] on the algorithm sending you truth about [17:02] what's going on in Israel. [17:04] And and also make sure that you're that [17:06] you're following my podcast shoulder to [17:08] shoulder with Pastor Doug Reed. We start [17:10] we started uploading them on this [17:11] channel and there's a playlist for the [17:12] shoulder to shoulder podcast or you You [17:15] find the archive going back five years [17:17] on any podcast platform. Now, I want to [17:20] end this video with something that is [17:21] actually important for perspective [17:24] on this whole issue [17:26] of anti-Semitism. For Jews watching this [17:29] and for [17:31] and for Americans watching this [17:33] really mainly. [17:35] History is very clear on what [17:36] anti-Semitism means for a society. [17:42] I I've talked about this on this channel [17:44] before. [17:46] Anti-Semitism is not just a moral [17:48] failing. [17:49] It is a symptom, a glaring [17:53] you know, five alarm symptom [17:56] of civilizational decay. Okay, that is a [17:58] pattern in history. [18:00] Every society that has gone down this [18:02] road [18:03] whether it's medieval Europe, Nazi [18:05] Germany, the Soviet Union [18:09] the radical Islamist regimes of today. [18:12] It's all followed the same pattern. [18:14] Instead of asking how do we solve our [18:16] problems, you start asking who do we [18:19] blame? [18:23] And Jews [18:24] who are never the majority, so they're [18:27] always seen as outsiders and they tend [18:30] to be very successful. [18:34] Jews are targeted. [18:36] Once you go down the road of asking who [18:38] do we blame for our problems, the [18:39] intellectual rot sets in. [18:42] Self [18:43] self-accountability, accountability [18:45] disappears and the society begins to [18:48] consume itself. [18:50] The Jews were never the cause of the [18:51] problems. They were the excuse for not [18:54] fixing the problems. [18:57] So, here's what I want to say to my [18:58] fellow Jews [18:59] watching this. [19:02] We have been through far worse than [19:04] this, far worse. [19:05] Empires that made today's social media [19:07] mobs look trivial have come for have [19:10] come for us and we have prevailed and [19:13] they're gone. [19:14] We're still here. We will be fine. [19:19] The people that I'm worried about are [19:20] Americans because if America goes down [19:23] this anti-Semitism road, if this poison [19:25] takes hold on the right and on the left [19:27] simultaneously and if it gets [19:29] normalized, if the Tucker Carlsons and [19:31] the campus radicals between them manage [19:34] to make Jew hatred respectable, America [19:37] is the one that loses. [19:40] Not just morally. [19:44] America will lose civilizationally. [19:47] That's what history tells us. [19:49] And that brings me to the final point I [19:50] want to make and this is the most [19:51] personal one for me. [19:53] If you want to know why I've dedicated [19:55] so much of my life to building stronger [19:57] relationships between the [19:59] the Jewish community and Christians, [20:01] Christian leadership, the Christian [20:03] communities, [20:04] this is why. [20:05] Right here, what I just described. [20:07] Because when I look at the landscape, [20:09] the campus left, the Gulf-funded [20:11] influence operations, the Gen Z right [20:13] that's being fed anti-Semitism disguised [20:15] as populism, [20:17] and I ask myself, where is the reservoir [20:21] of genuine, deeply rooted support for [20:24] Israel and for Jews in America? If there [20:26] is one left, where is it? And the honest [20:29] answer is it's in the Bible-believing [20:31] Christian community, full stop. [20:35] That's where it is and it is the only [20:37] community large enough, grounded enough, [20:40] and motivated by something deep enough [20:41] to actually turn this around if there's [20:45] any chance. [20:47] But here's the thing. [20:49] That reservoir only holds if the faith [20:52] holds. [20:53] A Christianity that is biblically [20:55] literate, that reads the Bible [20:57] seriously, [20:59] that understands the covenant, that [21:00] knows what Israel means in the story of [21:02] God and humanity, [21:05] that Christianity is naturally, [21:07] organically, theologically [21:09] going to be pro-Jewish and pro-Israel. [21:12] Not because of politics, but because of [21:15] faith and values. [21:17] But a Christianity, an American [21:19] Christianity that drifts from its [21:20] biblical roots, [21:22] that that is hollowed out by secularism, [21:25] or replaced by a kind of therapeutic, [21:28] feel-good spirituality. [21:32] S- salvation without any biblical [21:36] grounding and biblical concept of God's [21:40] of what God is doing in history. [21:42] That comes from biblical literacy. [21:45] A Christianity [21:47] Christianity can go down a path where it [21:49] has no immune system [21:52] to defend against these [21:54] mind viruses. [21:56] It has no answer to the grievance [21:58] narrative. [21:59] It can turn Christianity into a [22:01] grievance narrative. [22:05] That Christianity would have no [22:06] framework for understanding why Israel [22:08] matters, cuz you need to read the Bible [22:10] to encounter the God of history. [22:13] So, when I say the only real chance to [22:15] turn this around is a resurgence of [22:17] biblical faith and biblical literacy in [22:20] the Christian church, I mean that. [22:23] And I'm not saying this to flatter my [22:24] Christian friends and partners [22:27] as an honest assessment of the [22:28] situation. [22:29] That's why I'm saying it. And this is [22:31] why I'm calling on the Jewish community, [22:33] my community, to wake up to this. I know [22:35] it's uncomfortable. I know Jews have [22:37] historically been wary of Christian [22:38] interest in Israel. [22:41] And there's reasons for that. [22:44] And there are red lines that we do not [22:46] cross. But this moment demands that we [22:48] get past the weariness and engage [22:50] seriously, positively, generously with [22:54] the Christians who stand with us. And [22:56] our assessment of who's friend and who's [22:58] foe is which side of the civilizational [23:00] struggle are you on? [23:03] These are not alliances of convenience. [23:05] Right now, [23:06] this is the most significant community [23:08] of genuine support we have left in [23:11] America, period. [23:13] Victor Davis Hanson ends by saying that [23:15] Trump is the last dam. [23:16] Okay, dams can break. The Jews will be [23:19] fine. We always have been in the end, [23:21] but if America wants to be fine, [23:24] the renewal has to start somewhere. And [23:27] I believe with everything I have that it [23:29] starts with the Bible. [23:31] And it starts with the faith community [23:33] getting its head straight. [23:36] All right, that's what I have to say [23:37] here. Thank you very much for watching. [23:39] Please share this video, like, and [23:40] subscribe if you're not already. And as [23:42] always, [23:43] God bless you.
