Hamas, Communism, and the End of America

How lethal ideologies may end our way of life

(This weekend I’ve selected a guest essay from Naya Lekht, a young teacher, author, and speaker. The piece speaks for itself. I do not necessarily agree with every single claim here, but I admire the courage and insight. --Ayaan)

Give a college student a slogan to chant or a poster to carry and witness the incredible force of student activism erupt. Students have always cared about changing the world. Fixing the climate and racial justice have lately been the causes célèbres; were they not those, they would be something else equally urgent-sounding. Add to this a map of the world wrapped around the framework of oppression and a blinkered fixation on decolonization, and we see clearly how the Hamas-Israel conflict – one spanning a tiny area the size of Raleigh, North Carolina – managed to capture the minds of America’s youth.

The slogan “all eyes on Rafah,” hatched earlier this week as the IDF entered the city, raises the question: Where were these eyes when 619,910 were killed in Syria; 150,000 killed in Yemen; 6 million killed in Congo since 1996; and nearly 20,000 Ukrainian civilians killed as of February 2023? And for those who want to end “systemic racism,” how many of those have their eyes glued to the African continent, where an estimated 7 million black people are enslaved today?

When Russia invaded Ukraine, campuses did not explode with “safe spaces for Ukrainians,” “Russians out” signage, and demands that universities divest from Russia. Statues remained untouched: no activist draped the vyshyvanka, a traditional Ukrainian garb, on a statue of a great American leader, nor unfurled the Ukrainian flag in place of an American flag. The reason is that the Hamas-Israel war, unlike the Russo-Ukrainian war, is a perfect proxy war in the larger struggle against the West itself. Indeed, unlike the Russo-Ukrainian war, which does not provide a veil for anti-Westernism, “We are Hamas,” “Intifada Revolution,” and “Long live Hamas!” have become shorthand for “down with America!”

Keffiyeh draped on Benjamin Franklin, Washington D.C., Nov. 2023

The hijacking – nay, the occupation – of campuses by Hamas sympathizers has less to do with a conflict 5,000 miles away and more to do with dethroning America. “Can we get a ‘Marg bar America?’” a keffiyeh-clad activist asked Shabbir Rivzi, a Chicago-based activist frequently appearing on Iran’s state-run TV. He was not talking about margaritas. Rivzi had just led the group in an induction ceremony, teaching a roomful of activists to chant “Marg bar Israel,” Farsi for “death to Israel” – before pivoting to “death to America” at the request of the keffiyah-clad man. The “great Satan” and the “little Satan” must, in their view, fall together.

Five years ago, chanting “death to America” and burning the American flag belonged on Iranian soil. We, in the United States, though we remembered Vietnam, had not seen such fury here for a while. Even so, those of us who oppose such actions do so wearily, knowing full-well how deeply and lastingly our enemies will always hate us.

In the spirit of Orwell’s Winston Smith, who says, “I understand HOW: I do not understand WHY,” let us then explore how and why this tiny conflict has so successfully united young people against their own country.

My answer springs from examining the strange bedfellows of antisemitism, Marxism, and Islamism. Why do these three fit so comfortably together?

Antisemitism: A Lethal Ideology

At its core, antisemitism is an ideology that views Jews as whatever is vile in the world. To save the world, “the Jew” must be exterminated. It is for this reason that Hannah Arendt wrote that, unlike many other forms of hatred, “antisemitism is genocidal.” It must be. Why? Because if you knew that there were people who conspire with the devil, engage in blood rituals with gentile children, underlie war, pollute the world, control the world, oppress the world, and enact genocide on other people – then there is no other option than to cleanse the world of them. This is why it feels so very righteous to fight the Jew, for in ridding the world of Jews, you are the superhero, the one who saves the world.

Deemed the oldest hatred, antisemitism can be traced through three distinct evolutionary eras: anti-Judaism, anti-Semitism, and anti-Zionism. Though each views the Jew distinctly, what unites these three eras is a vision in which the Jew is the violator of that which the civilization believes to be moral. In the era of anti-Judaism, Jews were seen as violating the tenets of Christianity. Not only were they guilty of killing Christ, but their continued existence threatened the success of Christianity. In the era of anti-Semitism, Jews were seen as cunning subverters, secretly controlling the world’s economy and enacting revolutions and wars. This culminated in the Nazi view that Jews violated the purity of their host peoples. In our era of anti-Zionism, the Jew (vis-à-vis Israel) violates that which we care most deeply about: namely, human rights.

Tell me what the worst thing to be is, and I will tell you what a “Jew” is. That’s how antisemitism works: with the rise of Christianity in Europe, to deny Christ was frequently a sin. The Jew symbolized that denial. For the Nazis, Bolshevism was the primary danger. The Jew was cast as Bolshevik. For the Soviets, capitalism was the greatest evil. The Jew was thus cast as the capitalist. Today, the worst thing to be is a colonizer. Today, the Jew reprises his role as a villain as Zionism and Israel are “synonymous” with the colonizer.

Antisemitism, therefore, is not a simple “othering” of people, but a deeply pathological phenomenon where the infected seek to rid the world of the Jew, only to summon him back over and over. It is perhaps for this reason that Jean-Paul Sartre writes that “if the Jew did not exist, the antisemite would have to invent him.”

For this reason, antisemitism plays a critical role in globalized ideologies. It is the first stop along the way of “Globalizing the Intifada,” the road to destroying Western civilization. 

The Red-Green Alliance: A Global Future

Much has been written on the bizarre alliance between Marxists and Islamists. And it is bizarre! Marxists and Islamists have many differences. But in the broader context of globalization, the Marxists and Islamists emerge as bedfellows, intent on spreading anti-Western, “anti-imperialist” ideologies. On the surface, this alliance may sound like a passing association of convenience. Perhaps it is. But, one would be foolish not to wonder whether the anti-Western narrative propelled by the Red-Green Alliance is founded on a shared replacement theology. It’s in the fine print. And since no vacuum remains “space-free,” the strategy of the Red-Green Alliance belongs to a broader category of warfare that seeks to dominate and govern.

As outlined by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, the threat of the Red-Green Alliance is “part of a comprehensive plan” sixty-five years in the making, in which Arab states in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s received, among other kinds, ideological support from the Soviet Union. We in the West became acutely aware of this union after 9/11. It slapped us in the face. As Michael Kelley wrote in “Marching with Stalinists,” 9/11 became that moment when Americans came face-to-face with a segment of the left that wanted the demise of the United States no less than Islamist terrorist groups.

Because the grand plan is to conquer the west, the final battle will be between the Reds and the Greens. Once the common enemy is destroyed, it’s time to fight over the spoils. That’s always how it goes. Take, for example, the Nazi-Soviet Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, which collapsed once they had conquered Poland. Similarly, the Red-Green Alliance will fold.

Who would win? It’s a difficult question, but it’s easier to see which segments of the coalition would first lose. If 20^thcentury history has taught us anything, it is that revolutions eat their children. Who were the first victims of communism in the Soviet Union? The infamous purges of the 1930’s targeted those who led the revolution. I don’t imagine the sickly cohorts calling themselves Communists today will fare better than their more robust Trotskyite forbears. The willing trumpeters who rally around slogans such as “Queers for Palestine” or “By Any Means Necessary” will soon find themselves the victims of, well, necessary means.

It would be no surprise, then, if the “Red” half of the alliance were the “useful idiot” half. For the Reds, who want to overthrow capitalism despite abundant evidence that alternatives never work, the Islamists are a welcome ally. For the Islamists, the goal is not to overthrow capitalism but to conquer Western democracies. Of course, such a future would not have a place for a sovereign Proletariat any more than actual Communist countries ever do.

One does wonder why the Reds are so naïve. Wasn’t the Iranian Revolution of 1979 a textbook case of revolution turning against, e.g. minorities and women – not to mention freedom of the press and assembly? And yes, of course leftist ideologues and theoreticians played a critical role in deposing the Shah. Foucault himself praised it, stating that Iran is the perfect location for a “first great insurrection against global systems.” In sum, Foucault’s infantile worldview contributed to one of history’s great heists: that by an Islamic ideology, once heralded by progressives, that now tortures and jails them.

Why hasn’t the Red left woken up to any of this? Do they not realize they have no children, and that Islamists have many? Do they not see what happens to people like them in Muslim countries?

Some do, and some do not. But most are blinded by a common hatred. The WHY of this deadly alliance brings us back to the role that antisemitism plays in uniting Marxists and Islamists. Marxists and the Islamists unite around a shared fear of the Jew. This is why Marxists smash statues and vandalize libraries to advance the Palestinian cause: because the Jew is white and privileged – the worst things to be. The Jew is a synecdoche for all that is evil. For the Islamist, conversely, the Jew represents the dhimmi who dares to govern as sovereign in what they deem to be “indisputable” Muslim lands.

And the Islamists are not fools. They know how to stoke their common hatred. The strand of antisemitism shipped to the West is clad in anti-colonial costume. To their sophomoric allies on college campuses, Islamists brand Jews as colonists and racists; when alone, an entirely different strand of antisemitism takes form: Jews are apes and pigs, unworthy of living as equals in the Middle East.

It's a ruse. Its victims, of course, will be the willing participants who chant “Free Palestine” and “Globalize the Intifada.” But the victims will also be those who minimized campus antisemitism, those who looked away as American flags burned on American streets, and an entire generation of freedom-loving Westerners who know little of the grandiose replacement plans set in motion by radical Islamists.

Hope Lies in Intellectual Courage

Those freedom-loving Westerners yet to understand the dangers of antisemitism, Marxism, and Islamism must awaken, or we are doomed. Like a sharpshooter, we have one eye fixed on the threat of right-wing fascism. That is well and good. But we keep one eye on this danger so obsessively that the other eye is kept tightly shut. Time to open up. It is time for schools to really educate on the terror of all tyrannical ideologies. This means having the courage to inveigh against the zeitgeist: to preach truth at the cost of upsetting progressive sensibilities and all the terrible consequences that entails. The consequences of not doing so are, I’m afraid, even worse.

Yes, keep an eye on Rafah. But don’t forget everywhere else. All eyes on Sudan! All eyes on October 7! All eyes on Syria! All eyes on the rampant slavery on the African continent. All eyes on D.E.I. initiatives. All eyes on China! All eyes on Iran! All eyes on Qatar! All eyes on Marxist demagoguery! And yes, all eyes on radical Islam!

We must, therefore, throw ourselves into educating our youth, our leaders, and our journalists about the dangers of antisemitism, for antisemitism is not just a Jewish problem. Recall Sartre: it has more to do with the antisemite than the Jew. Moreover, its primary victim is not always the Jew, but frequently the host civilization. This latest variant, anti-Zionism, has been quietly traveling within our most important institutions, schools, universities, and media, infecting hearts and minds along the way.

We must do as good, if not better, a job of educating about the tyranny of Marxism as we have of educating about fascism. Our schools must dedicate time to studying the bloody history of the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, North Korea, and Vietnam: communist countries that, together, took the lives of roughly 100 million people! We must take students to museums dedicated to education on communism. The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation opened the first-ever museum in Washington, D.C., in 2021. We need more. At such places, students can interact with primary sources and visit the permanent exhibits that detail the rise of an ideology that hollowed out a century of humanity.

Finally, we must educate ourselves and others on the dangers of radical Islam. People must read Bernard Lewis, the influential scholar on Islam. We must trace the rise of political Islam; ask the difficult questions, the ones few dare to raise. And we must find voices of courage, those who defected from the tyranny of radical Islam. They exist.

Hope lies with education – with the pedagogy of the free and the brave.