Jewish Policy Center

Hussein Abdel Hussein, a distinguished research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, joined us today to share his expertise on Middle Eastern politics, particularly focusing on the Druze community and regional dynamics. As a leading authority on the subject, Hussein brings extensive knowledge about the complexities of Syrian politics, inter-community relations, and the […]

The Jewish Policy Center hosted a webinar featuring Professor Harold Rhode, an expert in Middle Eastern history and culture, to discuss the recent developments involving the Hebron sheikhs, tribal dynamics in the West Bank, and the broader Middle Eastern context, including Syria and the Druze. Key points from the discussion include: Hebron Sheikhs and Tribal […]

Kurdish people span a broad area in the Middle East – across parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. They constitute one of the largest ethnic groups without a state of their own, but have worked with the US – and with Israel – to create stability and security in the places they live. A longtime […]

Kurdish people span a broad area in the Middle East – across parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. They constitute one of the largest ethnic groups without a state of their own, but have worked with the US – and with Israel – to create stability and security in the places they live. A longtime […]

The American attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, coordinated with Israel, has changed the trajectory of the Middle East. What happened? Why now? What is next? Winners and losers We will have two programs this week – and that probably is not enough. Join us Monday for a conversation with Dr. Stephen Bryen, former Deputy Under […]

The American attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, coordinated with Israel, has changed the trajectory of the Middle East. What happened? Why now? What is next? Winners and losers We will have two programs this week – and that probably is not enough. Join us Monday for a conversation with Dr. Stephen Bryen, former Deputy Under […]

JPC Senior Director Shoshana Bryen was pleased to be invited to interview FDD President Clifford May at the Republican Jewish Coalition leadership meeting in Washington, DC on June 12, 2025. Because it preempted our usual podcast, we’re happy to bring you a video of their conversation..

“If you ask yourself what you would have done if you had lived in Nazi Germany during the Holocaust, the answer is clear. What you do today, when antisemitism is again raising its ugly head across the world, is what you would have done then if you had been alive during the Holocaust.” Tomas Sandell, founder of the European Coalition for Israel in 2003, summarizes the battle. “It is pivotal that we do not give up our streets in Europe to those groups who call for the destruction of Israel and death to the Jews.” Is the battle being won or lost? Join us for an important conversation.

President Donald Trump changed the format for American policy in the Middle East. He announced the capitulation of the Houthis in their war against AMERICAN shipping; invited Qatar and Syria – terror ties notwithstanding – to join the Abraham Accords along with Saudi Arabia; and made (limited) overtures to Iran. At the same time, he has ensured American weapons deliveries in full to Israel; has not commented on Israel’s new offensive in Gaza; and is participating with Israel in the movement of food. Israel remains firmly ensconced in USCENTCOM. How is the US-Israel relationship changing? Join us for a conversation with Dr. David Wurmser, a Senior Analyst for Middle East Affairs at the Center for Security Policy as he tracks the shifts and their implications for Israel and for regional security.

Pundits like left-wing journalist Glenn Greenwald portray pro-Palestinian and pro-Hamas campus activists as underdogs battling Zionist-dominated university bosses. But when you listen to someone like Northeastern U. Professor of Political Science Max  Abrahms, who has had a front-row seat to observe the raw anti-Semitism that has flourished on US campuses since October 7, it seems clear that Greenwald and Company are peddling their own version of the Big Lie. Aside from a few schools like Brandeis University  and Yeshiva University, scholars who are sympathetic to Israel are marginalized and forced into the shadows virtually everywhere else. Abrahms told a Jewish Policy Center webinar on Thursday. Professors say privately that to be a faculty member, you need to be  “anti-Zionist” and that if you dissent from this orthodoxy your career advancement opportunities will be limited. Abrahms said  he supports the Trump administration's efforts to use the threat of withholding federal aid to force schools to expel students who engage in violence and intimidation. But he expressed concern that the hostility to Israel is so ingrained that the federal pressure may not be sufficient to bring about reform. Abrahms believes that  university administrators, not students, are chiefly to blame for the situation, calling them “an integral part of what's wrong.” These administrators, he said, “create this atmosphere” where anti-Semitism can flourish. So-called Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) plans aimed at helping victimized groups are “inherently anti-Semitic,” according to Abrahms. He said that when he attempted to meet the chief diversity officer at his own school, he was informed that they do not view anti-Semitism “as one of the things they are fighting.” Later, Abrahms learned that the head of the school's Chabad organization had been told the same thing. He believes that, by leveraging their financial support,  Jewish donors could create a powerful incentive for reform. According to Abrahms, professors sympathetic to Zionism currently  “face an incentive system geared toward keeping them silent.” Donors “need to place conditions” on academic institutions they support, Abrahms said.   “That's the only way to change things.”

In his new book, “Lawless: The Miseducation of America's Elites,”   Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow Ilya Shapiro shows how  US higher education has been transformed away from a place where students  learn  how  to think critically, make cogent arguments and respect viewpoints that are different from their own. Today, however, those schools  are more like indoctrination factories where students are taught to see themselves as  victims in need of “safe spaces” and entitled to respond violently if they are forced to confront people who dissent from progressive orthodoxy. Recently, we've witnessed disturbing scenes where Jewish students are terrorized by Hamas backers at Columbia University and hundreds of other colleges across the United States,  At Stanford U.,  a mob of students –  egged on by the school's  associate dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion – blocked US Appeals Court Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan from speaking. At Yale, the war against free speech became so disruptive that more than a dozen federal judges announced they would no longer hire law clerks from that school. Most university administrators are “spineless cowards,”  Shapiro told a Jewish Policy Center webinar on Thursday. He added that these administrators opt to “capitulate to the mob” rather than lose opportunities to move up the career ladder in academia. Shapiro emphasized that while hate speech is protected by the First Amendment, terroristic threats and physical violence are not.  He noted in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis was able to show that Students for Justice in Palestine,  a group that has been linked to much of the virulent pro-Hamas, anti-Semitic activity on US campuses in recent years, has provided “material support” to a terrorist organization, Hamas in violation of the Florida and US codes.. As a result, SJP has been disestablished on Florida public university campuses.

The first round of revenge killings in Syria appears to be over. Don't mistake that for calm. Ankara and Damascus are negotiating a “peace treaty” that would allow Turkish troops to operate inside the country, and Turkey has begun efforts to take control of an airbase known as T-4, including the deployment of air defenses. […]

The first round of revenge killings in Syria appears to be over. Don't mistake that for calm. Ankara and Damascus are negotiating a “peace treaty” that would allow Turkish troops to operate inside the country, and Turkey has begun efforts to take control of an airbase known as T-4, including the deployment of air defenses. […]

JPC Senior Director Shoshana Bryen was invited by sister organization The RJC to host its program on April 8 with Eugene Kontorovich. Summary: The International Criminal Court (ICC), established in 1998, was intended to prosecute the worst violations of human rights when national governments fail to act. Like many other international institutions, the ICC was created based on the highest ideals, says Eugene Kontorovich, a professor at George Mason University Law School. But ICC officials have come to realize that going after Israelis is easier than making a difference for global justice, he told a Republican Jewish Coalition webinar on Tuesday. Last year, the ICC indicted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on war-crimes charges in connection with Israel's prosecution of the war against Hamas after October 7. And, in an effort to purportedly show “balance,” the court indicted three senior Hamas terrorists – Ismail Haniyeh, Muhammad Diff and Yahya Sinwar. All three are deceased. In more than two decades of existence, the ICC, with an annual budget of more than $200 million, has prosecuted only six people. Numerous high-profile cases have collapsed, and dictators including Vladimir Putin of Russia have just ignored ICC indictments. Efforts to impose sanctions against the ICC have been blocked by Democrats led by former Senate Majority Leader and current Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Kontorovich was sharply critical of the Egyptian government's refusal to open its border to Palestinians seeking to flee Gaza. He said Cairo is violating a legal obligation to open the border to refugees. He also discussed the legal concept of Uti Possidetis Juris and its application to the borders of Israel.

Foreign agitators who have who staged violent protests on US college campuses, cheering on the Hamas pogrom of October 7 and terrorizing Jewish students have no legal right to remain in the United States, according to Heritage Foundation legal scholar Hans von Spakovsky. Many of those who  vandalized and destroyed property and buildings and   blocked access to classes and dormitories, were neither American citizens nor even students.  In reality, they were engaged in pro-terrorist activities, roaming  throughout the country to mobilize support for Hamas, which the United States  designated a terrorist group in 1997. Yet, for more than a year, President Biden's Justice Department refused to prosecute any of these cases, Von Spakovsky told a Jewish Policy Center webinar on Thursday. The Justice Department, he added, has authority to act against pro-Hamas thugs on campus under the Enforcement Act of 1870. That measure, passed by Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses Grant,  gave federal prosecutors authority to target the Ku Klux Klan and its masked marauders who were terrorizing, assaulting  and killing Black Americans. Today, this law is  codified at 18 USC  Section 241, and is particularly applicable to Hamas backers because of their proclivity for hiding behind masks. All of the masked Hamas terror supporters infesting US college  campuses were  “in disguise”  and therefore subject to prosecution for hindering other students from getting an education. Under Section 241, violators are subject to heavy fines and up to 10 years in prison. The Trump administration has begun identifying these people and revoking their visas. “All foreign students should have their visas revoked,” von Spakovsky said. “They should also be criminally prosecuted for threatening, dangerous behavior.”

Westerners who think the new government in Damascus will turn out to be moderate and willing to compromise with the west are kidding themselves, according to Middle East scholar Harold Rhode. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), is the coalition of Sunni Islamist insurgent groups which overthrew President Bashar al-Assad in December, toppling a Baathist dictatorship which ruled Syria for more than half a century. Abu Muhammad al-Jawlani, who previously served as head of the Nusra Front, al-Qaida's branch in Syria, is head of HTS as well as Syria's new president.Jawlani is his nom de guerre; these days, he goes by his given name, Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa. Jawlani/Sharaa “doesn't talk for Syria,” Rhode told a JPC webinar Thursday. “He talks for his terrorists.” Rhode, who served as an advisor on the Islamic world in the Office of the Secretary of Defense from 1982 to 2010, characterizes HTS as “”al-Qaida in another form.” There are two groups inside Syria's complicated ethnic/political mosaic with a history of good relations with Israel: First, there is the Druze community, mostly in southern and western Syria near the Golan Heights and Lebanon, which is establishing, in large part, closer ties with Israel. Second are the Syrian Kurds, in particular the Syrian Democratic Forces SDF), a Kurdish-dominated militia that signed a peace treaty with the HTS government earlier this month. A critical question is what the SDF will do with thousands of ISIS prisoners it has been guarding for almost a decade in the wake of the US-led military campaign against that group:Specifically, would the Kurds release a large number of violent, dangerous prisoners to curry favor with HTS? Rhode doubts that would happen.

At 6:30 a.m. on October 7th, Ella Mor's life was irrevocably transformed when she awoke to the reality that her two young nephews had hidden in a closet for many hours, after losing their parents. From that moment, she embarked on an unexpected journey – transitioning from a homeopath with a private clinic in Jaffa to a global advocate for Israel. Ella’s lecture does not focus on the pain of October 7th but rather on the incredible inner strength that emerges in times of crisis – inner strength that emerged among the people of Israel. Join us for an extraordinary conversation.

President Trump’s plan for Gaza was, not unexpectedly, shocking. UAE Ambassador to Washington, Yousef al-Otaiba, called it “difficult,” but said, “We're all in the solution-seeking business, we just don't know where it's going to land yet. I don't see an alternative to what's being proposed. I really don't.” After a burst of negative reaction from […]

President Trump’s plan for Gaza was, not unexpectedly, shocking. UAE Ambassador to Washington, Yousef al-Otaiba, called it “difficult,” but said, “We're all in the solution-seeking business, we just don't know where it's going to land yet. I don't see an alternative to what's being proposed. I really don't.” After a burst of negative reaction from […]

The overthrow of Bashar Assad in Syria by the Jihadist-oriented HTS ended one horrifying chapter in Syrian history. It also fundamentally changes the Middle East both politically and militarily. The US, Turkey, Israel, and others – including Kurds, who live across various borders – face the worrisome possibility of the re-emergence of ISIS. Join us as Dr. Mark Meirowitz, Professor of Humanities at SUNY Maritime College, and expert on Turkish foreign policy, discusses the complex elements of an evolving regional crisis that has rarely made it into the American media.

Since the rise of American industry after the Civil War, the titans of American business have wrestled with the very difficult question of how to deal with an increasingly powerful federal government. In his superb new book, The Power and the Money: The Epic Clashes Between Commanders in Chief and Titans of Industry, presidential historian […]

Since the rise of American industry after the Civil War, the titans of American business have wrestled with the very difficult question of how to deal with an increasingly powerful federal government. In his superb new book, The Power and the Money: The Epic Clashes Between Commanders in Chief and Titans of Industry, presidential historian […]

On October 7, 2023, the world witnessed events that significantly reshaped the security landscape in Israel and beyond. This webinar will delve into how Israelis perceive global dynamics and navigate the complex security challenges that have emerged in the aftermath. Join us as Dan Diker, President of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs […]

On October 7, 2023, the world witnessed events that significantly reshaped the security landscape in Israel and beyond. This webinar will delve into how Israelis perceive global dynamics and navigate the complex security challenges that have emerged in the aftermath. Join us as Dan Diker, President of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs […]

Hamas started the war against Israel long before 10/7. But Israel's response since that date has delivered extraordinary blows to Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis, and the Iranian government. Iran's proxy Bashar Assad has fallen to Turkish-supported, ISIS-aligned HTS. Russia has been removing military assets from Syria, while the US have been striking ISIS bases and Israel […]

Hamas started the war against Israel long before 10/7. But Israel's response since that date has delivered extraordinary blows to Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis, and the Iranian government. Iran's proxy Bashar Assad has fallen to Turkish-supported, ISIS-aligned HTS. Russia has been removing military assets from Syria, while the US have been striking ISIS bases and Israel […]

There was a moment of relief that the murderous war criminal Bashar Assad was ousted. It was followed by awe at the IDF’s ability to deny the rebels Assad’s stocks of chemical weapons, Russian and Iranian military equipment, and air defense capabilities. But then, the next round of worry started. Who does the “interim government” […]

There was a moment of relief that the murderous war criminal Bashar Assad was ousted. It was followed by awe at the IDF’s ability to deny the rebels Assad’s stocks of chemical weapons, Russian and Iranian military equipment, and air defense capabilities. But then, the next round of worry started. Who does the “interim government” […]

The “ceasefire” agreement between the US and Israel, and between the US and Lebanon, along with a “designated” interlocutor for Hezbollah, is complicated to say the least. And questions arise. Start with: What did Israel gain? Will the agreement last? Who will enforce it? What happens if one party tries to enforce provisions and another […]

The “ceasefire” agreement between the US and Israel, and between the US and Lebanon, along with a “designated” interlocutor for Hezbollah, is complicated to say the least. And questions arise. Start with: What did Israel gain? Will the agreement last? Who will enforce it? What happens if one party tries to enforce provisions and another […]

Last month, an identifiably Jewish Chicago man was shot while walking to synagogue on the Sabbath. While attacks against American Jews have generally been prosecuted as “assaults” or “hate crimes,” this time the assailant was charged with “terrorism.” A native of Mauritania, he had been “encountered by US Border Patrol at the California border in […]

Last month, an identifiably Jewish Chicago man was shot while walking to synagogue on the Sabbath. While attacks against American Jews have generally been prosecuted as “assaults” or “hate crimes,” this time the assailant was charged with “terrorism.” A native of Mauritania, he had been “encountered by US Border Patrol at the California border in […]

Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and, of course, Iran are interlocking parts of Israel’s security picture. Iraq and Syria have to be accounted for as well. Alongside those are Egypt, Jordan, and the Abraham Accords countries – and the United States. How to manage the disparate elements while fighting a hot war for the shape of […]

Approaching the Hebrew calendar anniversary of the unimaginable horrors of October 7, Israelis are dealing with tragic losses, the continuing plight of hostages in Gaza, a horrific barrage of rockets launched by Iran, and the ensuing wars to protect and defend Israel from Iran and its proxies. Israeli society has been stressed almost beyond measure. […]

Since October 7, Hezbollah has fired more than 8,000 rockets into Israel, and IDF intelligence has uncovered plans for a ground operation by Hezbollah into the Galilee with the intention of repeating the horrors of October 7. Israel pre-empted. The battle is moving fast – but there is an almost unmentioned element of this war: […]

In February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine after a series of demands and counter demands among Moscow, Kiev, Washington, and several European countries. The US provided Ukraine with weapons, more than $100 billion in aid, and political support including an invitation for President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to appear before Congress. The military and political battles were front […]

Parts of our media and political leadership have been working hard to distract the public on the issue of the Supreme Court, asking, “Do we need a Supreme Court? Maybe the world is different now and the old job of the Court is no longer relevant.”  “If we have to have it, can it be […]

What’s going on in Gaza? You know what the media says – and don’t believe most of it. Where are you supposed to get serious, on the ground information about what the IDF is doing and how it is doing it? With the JPC. Join us for a conversation with Lt. Gen. David A. Deptula, USAF (ret.). […]

For good reason, when thinking about nukes, we give most of our attention to weaponization and Iran – the consequences of rogue powers having nuclear weapons are terrifying. But there is another side of the nuclear equation: Nuclear power is low-carbon, renewable, clean, and domestic. Like all energy sources, it has drawbacks, including a poor […]

The French government’s decision to ban Israeli companies and nationals from participating in the Eurosatory 2024 defense conference went mostly unnoticed in U.S. media. French courts reversed the ban – too late to be useful – but the controversial decision sent ripples through the global defense community. Israel’s defense tech is respected and admired around […]

The war in the Red Sea appears to have receded. Don't be fooled. The Houthis are active pawns of China, which has a base in Djibouti, as well as of Iran. They attack shipping they claim is going to Israel as well as US naval vessels. In the first two months of 2024, traffic into […]

Cooperation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank—in which the PA governs the territory but Israel exercises overriding security control—is the best solution for Gaza after the IDF withdraws, veteran Israeli security expert Efraim Inbar said Thursday. Israel wants a “modest thing: freedom of military action after we leave Gaza,” Inbar told […]

Since the October 7 mass terror attack by Hamas, the Israeli military has been faced with one of the most difficult challenges in its history: to destroy the ability of this group to carry out terrorist attacks from Gaza, while keeping civilian casualties to a minimum, notwithstanding the fact that Hamas uses places including schools, […]

First Amendment to justify violence, intimidation, and thuggery in support of Hamas, according to Heritage Foundation scholar Hans von Spakovsky. The people Americans have witnessed screaming anti-Semitic epithets, assaulting students and faculty and destroying property are nothing more than “hooligans”, von Spakovsky told a Jewish Policy Center webinar May 9. He noted that government has […]

Americans often say, “Let bygones be bygones,” “That’s history,” means something is no longer of importance. But the American view of compromise and conciliation is not universal, and may be preventing the US from taking necessary steps to secure American and allied interests in the Middle East. Join us for a conversation about how allies […]

Israel should insist its war against terrorists in the Gaza Strip “will end if Hamas [Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement] surrenders and releases the hostages,” says Barry Shaw, senior associate for public policy at the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies. But “the shoe was put on the other foot,” he told participants in the Jewish Policy […]

After more than four months of war, the IDF has taken control of the northern Gaza Strip, and its forces continue eliminating the Hamas infrastructure – above and below ground. Progress has also been made in Khan Yunis. As the IDF moves south, the US and others have raised objections to the nature of a […]

President Joe Biden and Sen. Chuck Schumer are losing patience with Israel’s defensive war in Gaza. While pressing Israel for “regime change” they are also threatening greater American pressure to achieve an outcome that suits the administration’s political priorities. But the Government of Israel has priorities as well, chiefly to ensure the security of the […]

Since October 7, American Jews have been faced with a wave of antisemitic incidents. Most of the news focus has been on demonstrations on college campuses and in large cities But younger American Jews face rising challenges as well – not always seen, not always confronted. Join us for a conversation with Rebecca Schgallis, Senior Education […]

The Biden Administration's timid approach toward Iran and its Houthi proxies has placed American servicemembers and crucial global trade routes at grave risk. An estimated 12 percent of international trade, amounting to over $1 trillion in goods annually normally navigates through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. Since the Houthi attacks began, freight rates […]

“Multiple conflicts for legitimacy” leave nearly every major country in the Arab-Islamic world “grappling with questions of identity,” Ilan Berman told Jewish Policy Center webinar participants February 22. But pivoting to great power competition with China and Russia from 20 years of counter-insurgency warfare against Islamist movements including the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and al-Qaeda, the United States barely competes in “the war of ideas,” he said. Islamic extremism of the al-Qaeda variety that hit the Pentagon and brought down New York's World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001 and led to ISIS' “Islamic caliphate” over much of Syria and Iraq until its destruction in 2017 by a U.S.-led coalition “is making a comeback,” according to Berman. While many al-Qaeda and ISIS terrorists were killed in counter-insurgency campaigns, many made their way to Central Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, he said. One result has been “a four-fold increase in Islamic extremism” in affected African countries, said Berman, senior vice president for the American Foreign Policy Council. This creates “serious instability” that “is not recognized in Washington.” Since the average age on the continent is only 19 and Africa has a high birth rate, it soon will be the world's fastest growing region. If individual governments cannot meet the challenge, Islamic extremists will find opportunities, Berman said. He highlighted other elements of U.S. strategy, including the use of public diplomacy, Washington must improve to counter renewed Islamism: “Our rapid and undignified evacuation from Afghanistan … [which] allowed the Taliban back into power,” he noted. This “created a powerful message of successful, long-term insurgency,” Berman said, giving a map to Islamic-based terrorists all over the world. October 7, 2023 and “the surprising acquisition of power and heft of Hamas” in staging its invasion and massacre of 1,200 people and kidnapping of nearly 250 more in Israel. “How enduring this lesson is” for Islamists elsewhere “depends on Israel's response,” according to Berman. This is “why it is so important that Israel destroy Hamas.” Since the U.S.- and Israeli-designated terrorist organization is, like many other Sunni terrorist movements, a branch of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, the result of the war in the Gaza Strip will influence them all. The “extremely unaccountable news media environment.” In the pre-Internet world, barriers to publication and broadcasting of extremist messages were relatively high. Now “they are really low … and any insurgent can set put a YouTube account.” If he or she is deplatformed, they can simply go elsewhere.” And, “we're not really paying attention because of China, Russia” and other nation-based threats. “So, local governments are grappling with the challenge ideologically and politically.” Berman said. A consultant to the CIA, State and Defense departments, he noted that Egypt, for example, has promoted messages from less radical Muslim institutions and scholars to discredit those from al-Qaeda and ISIS. The United Arab Emirates, which like Saudi Arabia after 9/11 recognized the extremist threat to itself, acts “like an angel investor,” paying governments in “the global South” to set up responses to the radicals. Indonesia, a large, geographically and demographically diverse island country, emphasizes a message that “values the nation-state over the caliphate.” Washington—Supporting Actor In responding to renewed Islamist threats, “one size doesn't fit all,” Berman said. This means that though the challenge is crucial for United States, America is not the main character in the drama