In this week’s edition of the Action Update, we discuss the muddled message of U.S. hostage negotiator Adam Boehler, the consequences of Columbia University’s tolerance of bigotry, and an emerging insurgency in Syria. Let’s dive in.

Boehler’s Blunder

US hostage negotiation emissary Adam Boehler has made himself (in)famous by engaging with direct talks with Hamas terrorists and then referring to them as “pretty nice guys,” on national television.

Unsurprisingly Jerusalem is enraged with reports that the Prime Minister’s closest advisor lost his temper behind closed doors with certain U.S. officials. Can you blame him? We don’t. An American envoy was negotiating with Hamas in a manner that undermines both President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu’s efforts.

Now in fairness, Boehler walked his comments back – but this wasn’t a minor slip of the tongue; it was praise for the leaders of rapists and murderers.

Our position is perhaps best encapsulated by Amb. David Friedman’s polite but unequivocal response to Mr. Boehler’s blunder:

“This past week, President Trump brilliantly presented Hamas with a binary choice: release all the hostages and surrender, or be destroyed. It is the only path to ending the war. On the Sunday news shows, [Boehler] took the unprecedented step to meet with Hamas to consider a third way — whether a deal could be struck where Hamas ‘would not be involved’ in governing Gaza. A deal with Hamas is a waste of time and will never be kept. Attempting one is beneath the dignity of the United States. Adam, I know you mean well but listen to your boss. The choice must remain binary,"

Columbia’s Chickens

Mahmoud Khalil who, according to the United States government, “led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization,” was, until recently, a graduate student/anti-Israel agitator at Columbia University. Presently, he is a guest of the state at the La Salle Detention Facility in Jena, Louisiana, having been detained by ICE, ostensibly because his alleged actions in support of terrorist interests may violate his status as a green card holder.

Whether Khalil is deported or not will no doubt depend on legal technicalities, and despite his hatred of everything we hold dear, he will avail himself of America’s legal protections. Regardless of the outcome, the policy of the U.S. government is quite clear:

This is the first arrest of many to come. We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it. Many are not students, they are paid agitators. We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country — never to return again. If you support terrorism, including the slaughtering of innocent men, women, and children, your presence is contrary to our national and foreign policy interests, and you are not welcome here.

--- President Donald J. Trump

In short, the days of foreign governments and interests sending young adults to American universities to agitate against American interests and in support of Jew-hatred are over.

Syrian Strife

Tragically, the war in Syria is not. Rebels sympathetic to the deposed regime of Bashar Al-Assad and aligned with Hezbollah, launched attacks in mixed Sunni-Alawite areas near Syria’s coast in recent days, in the hopes they could incite further sectarian violence.

It is highly likely that war crimes were committed during these attacks in order to provoke war crimes by the Sunni leaders in Damascus, thereby raising support for the pro-Assad insurgency. In response, supporters of the Sunni regime came out and protested the Assadists.

If the fighting ratchets up, given the entities involved, even low intensity conflict will further ravage that already beleaguered nation and will be rife with crimes against humanity. Moreover, Syria’s Kurds are still contending with attacks from Turkish backed forces, and Syria’s Druze population is under intense pressure from the radical Islamist extremists that hold power in Damascus and other parts of the country.

For its part, Israel is sympathetic to the innocents caught in the crossfire – just as they were during the Syrian Civil War which saw thousands of innocent Syrians receive medical care in Israel via Operation Good Neighbor.

With this in mind, it is not surprising that Israeli forces were told to defend the Druze communities near the Syrian-Israeli border should they face attacks from radical Islamists. Likewise, Israel is now allowing members of this community, many of whom have relatives who have lived in northern Israel as full and equal citizens since the Jewish State’s modern re-birth, to enter Israel to find work.

Syria’s simmering strife reminds us – as if such was needed – that in today’s day and age, things can and will change rapidly, and when they do, it won’t be flowers and ticker tape parades. It’ll very often be very violent.

Serious people need to be involved in the serious business of American foreign policy. As such,  Mr. Boehler should seek work at Columbia University (we think he’d be very happy there). As for the rest of the foreign policy intelligentsia, they may want to take notice of what our seeming disparate lessons teach us today: in the Middle East strength wins wars, weakness invites bloodshed, and terrorists (newsflash) terrorize.

Sincerely,

The CUFI Action Fund