The Kind of Thing Traitors Do
The decision to deport Mahmoud Khalil is most remarkable for its grasp of America's spirit and academia at their best.
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Finding someone whose politics you don’t like and using some flimsy excuse to put him in handcuffs is not what happened to Mahmoud Khalil, a Syrian Palestinian graduate student and “terrorist groupie.”1
Khalil has U.S. permanent residency and is rightly being ejected from the country for leading pro-Hamas protests at Columbia University in New York City.
You know that you’re on the wrong side of morals, values, and ethics when the so-called “Jewish Voice for Peace” organization — which, as most of you know, is not Jewish and is not for peace — is demanding your release.
We should clarify that Khalil has not been charged with a crime. The White House said on Tuesday that he was detained for deportation due to support for the Hamas terror group. Khalil attended a protest last week at Barnard College, a Columbia University affiliate, during which activists handed out pamphlets from the “Hamas media office.”
U.S. laws say aliens are inadmissible to the U.S. — or “deportable” — if they engage in terrorist activities, including anyone who “endorses or espouses terrorist activity or persuades others to endorse or espouse terrorist activity or support a terrorist organization.” Green card holders, like Khalil, are considered aliens.
Rhetorical support for U.S.-designated terrorist groups such as Hamas is protected under the First Amendment if it is not coordinated with terrorists. Discriminatory harassment, targeted threats, and incitement to imminent violence are not covered by free speech protections. Khalil, who finished graduate studies at Columbia University in December, was a leading organizer for the Columbia pro-Hamas protest movement, which included unlawful conduct (namely property damage and vandalism).
In the United States, where I was born and lived for the first 23 years of my life, we pride ourselves on the values of freedom, academic integrity, and the rule of law. But these freedoms have never meant a free pass for those who aid and abet terrorism.
The decision to deport Khalil is not just legally sound; it is a moral and strategic necessity. America was founded on principles of liberty and justice, not as a sanctuary for foreign radicals who exploit its openness to undermine the very freedoms we cherish.
Universities, at their best, are meant to be places of rigorous debate, intellectual challenge, and the pursuit of truth. Unfortunately, much of academia today has devolved into an ideological echo chamber where anti-Western, anti-Israel, and even anti-Jewish propaganda are given free rein under the guise of academic freedom. Columbia University, in particular, has become a breeding ground for radicals who exploit the university’s prestige to legitimize extremism.
When did it become acceptable for Western universities to tolerate students openly supporting terrorist organizations that have committed mass murder, mass rape, and mass kidnappings?
It is not “academic freedom” to hand out materials from Hamas’ media office or to call for the destruction of the only Jewish state in the world. That is terrorist propaganda, plain and simple, and it deserves no protection under the principles of higher education or American law.
It must be noted that much of this hoopla is borne out of the Western Left, which once upon a time styled itself as the champion of human rights, peace, and justice. Today, a growing faction of leftists has become the primary vehicle for anti-Israel activism, making clear that Israelis and Jews do not deserve the same human rights as others, elevating terror groups like Hamas into “freedom fighters,” and recasting Israel’s very existence as an unforgivable sin.
This isn’t about genuine concern for Palestinians; it’s about radical leftists and their co-conspirators using the Palestinian cause to wage their own war against the West.
Truth be told, much of the Western Left has hijacked the Palestinian cause for its own ideological ends. Palestinian lives themselves are of little interest; the goal is to use “Palestine” as a cudgel to attack Israel, Zionism, Jews, and the West itself. This is part of a broader ideological project: to dismantle the foundations of Western civilization, including the idea of nation-states, religious identity, and cultural pride, all of which Israel proudly embodies.
The institutions that prop up this ideology form a well-oiled machine. Hamas is the military wing. The United Nations is the political wing. UNRWA (the UN agency for Palestinian “refugees”) is the fundraising wing. Al Jazeera is the propaganda wing. World Central Kitchen is the welfare wing. The International Red Cross is the diplomatic wing, offering selective “humanitarian” cover. Amnesty International is the justice wing, fabricating legal narratives to frame Israel as a pariah.
This ecosystem, nurtured almost exclusively by the Western Left, has nothing to do with genuine peace or justice. It exists to isolate and ultimately dismantle the Jewish state just 80 years after the liberation of Nazi death camps and the murder of 6 million Jews between 1939 and 1945.
The Palestinian flag, once a symbol of a localized territorial conflict, is now primarily a Western leftist cultural icon — a way for leftists to signal their “moral superiority.” The demand for Palestinian statehood has been disconnected from actual Palestinian self-determination and has instead become a tool for leftists to virtue-signal their opposition to colonialism, racism, and capitalism.
This demonstrates profound cognitive corruption, which should have no place in institutions of higher learning. Palestinians are no longer treated as people with agency, but as props in the Western Left’s self-loathing theater. Western leftist activists would rather see Palestinians suffer indefinitely than acknowledge any solution that accepts the permanence of a Jewish state. This is the ultimate colonial act — appropriating Palestinian identity to serve a Western ideological narrative.
The real story here isn’t just Mahmoud Khalil’s rightful deportation; it’s the Western Left’s pathological obsession with the West’s demise, exposing the hollowness of the Western Left’s supposed commitment to peace, justice, and human rights.
Hence, the deportation of Mahmoud Khalil is not an attack on free speech; it is a much-welcomed reaffirmation of America’s commitment to justice and security. This decision sends a strong message: If you choose to align yourself with terrorists and work to undermine the values of the United States and its allies, you will not find a safe haven here.
Make no mistake: Israel is one of America’s strongest allies, whereas the Palestinians have done nothing, zero, nada, zilch for America or the American people — not today and not ever.
Israel has consistently stood by the United States, providing intelligence, military cooperation, technological innovation, and a strategic foothold in the Middle East. The U.S.-Israel alliance is firmly built on shared democratic values, mutual respect, and a common interest in combating extremism and ensuring stability in the Middle East.
Meanwhile, the Palestinians — from the Palestine “Liberation” Organization to the Palestinian Authority and — have aligned themselves with America’s enemies, including the Soviet Union in the past and the Islamic Republic of Iran and its terrorist network today. Rather than contributing positively to global stability or advancing the cause of peace, mainstream Palestinian factions have habitually chosen violence, radicalization, and rejectionism.
No real Americans would ever side with the Palestinians against Israel — unless they are mentally deranged, utterly brainwashed, suffering from a concussion, or using some type of psychedelic drug. Aligning with a “cause” that has produced nothing but violence, instability, and terror is a direct betrayal of American values and security interests.
The Palestinian leadership has had multiple opportunities to build a peaceful, thriving society, yet they have chosen destruction over development every time. They reject negotiations, glorify terrorism, and systematically indoctrinate their youth into a culture of Jew-hate and martyrdom.
All this while Israel innovates, collaborates, and contributes positively to the global economy, medicine, and technology. To stand with the Palestinians against Israel is to reject progress and celebrate chaos. Far too many Americans are smarter than that, which is why the impending deportation of Mahmoud Khalil is an important new precedent not just for America, but for the West.
American Jewish actor Michael Rapaport’s words
Good analysis of the American and international left. But it leaves out the fact that jihadis are religiously motivated, acting to advance Islamic supremacism. They are not extreme leftists, but extreme rightists, looking back to the 7th century as their ideal and goal. The Green-Red, Islamic-Leftist alliance is an alliance of convenience. In the end, if they overthrow the West, they will have to fight it out for domination, as happened in Iran after the Islamic revolution.
great piece!