The Palm Beach Four Seasons Resort was the perfect venue for the Countering Antisemitism Summit.
Situated a short distance from the “Winter White House” – Mar-a-Lago – the summit, whose stated objective was to deliver actionable policy recommendations to counter antisemitism, included friends of the president and other influential Americans: philanthropists, entrepreneurs, and business leaders.
The summit chose my book, The Assault on Judaism, as its official selection.
I argue in the book that we are in the midst of a rapidly expanding Western attempt to negate the idea of the Jewish state and, through it, to negate the idea of Judaism.
This assault is coming from Europe and its proxies, and therefore, my actionable policy recommendations were for US President Donald Trump to take two immediate steps.
Foreign policy: Countering the assault from Europe
The first is a demand that Europe ends its disruptive intervention in Israeli-Palestinian affairs, including its funding of programs and organizations that incite Palestinians against Israel.
Such European funding has contributed to the spike in antisemitism worldwide, as Western mindsets are indoctrinated that, once again, the Jews (this time through the Jewish state) are polluting humanity and committing hideous crimes. Such conflict funding should go down from billions of euros annually to zero. Trump has the leverage to make Europe do so immediately.
The second actionable recommendation presented at the summit was for Trump to extract an enforceable long-term pledge by European countries not to collaborate with any type of lawfare directed at the United States or the Jewish state.
As discussed in my recent Wall Street Journal article, Europe is challenging the US-led world order – which is based on American military and economic might – by creating a new power base: “legal might” – subjecting America to Europe’s legal discretion.
Those, along with other recommendations discussed in the summit and this column, were passed on to the president.
Paradigm shift: Countering the Israel-bashing ideology
Yet, it is important to clarify: Those recommendations are not “cures” to antisemitism; they are “conflict management” tools in the 2,300-year-old European opposition to Judaism.
Such opposition always followed the most relevant aspect of Judaism of the time. In our era, it is Zionism and the Jewish state.
While for over a decade, we have been arguing in the Judaism 3.0 think tank that Judaism is under a large-scale assault from the Israel-bashing ideology, October 7 provided funding, structure, and credibility to the assault.
Crafting a defense strategy requires new and different thinking, as our era’s attempt to eradicate Judaism differs from the last century’s.
It is ideological as opposed to physical. It is nuanced, committed by friends and foes, and no longer comes exclusively from Europe but also from its sphere of influence in the United States.
Therefore, the assault cannot be countered only through foreign policy actions. It also requires an ideological response, which capitalizes on the golden asset we have today that we did not have before: antisemitism itself.
For the first 2,300 years of the European-Jewish conflict, it was normative to openly hate Jews. Antisemitism was considered a legitimate European political movement in the late 19th century. Some data suggest that the majority of the French population at the time identified as antisemites.
Today, however, openly slandering Jews would end one’s career. Opposition to Judaism must be carried through the shield of Judaism 2.0 – the illusion that Judaism is merely a religion: “I am pro-Judaism, just anti-Zionism,” “I love the Jews, just oppose the Jewish state.”
Once there is a broader global recognition that Judaism has transformed and Zionism has become its anchor (Judaism 3.0), those carrying out the attacks would be deterred:
A US senator implying that the Jewish state is “a Pariah opposed by the world” (and therefore must be dealt with – whether through arrests, sanctions, embargoes, or siege) can only do so if he believes that by saying “Jewish state” as opposed to “Judaism,” he is protected from being perceived as an antisemite. As that senator soon found out, he was wrong.
The same goes for journalists, academics, influencers, and others partaking in the ideological assault on Judaism.
Attending the summit, Starr Haymes-Kempin, a member of the Judaism 3.0 think tank since its founding in 2011 and a prominent Palm Beach figure, commented: “Indeed, October 7 turned Judaism 3.0 from a thesis that we deliberated for years in corporate conference rooms and New York rooftop receptions, into a depiction of day-to-day life. Every American Jew feels it now.”
Slandering American Jews vs slandering Israeli Jews
But not everybody is aware of these Judaism 3.0 realities. Last week, another prominent senator, Jeff Merkley (D-OR), spread the Biden-era slander about “units of IDF that carry attacks on West Bank villages,” implying they should be sanctioned.
Had he suggested that American Jews in Hollywood are “carrying out sexual attacks on actresses” or that American Jews in New York are “carrying out financial crimes,” he would have been pressured by his peers to resign.
Yet, anti-Israeli slander is allowed, even though it is more lethal than slander against American Jews. After all, the International Criminal Court, European governments, and the UN are not targeting American Jews. Our era’s path to destruction of Judaism runs through the Jewish state (the “and then they came for me” moment has yet to sink in).
At the same time, Sen. Merkley and others partaking in the assault are patriotic Americans and are certainly not organic antisemites.
Once the senator’s milieu internalizes that the rest of the world is already in Judaism 3.0, he would likely stop his inadvertent assault of Judaism on his own volition. He would recognize that his inciting allegations amount to antisemitic blood libels that threaten the safety of American Jews, the idea of Judaism, and, by extension, the Judeo-Christian foundation of the United States.
As discussed in the summit and in my book, the founding of America was not merely about a physical exodus from Europe but also about emancipation from European dogmas. These included Europe’s chronic opposition to Judaism, which, in our time, is reaching new heights.
With the recognition that the threat to Judaism has shifted, this year’s Countering Antisemitism Summit, organized by the Palm Beach Synagogue, focused less on traditional antisemitism (the existential threat to Jews and Judaism of the 20th century) and more on Israel-bashing and anti-Zionism (the existential threat to Jews and Judaism today).
Just a short distance from the summit, at Mar-a-Lago, as well as in the White House itself, President Trump has been taking a series of bold actions to counter the unprecedented dual assault on Judaism: the physical attack coming from Iran and its proxies and the ideological attack coming from Europe and its proxies. For that, Israeli Jews, on the Left and Right alike, are immensely grateful.
The writer is the author of a new book, The Assault on Judaism: The Existential Threat Is Coming from the West. He is also the author of Judaism 3.0: Judaism’s Transformation to Zionism (Judaism-Zionism.com) and chairman of the Judaism 3.0 think tank. His strategic geopolitical articles appear on: EuropeAndJerusalem.com.