OPINION:
Even as people of goodwill celebrate this month’s successful endeavors of Israel and the United States to greatly reduce the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear weapons program, a new intifada funded by Iran and its allies continues to breach America’s shores.
Rather than preemptively act to shield ourselves, purveyors of hate discovered institutions eager to accept their financial largesse, young minds prepared for infection and a government too negligent or complicit to act. Iran’s ideological warfare complements its military endeavors. Its reach is global. Defeating antisemitism requires destroying that embedded ideological infrastructure in America while supporting Israel’s military operations against the Iranian regime.
In recent weeks alone, an “activist” killed a young couple attending an American Jewish Committee event just blocks from Capitol Hill, and in Colorado, an antisemite firebombed a group expressing anguish for the hostages still held in captivity by Hamas. Meanwhile, students cosplaying as freedom fighters on our university campuses glorify terrorist groups, chant genocidal slogans, physically accost Jewish students, vandalize property, disrupt classes and criminally trespass as their administrators rationalize the hate as political expression.
Although liberal media pundits suggest otherwise, this violence and vitriol are not spontaneous. They are the domestic consequence of decades of propaganda spread through a web of Iranian proxies in the U.S., a higher education indoctrination campaign funded by Iran’s ally Qatar and furthered by Western “philanthropy” that channels resources to radically anti-Israel campus organizations, including Students for Justice in Palestine.
Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, jihadis in Syria and Iraq: Each is armed, trained and financed by Iran. The groups are instruments of a terrorist state committed to the annihilation of Israel. The Iranian regime views Israel, the United States and the West as its archenemies and seeks to replace the democratic order with Islamist, theocratic rule. It also seeks the destruction of the United States, not just because we support Israel but also because we share with the Jewish state fundamental values that are at odds with Tehran’s vision for the world.
The Biden administration foolishly treated the Iranians as a misunderstood negotiating partner. In September 2023, it released $6 billion in frozen oil revenue as part of a hostage swap. Less than two weeks later, Hamas, armed and backed by Iran, carried out the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. One year into the war sparked by that massacre, and just days after President Trump’s reelection, the Biden administration quietly extended a sanctions waiver giving Iran access to another $10 billion through Iraqi electricity payments. Those dollars funded rockets aimed at Israeli civilians, propaganda campaigns in the United States and the intimidation of Jews worldwide.
Only total surrender of Iran and its terrorist proxies will make regional peace a possibility.
The urgency is even greater today than it was a year ago. Calls for ceasefires or “restraint” may play well at the United Nations or on MSNBC, but they are morally unserious and strategically reckless. Peace doesn’t stem from negotiation with regimes that are based on the glorification of martyrdom and the rejection of coexistence.
That was the lesson of the 20th century. Winston Churchill didn’t seek “common ground” with Nazi Germany. The Allies knew the futility of securing peace through a “mutual framework” with Imperial Japan. Victory required dismantling these ideologies, not bargaining with them.
At home, we need similar moral clarity. The rise in antisemitism across our nation has exposed the deep failure of our institutions to prevent such hatred and civic decay. Too many universities no longer teach Western principles of democracy, the rule of law, freedom of conscience, critical thinking or reasoned discourse. Instead, they reward ideological conformity with leftist causes, excuse antisemitism and defend outright criminal behavior as mere political expression.
In blue cities, officials refuse to enforce the law against antisemites who continue to assault people, destroy property, engage in disorderly conduct, trespass and riot. These aren’t constitutionally protected “free speech activities.” These are modern-day pogroms inspired by leaders peddling hatred as virtue.
We must defeat Iran and its proxies. Under no circumstances and in no form should Iran be permitted to continue its nuclear program. No peaceful justification exists for the enrichment of uranium by a terrorist regime intent on acquiring weapons of mass destruction and exporting terror. Failure to recognize the ambitions of the Iranian regime as a global threat will yield deadly consequences.
Advancing American freedom means continuing to stand with Israel and demanding the unconditional surrender of the Iranian regime and its network of terror. The United States must insist on an end to Iran’s nuclear program with zero enrichment of uranium. We also must expose and uproot the pro-regime propaganda network that contributes to the spread of antisemitism in our own streets and institutions.
• Paul Teller is the executive vice president of Advancing American Freedom. Joel Griffith is a senior fellow at Advancing American Freedom.
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