OpEd: Incoming Trump Administration to Fight Antisemitism and Illegal Activities against Israel

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania — Pam Bondi is off to a promising start as President-elect Donald J. Trump’s designated nominee for attorney general. The former Florida attorney general urged the expulsion of noncitizens who support Hamas and other terrorist groups.

Potential Trump cabinet member Lee Zeldin confirmed that someone threatened his family with a pipe bomb accompanied by a pro-Palestinian message.

What can we expect once Trump is sworn in as president on Jan. 20? It is clear that the Trump administration will participate in an emerging crackdown on the anti-Israel drive in America and elsewhere in North America. Will there be much pushback from pro-Palestinian factions? It would not surprise anyone.

Center-left Jews are among the 74 million Americans who voted for Vice President Kamala Harris on Nov. 5, and we fear what Trump will do as president, but he can be helpful to us by ensuring that he stands up to anti-Israel and antisemitic activists. Offenders must be punished.

Strategy to control pro-Palestinian protests is already falling into place. Colleges have enacted stringent policies against demonstrations while the Trump administration could be addressing campus antisemitism and assaults on Jews.

America must no longer tolerate the disruptions caused by this movement, which worsened after the Oct. 7 (2023) massacre of 1,200 Israelis. They definitely have an agenda which, while it may be uncertain, could mean an anti-Israel takeover of our country. Any crackdown should apply to lawbreakers and illegal activity – not law-abiding Muslims and Arabs or programs protected by the First Amendment.

Bondi signaled that Israel-bashers should watch their backs when she appeared on Newsmax in October 2023 to say, “The thing that’s really the most troubling to me (are) these students in universities in our country, whether they’re here as Americans or if they’re here on student visas, and they’re out there saying ‘I support Hamas.’

“Frankly they need to be taken out of our country, or the FBI needs to be interviewing them right away,” she added. “It’s truly, truly heartbreaking to see what’s happening to all of our Jewish friends in this country by really just, I think, a lot of ignorant kids, and students, and people who don’t understand that Hamas equals terrorism.”

Deporting troublemakers seems natural. We welcome foreigners and they enjoy all the benefits that America can provide, including freedom of speech. It stops being freedom of speech when they violate our nation’s laws via a range of illegal protests that threaten public safety or activate a pattern of harassing Jewish students. It would be an effective tactic if Bondi utilizes it.

Perhaps voicing support of Hamas should not be grounds by itself for expelling protesters, but Bondi is right that the FBI should meet with them to learn if their attitudes translate to crimes.

Bondi earned the stalwart respect of a Jewish Democrat, former U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler of Florida, who told Jewish Insider, “She is somebody whose heart and soul is sensitive to the interests of the Jewish community…She will be a vigilant, never-ending fighter to prevent hatred against the Jewish community.”

A Zionist organization known as Betar is ready to help Bondi identify foreign students on visas who have expressed antisemitic attitudes and support for Hamas, The New York Post reports.

Betar has compiled a list of 30 names of students from Britain, Canada and Middle East countries whom they hope the incoming Trump administration will investigate. Trump pledged last May, “If you come from another country and try to bring jihadism or anti-Americanism or antisemitism to our campuses to our campuses, we will immediately deport you.”

Ross Glick, director of Betar’s U.S. chapter, said that some members of Congress are anxious to work with him, and he noted, “We are strongly supportive of the Trump administration’s plan to deport jihadis who seek to destroy America.”

A current Jewish Democrat in Congress, Rep. Jared Moskowitz, also of Florida, called on Jews from across the ideological spectrum to unite in pressing both principal political parties to fight antisemitism within their own ranks, according to another Post article.

In a speech he delivered in Washington D.C. last week, Moskowitz focused on many of his fellow Democrats, those “progressive colleagues who’ve fought for every endangered species but when it came to Jews, they were silent.”

The congressman, whose maternal grandparents were murdered by Hitler, added, “I want to see Republicans call out Tucker Carlson when he has a Holocaust denier on his program, and Democrats call out the dozens of people in our party, and the people in the streets and the people on Twitter treating us like second-class and third-class citizens.”

If only more members of Congress would call out Israel-bashers and antisemites in their respective parties. They should have been doing this all along.

College officials have already implemented policies to prevent the kinds of excessive protests that swept campuses last spring, and Trump officials expect to press for extensive changes to end antisemitic activity. It may be extensive enough to replace current practices with a more right-wing approach. Do not expect a happy middle if it up to our incoming president, which is partly why 74 million Americans voted for Vice President Kamala Harris.

To deter anti-Israel crimes, law enforcement on all levels must prosecute whenever they violate the law and seek the stiffest possible penalties.

We cannot predict what pro-Palestinian activists will do. So far, former U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin is among Trump nominees to receive bomb threats, but Zeldin’s warning was accompanied by a pro-Palestinian message, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. However, a number of Democratic members of Congress from New England also received death threats.

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade was temporarily halted when pro-Arab advocates held a sit-in on the parade route. The NYPD arrested 25 protesters. If they are not punished with maximum sentences, they will return for the next parade.