Rahel-Rosa Reubeni contributed to the idea for this article.
Antisemitism and Islamism
Hardly a day passes without Israel, Jews or antisemitism in the news.
In today’s media economy, no Israel, no Jews, no outrage – no news.
The propaganda war against Israel and the Jewish people has become a global business. It feeds activists, academics, media outlets, political movements and international organizations.
But antisemitism is not the whole story.
The deeper issue is Islamism.
Islamism is creeping into public life, education, politics, media and international institutions. Antisemitism gives it cover. Anti-Israel propaganda gives it language. The Palestinian cause gives it a convenient mask.
That is why the West must look beyond the slogans.
The Elimination of Christians
Why is so little said about Christians being driven out of the Middle East and Africa?
The Church once thrived across the Middle East and North Africa. Today, Christians in many parts of those regions face pressure, discrimination, violence and emigration.
Open Doors’ 2026 World Watch List again identified countries across the Middle East and Africa among the most dangerous places for Christians.
In some countries, Christians face open violence.
In others, they face restrictions, social pressure, discriminatory laws, family intimidation or state harassment.
Iran is one example. It is a theocracy where Christian practice remains heavily restricted, especially for converts from Islam.
Yet the West rarely treats the disappearance of Christians as a central human rights story.
That silence is revealing.
Bethlehem and the Disappearing Christians
Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
That fact alone should make Bethlehem’s Christian decline a global story.
In the early 20th century, Bethlehem and its surrounding villages were overwhelmingly Christian. By the 1950s, the area was still widely reported as about 86% Christian.
By 2016, former Bethlehem mayor Vera Baboun said Christians had fallen to about 12% of Bethlehem’s population.
The reasons are complex.
Christians left because of emigration, economic pressure, political instability, security fears and social pressure under Palestinian Authority rule.
But the result is clear.
A city central to Christianity has lost much of its Christian character, while much of the Western media looks elsewhere.
Qatar, Universities and the New Campus Antisemitism
Islamist influence is no longer confined to mosques, activist groups or Middle Eastern politics.
It has entered American campuses through money, ideology and political pressure.
The U.S. Department of Education reported $67.6 billion in disclosed foreign funding to American universities since Section 117 reporting began. In 2025 disclosures, Qatar ranked as the largest foreign source of reportable gifts and contracts, with more than $1.1 billion reported that year.
Other reporting based on federal dashboard data placed Qatar’s cumulative university funding much higher, at about $6.6 billion.
That does not prove every university receiving Qatari money became anti-Israel.
But it raises a serious question.
What does Qatar receive for that money?
Qatar has long pursued influence abroad through media, diplomacy, education and political access. Its university funding should therefore be examined as part of a wider influence strategy.
At the same time, Jewish students have faced rising hostility on American campuses since the October 7 Hamas attacks.
Foreign money does not need to buy every professor, student group or administrator.
It only needs to shape the climate in which anti-Israel ideology becomes respectable and antisemitism becomes easier to excuse.
The damage is immense.
The Cover-Up
Islamic antisemitism is a key factor in the Islamist war against the modern world.
It is not the same as ordinary criticism of Israeli policy. It is not a policy debate. It is a fusion of older Islamic anti-Judaism, modern European antisemitism and contemporary anti-Zionist propaganda.
The result is a political weapon.
It paints Israel as the world’s villain. It paints Jews as oppressors. It paints Islamists as victims. It turns terrorists into activists and democratic allies into criminals.
That is the cover-up.
The West is told to focus only on antisemitism as a social problem. But too often, the engine behind it is Islamist ideology and the political movements that excuse it.
The DSA and the Anti-Israel Formula
The Democratic Socialists of America has become one of the most visible anti-Israel movements in American politics.
The DSA formally endorsed the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel in 2017.
After the October 7 Hamas attacks, the group described the massacre as “not unprovoked” and called it a direct result of Israel’s “apartheid regime.”
That was not moral clarity.
That was ideological inversion.
The DSA and its allies often claim they are only criticizing Israel. But the formula is familiar. Israel is accused of every evil. Hamas is softened. Jewish fear is dismissed. Zionism is treated as racism. Terrorism becomes “resistance.”
That is how antisemitism moves from the street into polite politics.
Mamdani and the Anti-Israel Movement
Zohran Mamdani is now mayor of New York City.
He is also a democratic socialist and a prominent Muslim politician who has associated himself with the pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel movement.
Mamdani took his oath of office on a Quran, a symbolic act widely reported at the time.
The problem is not his religion.
The problem is his politics.
Mamdani’s rise shows how the anti-Israel movement has moved from campus activism into the leadership of America’s largest city.
That should concern every American who understands where this road can lead.
Islamism’s Allies in Congress
The anti-Israel formula has also entered Congress.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib became known as members of “The Squad.” Their political circle helped normalize hard-left anti-Israel rhetoric inside the Democratic Party.
Omar and Tlaib became two of Congress’s most prominent anti-Israel voices. Critics repeatedly accused them of crossing the line from criticism of Israel into antisemitism.
The 119th Congress includes four Muslim House members: André Carson, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Lateefah Simon.
Religion alone is not the issue.
The issue is ideology, rhetoric and selective outrage.
When Israel is condemned constantly, but Islamist violence is excused or minimized, the pattern is obvious.
The Keffiyeh as Political Symbol
The keffiyeh began as traditional Arab dress.
In the West, it has become a protest symbol.
At anti-Israel rallies, it often functions as shorthand for Palestinian nationalism, anti-Zionism and, in some circles, Islamist solidarity.
Symbols matter.
They tell people which side is being honored, which history is being erased, and which violence is being excused.
The UN’s Anti-Israel Obsession
The United Nations has turned anti-Israel bias into routine business.
UN Watch reported that from 2015 through 2024, the UN General Assembly adopted 173 resolutions against Israel and 80 against all other countries combined.
That imbalance is not accidental.
Many anti-Israel resolutions are pushed by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, whose 57 member states represent Muslim-majority countries.
Compared with the rest of the world, the UN’s condemnation of Israel is wildly disproportionate.
The UN claims to stand for peace and human rights.
But its obsession with Israel has made it one of the world’s loudest institutional drivers of anti-Israel bias.
That bias feeds global antisemitism.
The Arieh King Case
Arieh King is the deputy mayor of Jerusalem.
In August 2026, King planned to visit Canada and the United States.
Ahead of his Canada visit, his Canadian travel authorization was cancelled, according to The Jerusalem Post. King said he received no explanation.
Then the Hind Rajab Foundation announced on August 25, 2026, that it had submitted a request to the U.S. Justice Department seeking criminal proceedings against King.
The group accused him of involvement in what it described as a “war crime of illegal population transfer” and “incitement to genocide.”
This is lawfare.
It is a campaign to restrict the movement of Israeli officials, intimidate Jewish leaders and criminalize support for Israel’s security and sovereignty.
There is no more freedom of movement when it comes to Jews and Israelis.
That is how antisemitism now operates.
It does not always wear a swastika. Sometimes it arrives as activism, lawfare, campus protest, UN resolution or human rights language.
Antisemitism Is the Cover
Anti-Israel propaganda is not only about Israel.
It is about the West.
Islamists understand that antisemitism works as a political weapon. It divides societies. It intimidates Jews. It silences Christians. It frightens politicians. It corrupts universities. It turns terrorists into activists and democratic allies into villains.
That is why the West must not lose focus.
The agents of Islamism constantly contaminate the modern world by creating conflict, confusion and distraction.
The West must not fall into these traps.
Antisemitism is not the end of the story.
It is the cover.