Betar US announced on Monday that it would double down on its efforts to identify and help deport radical foreign jihadis from America.
The group, which is the American branch of the century-old Revisionist Zionist youth movement founded by Ze’ev Jabotinsky, said it was working in coordination with the Trump administration to share intelligence and target individuals it deemed a threat to public safety.
Its announcement came after Betar publicly released a list of thousands of names in February, describing the people listed as dangerous foreign agitators affiliated with or sympathetic to terrorist groups such as Hamas.
Since then, Betar said arrests have already been made, including of Hamas supporters Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi.
“These are dangerous people that need to be removed from our streets and campuses before it’s too late,” said Jon I. Mantell, the CEO of Betar US.
“We have given the government thousands of names of known jihadis, many of whom could be ticking time bombs. When they chant about globalizing the intifada, they are talking about another 9/11. It’s a threat to America that must be stopped,” he said.
Mantell added that Betar’s renewed campaign was based on public safety, not politics.
“This is the home of the brave and the land of the free, not the home of depraved jihadis. It’s time to make America safe again. We, the Jabotinsky Jews, will not be silenced and sidelined by foreigners doing the bidding of terror organizations like Hamas,” he said.
Betar US spokesperson Daniel Levy echoed these remarks, saying: “We will unmask these terrorists who attack Jews with impunity. Those who cosplay Hamas on campus will be hit hard by the full weight of the law.”
“This isn’t about freedom of speech or assembly,” he continued, “it’s about public safety. There is no constitutional right to jihad. Betar will not stop until every illegal jihadist has been deported from the United States. We’ve had enough. They must go,” Levy said.
He also invoked a famous Jabotinsky quote: “To our Jewish brothers and sisters, we reiterate the words... ‘Liquidate the Diaspora or the Diaspora will liquidate you.’”
“It’s fight or flight time. Either you fight back against the Jew-haters or claim your free one-way flight home to Israel, where Jews protect themselves by themselves and always will,” Levy continued.
What is Betar?
Founded in 1923 in Riga, Latvia, Betar is a right-wing youth movement that promotes Jewish self-defense, national pride, and aliyah to Israel.
The movement, named after the Jewish fortress of Betar that was destroyed during the Bar Kokhba revolt, has branches worldwide and has seen renewed activity since the October 7 Hamas massacre.