This article was originally published in InFocus magazine, written by Adam Milstein.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists massacred more than 1,200 innocent people in Israel, most of them civilians, wounded another 3,400, and kidnapped 251 individuals to the Gaza Strip, of whom (as of May 2025), 58 hostages were still being held in Gaza, with 20 believed to be alive and 38 confirmed dead. But the real shock came not just from the barbaric attack and the torture and rape of the hostages, but from the response in the West. Instead of uniting in condemnation, academic institutions, news media outlets and many individuals across the US and Europe rationalized or even celebrated the atrocities.
This reaction revealed a dangerous ideological shift underway in the United States. The murder of Israeli civilians, including babies and women, unmasked an alliance of extremist ideologies that now shape major American institutions. These movements threaten not just the Jewish people, but America’s future as a global leader and force for good.
This May, two Israeli embassy staffers, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, were gunned down in cold blood on a public street in Washington, DC, allegedly by Elias Rodriguez, a domestic terrorist with prior affiliations with far-left organizations including the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) and the ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) Coalition, two groups that have exhibited a pattern of support for radical and violent agendas.
Rodriguez, PSL, and ANSWER allegedly promoted armed resistance in America. The shooting was not “random violence.” It was an antisemitic, targeted murder of two young people by an extreme-left anarchist determined to kill Jews here in America.
Following this vicious attack, many Americans and organizations justified and even celebrated the murder on social media. Guy Christensen, a TikTok influencer with almost 3.5 million followers, supported the attack and refused to condemn the murder of “Zionists” who worked at the Israeli embassy.
But Christensen is not alone. On college campuses, in the media, across social media platforms, in labor unions and in local and national politics, there’s an alarming rise of antisemitic incitement that metastasizes into violence. As an Israeli American, and like so many in the Jewish community, I am deeply shaken by this growing trend.
While the resurgence of violent hatred is frightening, the broader state of our nation worries me most. This ideological shift reflects a deeper crisis: Our society has allowed extremist voices from the far left, radical Muslims, and the far right to become increasingly normalized and infiltrate our institutions.
On one hand, the Islamo-left alliance, a coalition between far-left ideologues, anarchists, and Islamists, is working to dismantle America from within. On the other end of the political spectrum, white supremacists, while a fringe movement, still have the capacity to take weapons into their hands and kill Americans.
In addition, a dangerous new ideology is taking root on the American right. What began as a sensible “America First” doctrine to prioritize American interests has, in some circles, morphed into an “America Only” worldview that seeks to isolate the United States from the outside world and abandon its global responsibilities as leader and ally of free nations.
These groups may seem to have little in common, but all of them advance ideologies that are deeply hostile to America’s founding principles and its international interests. They aim to reshape the very fabric of our society. Alarmingly, through years of strategic planning, infiltration and coordinated efforts, they appear to be making real progress.
Islamo-Left vs. Western Values
At first glance, radical leftist ideologues and Islamist fundamentalists might seem like strange bedfellows. One side champions postmodern secularism, gender fluidity, and borderless internationalism. The other enforces strict pre-modern religious codes and theocratic rule. Yet they unite around the shared pretense that America and the West are inherently unjust, irredeemably oppressive, and must be destroyed.
However, the true agenda of the Islamists is to impose their version of Islam globally and dismantle Western civilization. They use leftist allies as convenient tools, allowing them to believe they share a common cause.
Sadly, this manufactured ideological alliance has found fertile ground in American academia, where decades of leftist capture have transformed once-rigorous disciplines into engines of grievance and radicalization. Ethnic studies, post-colonial theory, intersectionality, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs are silos of extremist, anti-Western orthodoxy. Under the banner of “decolonization,” students are taught to vilify America and view meritocracy and individual rights as tools of systemic oppression. Western allies like Israel are demonized, while authoritarian regimes, including China and Iran, and terrorist groups, including Hamas (Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement) and Hezbollah (Party of God), are cast as freedom fighters.
As recently documented by the Capital Research Center, nearly 500 American nonprofits claiming to support Palestinian rights have adopted increasingly radical positions since October 7. Groups such as Within Our Lifetime, the Palestinian Youth Movement, and Code Pink have amplified violent rhetoric and promoted anti-American narratives.
The report also shows an online surge of more than 3,000 percent in calls for violence and a 186 percent increase in anti-American and anti-police rhetoric. The social media posts affiliated with these groups have reached tens of millions of viewers.
These groups serve as ideological proxies for Hamas, Hezbollah, and other extremist actors. Slogans like “Globalize the Intifada” and “Resistance by any means necessary” are chanted by students who have no connection to Islam and little understanding of its values yet are unwittingly being used to advance the Islamist agenda in the name of “social justice.”
This phenomenon is not confined to academia. Such ideas are now mainstreamed into media, corporate human resources departments, non-profit organizations and parts of the federal government. They push an absolutist moral relativism in which “lived experience” overrides truth, group identity trumps individual merit and the oppressor-oppressed binary world view governs all human relations.
This is a cultural insurgency designed to undermine the American project from within.
Confronting Foreign Influence
This decades-long campaign is funded by the detractors of the West, particularly by regimes including Qatar, China, Russia, and Iran. They have strategically used Western democratic systems to infiltrate academia, media, civil society and even policy-making circles with language that excuses terror, glorifies tyranny, and demonizes democratic allies.
The result is a generation of Americans who are taught to despise their own country, distrust our history and embrace the very ideologies that threaten freedom everywhere.
Too many of our leaders, on both sides of the aisle, refuse to confront it. They fear backlash from campus mobs or losing influence among elite institutions that have become morally unhinged. This existential threat to our society requires:
Aggressive enforcement of foreign agent registration laws to expose foreign-backed political operatives posing as grassroots advocates.
Defunding and decertifying tax-exempt organizations that provide cover for antisemitic propaganda, terrorist glorification, and political extremism.
Requiring universities and think tanks to disclose foreign donations and ending federal funding to institutions that tolerate violence or calls for intifada and jihad.
A bipartisan moral reckoning, where elected officials publicly condemn the Marxist relativism that justifies terrorism (i.e. “One person’s terrorist is another person’s freedom fighter”), excuses tyranny and tears down American exceptionalism.
America cannot lead the world if it cannot defend itself from within. Leaders must have the moral clarity to say, without apology: America is not just good but exceptional, our values are worth defending and those who seek to unravel them – whether in Beijing, Moscow, Doha, Teheran, or Berkeley – will not prevail.
The Isolationist Right’s Retreat
On the right, what began as a prudent correction which all of us support, an “America First” call to prioritize US interests, has recently morphed into something reckless. The “America Only” worldview sees global engagement as betrayal. It is a refusal to lead, a willingness to abandon allies including Israel, and the false belief that we can wall ourselves off from the world’s problems.
This ideology is gaining ground among vocal and influential figures. Commentator Tucker Carlson, and some elements within the current administration push a narrative that casts American power abroad as inherently abusive and views our global alliances as burdens. In doing so, they ignore both history and strategic interests.
The firing of Michael Waltz as the National Security Adviser, the ceasefire deal with the Yemen’s Houthis – which gave them a green light to continue launching ballistic missiles at Israel – and the pursuit of a nuclear deal with Iran, despite its ongoing uranium enrichment, anti-American rhetoric and past failure to comply with agreements, are early signs.
When America withdraws from the world, authoritarian adversaries fill the vacuum. After World War I, American retrenchment helped pave the way for fascism and a second, even deadlier war. Today, a similar pattern is emerging. China eyes Taiwan. Russia attempts to take over Ukraine. Iran, North Korea and fundamentalist Persian Gulf states like Qatar are probing the boundaries of a weakened international order.
The “America Only” faction insists we can pick and choose our battles and, that we can disengage selectively. But in today’s interconnected world, there is no such luxury. When America retreats, our adversaries surge. They will eagerly embrace our abdication of leadership and sow instability around the globe. This will eventually reach our shores.
We don’t need to be the world’s police. But we must be the world’s anchor. That means preserving alliances with nations like Israel, Japan, South Korea, and India; pushing back against authoritarian revisionism; and securing the global order that underwrites our prosperity and security.
America First should mean leading with resolve and purpose, on our terms, with clear goals and strong alliances. It must not be hijacked by neo-isolationists who would have us turn inward while the world burns.
Standing for America
America is caught between two extremes pulling our politics away from what has always made this nation exceptional – moral clarity, principled leadership and a sense of global responsibility. Both the Islamo-Left and the “America Only” right reject the values that make America great. And both endanger the economic and democratic systems that have underpinned relative global stability for decades.
Neither extreme believes in America’s values. In fact, they oppose them. They know American action as the world’s economic and moral leader threatens their reactionary authoritarianism. But as modern history has shown, the world does not work well without American leadership. And America does not thrive in a world shaped by others.
We need a new bipartisan commitment to moral leadership. It must rise above the ideological dogma and power games of the moment. This style of leadership must recognize:
Our values are our strength. Free markets, individual liberty, the rule of law, and democratic governance are the foundation of our global influence and domestic prosperity.
Our prosperity is tied to global stability. Open trade, secure alliances and the defense of democratic norms are essential to economic growth, innovation, and the American middle class.
Our leadership must be principled. That means calling out antisemitism and extremism wherever it arises – whether from radical Islamists abroad or radical ideologues on our campuses. It means rejecting populist nihilism and defeatist retreat in favor of constructive vision and courage.
America is strongest when its leaders, Democrats and Republicans alike, stand for something greater than partisan gain. When they act not only in our interests but in line with our ideals. When they champion a world order rooted in freedom, fairness and strength.
Why This Matters
The Islamo-left and the isolationist right erode the pillars of American strength. One attacks our culture and identity from within and the other retreats from our responsibilities abroad.
Both movements celebrate enemies of freedom and delegitimize our allies. Both adopt conspiratorial thinking about “elites,” “neocons” (often used to imply “Jews”), “globalists,” and “colonizers” to justify their radicalism. And both are gaining influence within their respective political coalitions.
The result is a dangerous ideological squeeze. America is being pulled toward self-destruction on the left and isolation on the right.
A Call to Action
If we fail to confront the rise of the Islamo-left, we will watch our institutions hollowed out by foreign influence and moral relativism that erode the very values that make America exceptional.
If we fail to resist the isolationist right, we will cede the global stage to authoritarian regimes and invite instability to our shores.
If Americans of good conscience left and right, secular and religious, public and private can stand together with conviction, courage, and clarity, we can restore our strength, revive our values, and reclaim America’s role as a beacon of freedom and prosperity.
The threats are real. The stakes are historic. But so is our opportunity.