Why the US-Israel relationship is a Matter of America's National Security

As a tenured professor at DePaul University, Jamaican-born Jason Hill has been a defender on the frontlines of the ideological battle against America and Israel for years. In 2018, Professor Hill wrote an opinion piece for The Hill entitled A professor’s call to shut down our nation’s universities. There he stated:

The core principles and foundations that keep the United States intact, that provide our citizens with their civic personalities and national identities, are being annihilated. The gravest internal threat to this country is not illegal aliens; it is leftist professors who are waging a war against America and teaching our young people to hate this country.

Professor Hill goes on to say, “Our universities risk losing their status as learning sites and becoming national security threats.” He has repeated his characterization of America’s universities as national security threats since 2018, but it was during last year’s congressional hearings on college campus antisemitism and Israel-hatred that Professor Hill posted this on X:

The universities…are living, breathing national security threats that function as indoctrination centers and bastions for nihilistic activists whose twin goals are the destruction of the US republic, and of Western civilization. They are breeding grounds for enemies of the state.

For decades, America’s ideological enemies have also been Israel’s ideological enemies, and the attempts to destroy both nations, while rooted in academia, have branched out to every facet of society. And with the apparent rise of antagonistic conservative and libertarian voices like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens, this Israel animus is no longer just a feature of the political left.

In my book, Zionism & the Black Church, I discuss the KGB-created Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and its chairman from 1969 until his death in 2004, Yasser Arafat. A central component in the PLO strategy to demonize and delegitimize the Jewish State was Arafat’s appeal to and alignment with Black American and African leaders. In so doing, Arafat sought to sell his genocidal intentions for Israel as a quest for justice, liberation, and civil rights. By all measures, Arafat and the PLO were wildly successful. For evidence of their success, one need look no further than American college campuses that erupted with increased support for Hamas after their massacre of 1200 Israelis on October 7, 2023. Within that massive — and partially bought and paid for — support for Islamist terrorism both on college campuses and in our streets, there are also chants of Death to America! and the burning of the American flag.

As Israel is turning the tide against the Islamic Republic of Iran and its terrorist networks, the US seems determined to continue embracing the self-destructive Islamism of the Red-Green Alliance. The Arab world is eschewing antisemitism and Israel-hatred while the West is doubling down. As we’ve already demonstrated, hatred for Israel and America are inextricably linked in the minds of our enemies, and this reality is threatening America’s very existence.

While there are many pro-Israel organizations in the United States, there must now be a national, White House-backed effort that prioritizes the US-Israel relationship through education and community engagement. Though this US-Israel effort must be multiethnic in its scope, a prominent feature of that effort must also be the collaboration with and empowerment of Black American Christian pastors and community leaders. As the PLO strategy that brought us Israel apartheid and Zionism is racism has shown us, no ethnic group has been more exploited by anti-Israel propaganda than Black Americans (and Africans).

Generally, pro-Israel organizations, both Jewish and non-Jewish, have approached outreach to the Black American community as an accessory to an outfit, or a separate department to a corporation. Black leaders are engaged largely as proof of the organization’s diversity and inclusiveness. However, Israel’s ideological enemies have been hyper-focused on castigating the pluralistic Jewish state as racist and segregationist, especially against Arabs and Africans. Nearly 60 years of this libel has produced everything from United Nations condemnations to Israel being dragged before the International Court of Justice to Jews being attacked on US college campuses. The Western world has been largely duped into believing that standing with Israel is anathema to civil rights, justice, and peace and that Black people and their allies necessarily see this as gospel.

Further, there is arguably no human rights organization more responsible for the activism and violence associated with Israel-hatred and antisemitism over the past 10 years than Black Lives Matter (BLM). Like Hamas and the PLO are unconcerned with Arab Palestinians, so BLM is unconcerned with Black people. BLM’s goal was to exploit Black Americans to further promote the false perception that Black people were anti-Zionist. This was a lie in the 1960s. It is a lie today. But Americans on university campuses, on our city streets, in Congress, and on social media calling for a Free Palestine believe this lie wholeheartedly.

It is not a coincidence that The New York Times published an article in January 2024 entitled Black Pastors Pressure Biden to Call for a Cease-Fire in Gaza. With all due respect to my fellow Latino, Asian, Native American, and Arab Christian clergy, the anti-Zionist media singles out Black pastors for the same reason the PLO singled out Black leaders in the 1960s. People want to be on the right side of history. To many, the Black American epic of slavery to freedom to Jim Crow to civil rights is the right side of history and the people born from that legacy are its living symbols. Whether one agrees with that sentiment is irrelevant. Perception is reality, and no one knows that better than Israel’s enemies.

Any pro-Israel efforts that do not prioritize an authentic, pro-active, respectful, candid engagement of Black leaders will ultimately fall short. This is not a prediction. This has been proven for decades. We are seeing the very ugly results throughout our society.

It is not simply the affirmation of US-Israel ties that is required. We must stop the transfer of unreported money from hostile foreign countries to our colleges and universities. We must commission more social media content that tells the real story of Israel as well as her relationship with America. We must end the systematic anti-Israel, anti-America indoctrination of our students. Like the Woodson Center’s 1776 Unites is a response to Hannah Nicole Jones’ destructive 1619 Project, we must assist in producing and distributing real, objective educational materials that tell the true story of Israel for students of all ages. We must facilitate more Holy Land pilgrimages for more American leaders, something Dr. King was in the process of doing for Black Americans when he was assassinated in 1968.

There is a dire need for a US-Israel solidarity effort to be sanctioned by the Oval Office. It is long overdue. A potential second Trump administration — which helped produce the Abraham Accords and moved the US embassy to Jerusalem — could be the perfect opportunity to see this vision realized. I discuss this issue in conjunction with some of the latest developments within pop culture on my podcast Truth to Power Live | EPISODE 16: Ta-Nehisi Coates joins the Black4Palestine Deception.

Next week, Africa-Israel Weekly will continue with Part 2 of Why the US-Israel relationship is a Matter of America's National Security.