Americans are now used to hearing chants of “globalize the intifada” in American cities and campuses. It has become so normalized that even a leading mayoral candidate in New York City feels comfortable downplaying the phrase as an expression of “a desperate desire for equality and equal rights.” That is jarring enough. But as evidence mounts of an actual intifada – an anti-Israel, Jew-hating terror campaign, waged on our shores – it is past time to take those demonstrations, and their rhetoric, seriously.
A movement that foments attacks against Jews and Israel-supporters is not a harmless expression of solidarity with Gaza. Yet, many Americans contextualize anti-Jewish violence within the framework of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and, in particular, Israel’s war on Hamas. That misses the point. There is a contingent of people in this country who despise Jews and Israel, seek to destroy both, and were simply waiting for an excuse to act on their hatred.
Israelis know what an intifada really means, because they lived it, twice. It was when every cafe, bus and nightclub in Israel was made a target for gruesome attacks against civilians. Now, Americans are learning what it looks like when “globalized.”
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Pennsylvania Democrat Governor Josh Shapiro had to evacuate his family in the middle of the night on Passover because an anti-Israel lunatic firebombed his house, ranting about the governor’s support for Israel. In Washington, DC, in May, a radical activist chanting “Free Palestine” allegedly executed two Israeli embassy staffers leaving an American Jewish Committee event.
Most recently, in Boulder, Colo., a foreign national who has been living here illegally since 2023 launched a fiery attack on demonstrators who were calling for the release of the hostages being held by Hamas. The attacker told investigators “he wanted to kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead” and that he had researched and planned the attack for more than a year, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Rather than raise a national conversation about the violent anti-Israel, Jew-hating movement, these incidents disappear into broader discussions of “antisemitism and Islamophobia” rising due to the war in Gaza. It’s as if violence against American Jews is some kind of natural outcome of Israel’s quest to free the hostages Hamas holds in brutal conditions and destroy Hamas, a terror group bent on destroying Israel.
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As a former envoy to the Middle East, I know the difference between a genuine peace movement and one that merely serves as a cover for chaos, violence and murder. But it doesn’t take an expert to see which one the globalized intifada is. Calls for “intifada” to “free Palestine from the river to the sea by any means necessary” were always incompatible with characterizing these as “anti-war,” “pro-ceasefire” protests, or a movement for “Palestinian rights,” peace or a so-called “two-state solution.”
The movement has never been about establishing a Palestinian state. It’s about destroying Israel because, the movement’s adherents fundamentally believe, Jews are not legitimate sovereigns in the land of Israel. The movement’s ideology licenses its adherents to take extreme measures to destroy Israel, including targeting Jews and Israel supporters worldwide.
Treating anti-Jewish attacks as unfortunate byproducts of geopolitical tensions reveals a dangerous misunderstanding of how antisemitism operates. Jew-hatred doesn’t emerge from policy disagreements; it’s an ancient prejudice that adapts to contemporary circumstances.
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Medieval Europeans blamed Jews for the plague. Twentieth-century fascists blamed them for economic collapse. Today’s antisemites target Jews around the world because Israel exists. The global intifada is just a rebranded version of a very old hatred. And it’s not just a Jewish problem. The global intifada does not care who it harms in its quest.
ANTISEMITIC VIOLENCE ERUPTS IN AMERICA AS SOME INVOKE INTIFADA AND TARGET JEWS
One way we can contain the problem is by keeping the intifada out. Some international students and some immigrants who were indoctrinated to hate Jews and Israel have imported intolerable bigotry. President Donald Trump deserves credit for having highlighted this issue long ago, recognizing that violent individuals crossing our borders pose a threat to our country, Jews and non-Jews alike.
But of late, the threat to Jews has become very significant. It’s alarming that these terrorists got as far as they did, and it is highly likely that there are more radicals just like them biding their time. Effective anti-intifada strategy requires deporting aliens who support violence – and keeping them out in the first place.
Hopefully by now we clearly see the danger. Anti-Jewish violence – even when cloaked as “anti-Zionist” – is not political discourse. Calling to “globalize” a campaign of civilian murder and mayhem is not part of a political debate. Targeting individuals with violence due to who they are or what they believe is a violation of every principle we hold sacred.
Those who chant “globalize the intifada” have told us exactly who they are and what they intend — it’s time we paid attention and connected the dots.
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